Help the Venable's!!
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THE SHORT VERSION: LET’S BAND TOGETHER TO HELP THE VENABLE’S (and, yes, every little bit counts!)
As many of us know, the Venables already have been walking an intense road with Karli’s degenerative disease — but, in the span of two weeks, our dear friend had to have a last minute knee surgery, sent her husband off to his grandfather’s funeral and in the midst of this travel, their basement flooded with damages totaling $30,000+ (that insurance is not covering). Just days before the surgery, grandfather’s funeral, and subsequent flooding they were informed by Karli’s doctor that her spinal cord is compromised in such a way that any trauma or big movement in Karli’s head and neck area (anything from a minor car accident or a little fall) could be life-threatening or cause paralysis. Join us in linking arms with these friends with our prayers and our finances: Pray, give, and share this story to others who might partner. (See below for the details).
As most know, Karli has a rare degenerative disease called SED congenita that has caused many health problems and continues to worsen with age and time. In the last two years, doctors have told her that because of the worsening condition of her joints, both of her knees need to be replaced, both of her shoulders need to be replaced and her subtalar joint under her ankles need to be fused. The news has been difficult to process, and moving to Colorado where the climate would help negate some of the total body inflammation was something they did to try to help prolong those surgeries as much as possible.
About a month ago, a biannual MRI showed that the degeneration of Karli’s spine has now infringed into her spinal canal in her neck and is dangerously compressing and damaging her spinal cord. She has some neurological symptoms already, but they expect that those will continue to worsen with time (losing more function of arms, legs, other organs) until it is necessary to go in surgically and try to fix whatever they can (which means really major surgery and probably many, many surgeries once that ball starts rolling). Meanwhile, the doctors have said that any trauma or big movement of Karli’s head and neck area, anything from a minor car accident or a little fall could be life-threatening or cause paralysis because of the condition of her spine and spinal cord. This news was a total surprise and huge blow to their family, and has obviously been life-altering for their entire family in and of itself.
Shortly after receiving this news, Karli had a regular appointment for injections of her knees and the doctor decided that instead of doing injections, he wanted to try to go in surgically and remove all the loose pieces of bone from her knee. The surgeon said the knee was much worse than he expected and that he rarely sees. He tried to clean it up as much as he can to put off the knee replacement (because of her age), but it was very bad and thus the recovery has been difficult. In addition, Karli has been in a full body flare of pain and severe inflammation since the surgery which has made the recovery much more difficult. The doctors are trying to get it under control but it is very severe.
The day of Karli’s surgery, Stephen’s beloved grandfather passed away, and so just one week after the surgery, he was on the east coast for the funeral, when Colorado Springs had a week of very extreme weather and flooding. And because of that, their entire basement flooded. The damage is extensive. They caught it early but because of how much water there is in Colorado Springs and because of how many people are having the same problem, the water removal company has had a difficult time getting the water out of the basement and thus, a lot of the basement was ruined.
Six days after the flooding started, water is still coming into the basement, even when it isn’t raining, because the ground is so saturated. The first two things that have to happen is they have to get all the water out of the basement and dry it out, and also fix the problem of why it’s coming in (which involves changing a drainage system, a major fix with landscaping, and installing pumps and drainage around two sides of the house as well as having a neighbor fix their drainage which is going into the Venable’s house – but the neighbors’ house is empty right now because it is under contract so that part is an issue). In addition, the fans and the system the water removal company brought in to dry out the basement blew out all the of the electrical fixtures in ¾ of the basement, so that will have to be repaired (it cannot be repaired until the basement is dry). The next step after that would be fixing the basement – baseboards and dry wall and carpeting.
To get the water out and keep the basement from being under feet of water, they had to empty their bank accounts and their credit cards are maxed out just from the first few days of issues (and they were already in a bad place because of health issues). Now they are in a place of emergent and desperate need. Homeowners insurance never covers flooding from ground water (for anyone), so they are refusing to help.
The estimates that all the different contractors have given (from landscaping to basement contractors to water removal) are well over $30,000 right now.
