Don's Medical Bills

Hey there! My name is Donald Diestler. I have been married to my beautiful wife Tanya for twenty-three years, and we have a wonderful and energetic daughter named Megan.

I have my own insurance policy and have for some time now since I have multiple sclerosis and cannot have a break in coverage or it could be considered a pre-existing condition and not covered. But that is not what I am asking for help with.

While helping a friend cut down some trees in their yard I tripped over a stump and got a little banged up. This included a decent puncture wound to my left leg shin. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I kept track of it, and made sure it was clean, and free of infection.

Roughly a month later (Mon-Jun-07) I am awoken in bed because of a burning, itching feeling in my left leg. I get up and check it out. My shin is bright red and hot to the touch. I figure I must have had an allergic reaction to something, so I get up, go to the bathroom and wash it and cover it in ointment.

An hour later I am sick to my stomach, sweating profusely, have the shivers, and though I did not check, I am sure I had a fever too. I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me, now I got food poisoning too?!" So I spent the night on the couch.

After two days, the redness had turned purple. I was nauseous and could not eat. I felt absolutely horrible. Finally when I could not get of bed I was ready to call an ambulance to take me to the Emergency Room. But I did not want to upset my daughter. So I called the wife at work and had her take me (Wed-Jun-9).

On the way to the hospital my chest is hurting, I am having trouble breathing, my leg is painful to the touch, I can barely walk, everything is a blur. In fact I was so out of it, I walked into the waiting room and my wife's office manager's husband was there and said "hi". I did not even recognize him.

I was rushed into the emergency area and that is where this all becomes a blur for me. To make a very long story short, I entered the hospital with acute cellilitus and a blood infection .

(Notice in the picture the small black puncture. The doctors tell me this where it all started.)

I was admitted to Allen Memorial Hospital (newly branded Unity Point) in my hometown and was there for six days. They had me on a cocktail of several types of antibiotics and morphine for the pain. During this time the blood infection was brought under control but they were concerned that the leg was not getting better and that in fact, the redness and swelling were spreading up my leg towards my groin.

It was decided to transport me to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines (Mon-Jun-14) because the Methodist had an infectious disease doctor on staff. So they loaded me into an ambulance, and transported me.

I spent five days there and the staff was the absolute best. Again, my memory is sketchy on parts of this, but I know I was on two different types of IV antibiotics and was getting morphine shots every four ours for pain. But eventually the redness stopped spreading and they sent me home (Sat-Jun-19).


(These are pictures from my stay at Methodist Medical Center. There were two wound sites; 1. the shin, and 2. rear and right side calf. At this point the skin was pealing and the blister had worked up from the skin bed. My daughter and I had to manually peal the dead skin, two layers of it, from above my knee all the way to my toe nails.)

I then spent another two weeks bedridden at home with my leg propped up, no longer on pain meds and taking Penacillin four times a day for the next thirty days.

(Shin as of today. A lot of scarring, which doctors did not prepare me for. Itches horribly, have to keep vaseline on it or it gets all dried out, changes colors, looks hideous.

(This is the right side and partial rear of the calf. It seems to be the most severely scarred and itches like crazy around the edges, towards the meaty rear.)

As I said before, I have my own insurance so why do I need help? There are too many bills coming in and not enough money. That is the long and short of it. I have been amazed at the costs. Even with insurance, co-pays are killing us. Heck the non-emergency, one-way, 126 mile transfer in the ambulance was just under two thousand dollars.

I have already cut our expenses, but my medical bills are over five thousand dollars. We just don't have it. Even the small bills are killing us. We have about twenty or more medcal bills we are making payments on!

I have always felt strongly, "that what goes around, comes around." In keeping with that my family and I try very hard to be active in the lives of our friends, neighbors and community. Building relationships and helping others. It is why we help with food giveaways, listen to a neighbors concerns, give rides to someone who needs it, and so on.

I have always been quick to help others. Giving of my time, sometimes my finances (to be honest, this should be considered gifting, as most never repay the money. But I never "loan" an uncormfortable amount or without talking with Tanya first.) as an investment in others. 

Now I am in a situation where I, and my family, needs help. I wish I could express how humbling this entire experience has been for me.

If you have any questions, please ask.