Benefit for Jon & Michele Locke

Hi my name is Billi and I want to tell you about some good friends of mine and so many in the community. Their names our Jon and Michele and they are the most kind, caring and giving people you could ever meet.

The old saying is “I hope the New Year is better than the last!” Well for Jon and Michele, 2017 surely will be better than 2016! Let me explain, in late April Jon was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer, which is actually rare for men to get and the doctors still do not know how he came down with it. So in May they took out the right side of his thyroid but because it was rock hard they were not able to analyze it their typical way so they had to send it off for testing. Well as they feared it was in fact cancer so they had to schedule another surgery to take out the left side in early June. As he was healing from the 2 surgeries, he and Michele were informed that he would need to do the radioactive iodine pill treatment and would have to be isolated from everyone for at least a week.

During this time and for almost a year there was a little known secret that Michele had been keeping. She had been suffering from severe anxiety and depression that ultimately led her from leaving a very good job at a large insurance company thinking it was the job that was causing the panic attacks and anxiety. Michele felt great at first but because Jon had missed 2 months of work with the cancer she needed to get back to work. Since Michele had been a hairstylist for over 13 years, she decided she'd go back to what she knows and was comfortable with. She was immediately hired because of past salon management experience and time as a hairstylist but sadly it wasn’t even a week into her new job that the panic attacks started again and had to quit this job as well to seek more medical help. Michele is now a stay at home mom and grandmother. Jon and Michele currently live with 4 of their 5 children and they also meeting all the financial needs of their grandson who also resides with them.

So, for Jon continued his work as he calls an “out of work pastor”, currently working on the front lines making sure kids are safe as a Child Protection Investigator. Well in late November, Jon went home from work as normal but as soon as he got home it clearly evident that he was not doing well. So much so that Michele had put 8 blankets on him and still couldn’t get him to stop shaking so that next morning she rushed him to the Walk in clinic. Once there they said he had the Norovirus (from a house that he had gone into), dehydrated and because of his liver and gallbladder levels he needed to rush to the ER for further testing and treatment. Once at the ER it wasn’t long till they informed them that he was being admitted. After testing it was determined he also had Ecoli and his gallbladder was full of gallstones and needed to be removed. But since he was very sick with infection the surgeon was not able to do the operation. So on 12/01 he scheduled to have an outpatient surgery to have it removed and according to the surgeon it went well with no issues.

On 12/05 just 4 days later Jon was so sick again he could not even walk and was slipping into delirium and Michele and Jon’s dad rushed him to the hospital. He was immediately taken to ICU where he actually died due to how severe Septic shock he was in. So severe in fact that he had 6 systems fail but thankfully they were able to bring him back. The doctors called him a miracle. So Jon spent 7 days in ICU and then another 7 days in another section one level up from ICU but had to be sedated because he kept trying to escape. Jon then spent another 6 days in an isolated private room and was only released because he was supposed to be on home healthcare. But his primary nurse misunderstood and didn’t order it because she thought it was already ordered so Jon’s ability to possibly go back to work date keeps getting pushed back. That is if he can even go back to work because Jon is experiencing a lot of cognitive problems that have not improved since being released from the hospital in December.

We will also be doing a benefit in February for their family because Jon had run out sick and annual leave back when he was off for the cancer removal and treatments and has not had a full paycheck in a month as he is reliant on the generosity of his co-workers but for some reason the State has only put out one email asking for donations since Jon has been off of work since the beginning of December.

So please find it in your heart to give to this great family that desperately needs your help and please share this so that others can help!

Thank you and God Bless!