As many of us know, the Venables already have been walking an intense road with Karli’s degenerative disease — but, in the span of two weeks, our dear friend had to have a last minute knee surgery, sent her husband off to his grandfather’s funeral and in the midst of this travel, their basement flooded with damages totaling $30,000+ (that insurance is not covering). Just days before the surgery, grandfather’s funeral, and subsequent flooding they were informed by Karli’s doctor that her spinal cord is compromised in such a way that any trauma or big movement in Karli’s head and neck area (anything from a minor car accident or a little fall) could be life-threatening or cause paralysis. Join us in linking arms with these friends with our prayers and our finances: Pray, give, and share this story to others who might partner. (See below for the details).
As most know, Karli has a rare degenerative disease called SED congenita that has caused many health problems and continues to worsen with age and time. In the last two years, doctors have told her that because of the worsening condition of her joints, both of her knees need to be replaced, both of her shoulders need to be replaced and her subtalar joint under her ankles need to be fused. The news has been difficult to process, and moving to Colorado where the climate would help negate some of the total body inflammation was something they did to try to help prolong those surgeries as much as possible.
About a month ago, a biannual MRI showed that the degeneration of Karli’s spine has now infringed into her spinal canal in her neck and is dangerously compressing and damaging her spinal cord. She has some neurological symptoms already, but they expect that those will continue to worsen with time (losing more function of arms, legs, other organs) until it is necessary to go in surgically and try to fix whatever they can (which means really major surgery and probably many, many surgeries once that ball starts rolling). Meanwhile, the doctors have said that any trauma or big movement of Karli’s head and neck area, anything from a minor car accident or a little fall could be life-threatening or cause paralysis because of the condition of her spine and spinal cord. This news was a total surprise and huge blow to their family, and has obviously been life-altering for their entire family in and of itself.
Shortly after receiving this news, Karli had a regular appointment for injections of her knees and the doctor decided that instead of doing injections, he wanted to try to go in surgically and remove all the loose pieces of bone from her knee. The surgeon said the knee was much worse than he expected and that he rarely sees. He tried to clean it up as much as he can to put off the knee replacement (because of her age), but it was very bad and thus the recovery has been difficult. In addition, Karli has been in a full body flare of pain and severe inflammation since the surgery which has made the recovery much more difficult. The doctors are trying to get it under control but it is very severe.
The day of Karli’s surgery, Stephen’s beloved grandfather passed away, and so just one week after the surgery, he was on the east coast for the funeral, when Colorado Springs had a week of very extreme weather and flooding. And because of that, their entire basement flooded. The damage is extensive. They caught it early but because of how much water there is in Colorado Springs and because of how many people are having the same problem, the water removal company has had a difficult time getting the water out of the basement and thus, a lot of the basement was ruined.
Six days after the flooding started, water is still coming into the basement, even when it isn’t raining, because the ground is so saturated. The first two things that have to happen is they have to get all the water out of the basement and dry it out, and also fix the problem of why it’s coming in (which involves changing a drainage system, a major fix with landscaping, and installing pumps and drainage around two sides of the house as well as having a neighbor fix their drainage which is going into the Venable’s house – but the neighbors’ house is empty right now because it is under contract so that part is an issue). In addition, the fans and the system the water removal company brought in to dry out the basement blew out all the of the electrical fixtures in ¾ of the basement, so that will have to be repaired (it cannot be repaired until the basement is dry). The next step after that would be fixing the basement – baseboards and dry wall and carpeting.
To get the water out and keep the basement from being under feet of water, they had to empty their bank accounts and their credit cards are maxed out just from the first few days of issues (and they were already in a bad place because of health issues). Now they are in a place of emergent and desperate need. Homeowners insurance never covers flooding from ground water (for anyone), so they are refusing to help.
The estimates that all the different contractors have given (from landscaping to basement contractors to water removal) are well over $30,000 right now.
Organizer
Marci Lewellen
Organizer
Colorado Springs, CO
