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Caleb’s Story
Site created on February 24, 2020
On Saturday, February 22nd at about 9:00pm, Caleb was walking home from work, a short trip. The weather in Minnesota was extraordinarily nice and snow was starting to melt. It was a bit deceptive and Caleb mis-stepped while holding 3 pizzas which meant he wasn't able to catch himself in the fall. So he fell sharply and severely damaged his ankle. He didn't realize at the time how much he had injured his ankle, so he tried to stand up. When his ankle buckled over, he crawled to a street sign to try to pull himself him. He hoped to power through and walk the last block home but quickly realized that he would not be able to stand. A van of kind men saw his fall and pulled over to assist. They picked him up and drove him to his apartment, bringing him up the flight of stairs and into his room. Caleb was alone at home and decided to try to get through the night and go to the hospital the next day.
On Sunday morning, February 23rd, Caleb reached out to his friend Marie and she came by to pick him up and bring him to the hospital. At the hospital, Caleb's pain became incrementally worse. Caleb described it as the worst pain he had ever felt in his life... until later that day when he discovered there was a new threshold when his pain got even worse. They performed an x-ray (which was insanely painful for him) and found that Caleb had fractured and dislocated his ankle. It was a gruesome sight. The determination was that they would reset his ankle. They put him under sedation, reset his ankle, and then wrapped up his ankle. We were optimistic at this point that this is where things would only get better. However, his pain continued and increased. They sent him for another x-ray to confirm the reset had done the trick. It had started to move things in the right direction, but it wasn't enough. They decided to unwrap his ankle again and do another reset. They tried to do the second reset with only mild sedation but the pain was excruciating for Caleb, so they had to put him out again. They performed the second reset and re-wrapped his ankle. When he came to, the pain was still horrible for Caleb. They sent him for another x-ray (again, extremely painful), which did finally confirm that the ankle was set correctly, which was a relief. Finally, by 9pm, they transferred Caleb out of ER and into the main part of the hospital.
Caleb's first surgery is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, February 25th, with a discharge on Wednesday, February 26th. He will then need to return to the hospital a week later for his second surgery. His recovery time, at this moment, is unknown, but we are guessing it'll at least be 3 months before he can work again. Again, we'd not sure and won't know until after his 2nd surgery next week.
Thankfully, Caleb's medical costs should be relatively minimal given that he has been approved for some financial aid. We are not 100% sure what his costs will be when this is all said and done, but for now, we aren't focused on raising funds for that.
Caleb's personal expenses, however, are the more pressing issue. Caleb has been working extremely hard to do the work that matters the most to him: audio production and pastoring at Revolution Church . These gigs either don't pay or pay very little. So he works as many hours as he can at the Papa Murphy's near his home. This has meant that he has been in a paycheck-to-paycheck scenario for a while, which he has made work because he's incredibly creative. However, this medical emergency will, without intervention, put an end to the balance he has worked so hard for. We are asking for his community, friends, family to consider pooling resources to help Caleb sustain himself for the next 3 months that he is unable to work. If you're able to give, please click on the GoFundMe link here under "Ways to Help".
Hey everyone! I know it's been nearly 5 months since you've heard from me. Last we talked, it was my birthday and Caleb moved back to his apartment. Since then, Caleb has been trucking along, living on his own. Recently upgraded from walker to cane. I know the whole experience was pretty traumatic for him and I think he's still processing it...
What I want to share with you, I hope you'll keep quiet and not tell Caleb - it's a surprise!! Caleb is moving to Seattle in November (that's the plan for now). His church leader is moving there and Caleb is the right-hand guy, so there Caleb goes. So why am I writing to you? Well, I would like to gather up a financial farewell gift for Caleb. He is still financially recovering from not being able to work all those months. Although everyone's financial contributions made a HUGE impact which ensured he didn't lose his apartment.
So I don't know how y'all are doing with finances right now. I know a lot of you already gave earlier this year while he was unable to work. And I know that COVID and unemployment is still a HUGE thing. So this is just an idea for those willing and able. I'd love to collect a bit of money and send him off with it to make the transition more smooth.
If you are interested in giving, please follow the GoFundMe link and donate there. Thank you everyone for being such a supportive community for such an amazing guy.
