Michelle's Extended Care

Michelle went into Vandy Feb 9th in order to have a standard procedure, a pelvic sling. She was expected to go home home within a few days and return to work in about 6 weeks. The evening after her surgery she was complaining of extraordinary pain in her abdomen. It was not until the following evening that the doctors took her back into the OR where she was found to have a perforated bowel and enormous amounts of bowel fluid in her abdominal cavity.


She was septic.


Her kidneys failed.  She had a tube down her throat. Her heart rate was extremely high, and her pulse really low. Beyond that, she was left open by the surgical team.  She had two huge incisions. One from hip to hip, and the other from right above the pelvic bone all the way to her sternum.  She was put on dialysis, antibiotics, heart stabilizers, and many other things. She was in a coma with over 20 lines.


From that monday she entered the hospital, she has 5 surgeries, 5 days in a row, cleaning the infection, removing the bladder sling, and removing parts of her bowl and her stomach. Finally they were able to say her abdominal cavity could be closed, but they had to leave the wounds open past the muscle layer and insert bars to help keep them closed. They were unsure if her wounds would stay closed.


They told us she would be allowed to wake up.

This didn't happen. While they took her off the coma inducing medication, It took over a week from that day before she became responsive. She still couldn't talk, or communicate. She would SOMETIMES follow commands like squeezing your hand, mostly she would just wink at people and smile. She started doing this thing where she would kick her legs all over when she needed things, but the biggest struggle was figuring out what. During this time she was had a trach put in so she would not longer have a tube in her mouth.

(3/21/15)


It is now almost the end of march, Michelle is still in the ICU at Vandy (despite a brief period they tried to move her to a different facility.) She has developed a large fistula in her stomach that has essentially created its out colostomy out of her abdominal wall through her lower incision. They tried to fix it with a clip, and that did not work.  They say she is not strong enough for surgery to fix it so the only thing to do is wait. Following the attempt to fix the fistula, michelle started having seizures. An MRI revealed that she has swelling in the base of her brain.

As anyone can imagine, michelle is having a hard time emotionally with all that is going on and spends a large amount of her "aware" time in tears.

Although sometimes she is in good spirits
(3/14/15)

She has not seen her wounds. She still suffers with confusion and attempts to get out of her bed although she cannot.


Michelle is an amazing mother of three daughters, Sarah 25, Rachel 21, and Bailey 13. She is a surrogate mother to many people. She has an enormous network of family who love her. Everyone who knows her loves her and can speak for the energy she gives off, she just has this way of brightening the world. Even though she herself struggles with depression, she always knows how to comfort anyone in need.  She works hard at two different jobs, in the pharmacy and in the elementary school. Unfortunately, we have received word that due to her extended absence from her job, she is losing her medical coverage unless she pays the premiums (800+ a month.) Beyond this financial burden, Michelle is facing many more months in the hospital, and rehab facilities. Even when she is able to return home, she will not be in any shape to return to work.

While she is fighting for her life, her bills are mounting, her health coverage is in jeopardy. We are asking for anyone who can to help us collect funds, in order to maintain her health care, as well as to address her bills stacking up. We want to insure that if and when Michelle finally returns to her home, her life is not destroyed by the financial burden brought upon her. She already has spent almost 2 months in Intensive care, with no end in sight, for a simple, standard procedure, that in the end had to be reversed to keep her alive.


Even the smallest of donations will help make a huge impact on the outcome of Michelle’s story. We, her friends and family, thank every one of you