Helen, Satchel, Tanner, and I would like to thank everyone who donated this past week. Things are certainly looking up for us, and it appears — should Helen get her raise and /or promotion — that we will be in a position to recover fully once all the dust settles. And that’s because of all of you: over 730 people donated; and each one made a difference. If you sent a note along with your donation, I tried to respond to each of you individually (though I think I still have a few more emails to send). A special thanks, though, goes out to friends who spread the message for me: Steve Green, Glenn Reynolds, Sarah Hoyt, Weird Dave, Rand Simberg, Moe Lane, Robb Allen, and a few others I’ve probably forgotten. It wasn’t easy for me to appeal for help. But my pride is far less important to me than is my family’s security and well being. By advertising our plight, the folks at Instapundit and Ace of Spades did more for us than they’ll ever know.

As I noted in my original post, our problems were largely the result of medical costs we were forced to put on our credit cards after Helen’s employer let her go in the wake of Satch’s surgery and recovery: it’s our belief that they did this to keep their own company premiums down, which left us scrambling. Helen was able to land a new position — she’s already been twice promoted in the 2 years she’s been there and is a VP who may be on the verge of senior VP status — but the insurance her new company provides is not nearly as comprehensive as was the plan from the company she’d previously worked for.

It took two years of tightening our belt and just barely making it, but ultimately the interest on the credit cards was such that that’s all we were paying, and it was becoming untenable to maintain monthly payments that weren’t paying down any principle. Thanks to all of you — both for your advice and for your generosity — we were able to negotiate with those credit card companies who would work with us, and pay off the debt to those who would not, closing our accounts with them, some of which we’ve had for upwards of 25 years. Despite no late payments and a good credit rating (which will soon, we think, be excellent again), Citibank, for instance, kept our rates at about 24%! That account is now closed, and we won’t be doing business with them anymore.

Though things are still tight right now, we’re in a position to manage them. And if Helen’s raise does in fact come through, we may even sniff the black, with room to spare, for the first time since the aftermath of Satch’s brain surgery and subsequent treatment. Our biggest concern was having to sell the house and relocate — forcing both the boys to start at new schools and disrupting their lives and routines. Added to that was the limited number of options we would have had: because Satch is cortisol dependent, we refuse to live anywhere that is not near an excellent children’s hospital. Children’s Hospital in Denver is home to one of the worldwide experts on Satch’s rare form of cancer. This, more than anything, is why we tried riding this out as long as we could.

So again: thank you all. And a special thank you to dicentra — a long-time protein wisdom reader and contributor — as well as to Paul D V, for their more than generous contributions.

As many former readers here know, my site was hacked in 2016, and despite our best efforts, we were not able to get it back online. That is, until Helen surprised me on my birthday this year by having hired a specialty firm to clean up the hack and reconstitute my archives.

Those several years off made it more difficult for me to reach people; and of course, time moves on, and your audience moves elsewhere. So I am beyond humbled to know from many of your kind notes that, though I was gone, I hadn’t been quite yet forgotten. For that, I am grateful — and not a little proud.

Again, thank you all so much. Satch’s recovery continues apace, and he’s doing very well. After a couple years of trial and error, the doctors have seemed to hit on the right combinations of hormones, testosterone, and medications to combat a slowed metabolism that is the result of surgical rigors. Satch’s optic nerve was compressed during the surgery — the tumor was close by — but about 90-95% of his peripheral vision has come back. Aside from the meds and his appointments, he’s just like any kid his age — save for having and extraordinary surplus of grit, bravery, determination, and smarts.

All of us, including and especially his little brother Tanner, who tries to ape Satch in every way, look at him as a seasoned warrior and, in man ways, a hero in our family’s stories.

With that, I’ll sign off. I hope I’ve been able to capture, in some small way, the import of what all of you have done to make my family whole again. We would have survived and thrived as a family no matter what: such is a testimony to our bond. But thanks to all of you, we can thrive with a little less stress. And as a Dad, that means an awful lot to me.

With love,

Jeff, Helen, Satchel, and Tanner.