Lisa's Medical Bills
Donation protected
Lisa is 47, a caring, loving, giving, talented, brilliant woman who thinks only of others and gives of herself, often to her own detriment. She is happily married and mother of 3 amazing sons and is a part of a charity organization that specializes in children’s charities called The 501st Legion - a worldwide Star Wars Costuming Organization. She has had to stop working with that charity due to the following medical issues. She is also a student at University and is 3 classes away from Graduating with a Degree in Criminology and a Degree in Psychology. Her medical issues have caused her to stop her higher education mere classes away from reaching her goal. She is also a writer with one book self-published, but has had to stop halfway through the second book of 7 due to her medical issues. This all is what makes this situation so hard for our family.
8 years ago, Lisa was hospitalized with what we all thought was appendicitis. After the surgery began, it was found that her fallopian tube was infected almost to the point of bursting. They couldn't do anything while it was so infected, as it would have caused the infection to spill into her body. So the next step was IV-Therapy. The IV-Therapy helped and she was okay for 2 weeks, then the abdominal pain began. Test after test revealed nothing but a very high white count. What caused her initial infection, nobody knew so they chalked it up to "medical mystery".
They ran more tests, sent her to more specialists and with every test and specialist that promised they would get to the bottom of this, we met with no solution and the specialists just gave up on her. In the meantime, she was put on multiple medications and even a few more rounds of IV-Therapy. As an added situation, she needed to have surgery on her shoulder. The bone had grown curved over the socket, so she couldn't raise her right arm. They shaved off that hooked bone and while she tried to recover from that, the pain in her abdomen continued and even worsened. More tests, more specialists, more medications, no solutions.
As the years continued, her medication intake got more and more, the pain medications she was on got stronger and stronger, the side effects became more and more prevalent and her quality of life has decreased steadily. She had seen a gastro-specialist and it was considered that she may have gall-stones. They did scans and nothing showed. Lisa insisted they remove her Gall Bladder anyway. They complied a year later. When they went in, they found that her Gall Bladder was spilling over with crystallized stones that don't show on normal scans, and they never considered to do the special scan to see if that was the issue. Unfortunately, due to these specific stones, they shredded her upper-abdomen. Her pain continued as massive scar tissue was built up in her stomach where people never usually GET scar tissue. This can not be fixed, she simply has to live with this pain for the rest of her life.
She had cystic fibroids on her left ovari, so they removed it. Then, 6 months later, they decided to go in and remove both fallopoian tubes. 2 years after that, after having dozens of infections due to a prolapsed uterus, they did a full hysterectomy.
During this time, her thyroid began to fail, not producing what it needs to for everything to function properly. More medications, more tests, no solutions. She has also had to have knee surgery, she has developed a tear in the cartilage in her hip, her OTHER shoulder has developed the same “bone-hook” that she previously had surgery for, she also has developed calcification on the tendons in both shoulders, she’s also had several exploratory surgeries to no avail.
She’s had 9 surgeries over the last 8 years. As a result of all of this, she is now on 13 different medications to try and deal with the sheer amount of pain and problems she has just to try and function day to day. All of these medications and the IV-Therapy sessions have also caused her Kidneys to fail. She has been in and out of Stage 3 Kidney Failure for the past 3 years. As a result of that, ALL of her teeth have shattered, taking her beautiful smile and keeping her from going out even if she could.
Now, just a few days ago, she began to feel "off". With all of her medical issues, we have had to be very diligent. She's a tough woman, so when she complains about something, we and her doctor tend to listen. Her resting heartrate is 128. If she walks the 8 feet from her bed to her desk, her heartrate goes up to 180. After several tests it’s been found that she has Tachycardia - 2 out of the 3 “wires” that tell her heart to beat aren’t working. 3 out of 4 main arteries are also clogged with one of them partially collapsed. She needs more medications that aren’t covered, a pacemaker and 3 stents. She’s on medications to slow her heart rate and help with the strain on her heart and bloodthinners to help with the flow. As a result of some of the medications, her thyroid levels have completely dropped. But if she stops taking those medications, her heart rate goes up and is at risk there. She’s at risk no matter what she does. We have more tests coming for her heart over the next month. Her upper-abdominal pain continues.
The money raised will go to removing the roots of all of her shattered teeth, getting dentures made, to pay all of the medical and medication bills that are piling up, and to pay for her future medication costs. If the family didn’t have these medical costs, while still living pay check to pay check, we’d be able to make ends meet, as opposed to ends not meeting, always being behind, having to ask for extensions so utilities would not be cut off and rent being paid late. We have had to skip Christmas a few times, and this year is another one. If the medical costs could be paid for just a period, the family costs would be at least on-time.
Thank you all for reading our story. Lisa is an amazing person, everyone that knows her adores her. If you decide to help, know that we would be very grateful and you would make a huge difference in her life.
8 years ago, Lisa was hospitalized with what we all thought was appendicitis. After the surgery began, it was found that her fallopian tube was infected almost to the point of bursting. They couldn't do anything while it was so infected, as it would have caused the infection to spill into her body. So the next step was IV-Therapy. The IV-Therapy helped and she was okay for 2 weeks, then the abdominal pain began. Test after test revealed nothing but a very high white count. What caused her initial infection, nobody knew so they chalked it up to "medical mystery".
They ran more tests, sent her to more specialists and with every test and specialist that promised they would get to the bottom of this, we met with no solution and the specialists just gave up on her. In the meantime, she was put on multiple medications and even a few more rounds of IV-Therapy. As an added situation, she needed to have surgery on her shoulder. The bone had grown curved over the socket, so she couldn't raise her right arm. They shaved off that hooked bone and while she tried to recover from that, the pain in her abdomen continued and even worsened. More tests, more specialists, more medications, no solutions.
As the years continued, her medication intake got more and more, the pain medications she was on got stronger and stronger, the side effects became more and more prevalent and her quality of life has decreased steadily. She had seen a gastro-specialist and it was considered that she may have gall-stones. They did scans and nothing showed. Lisa insisted they remove her Gall Bladder anyway. They complied a year later. When they went in, they found that her Gall Bladder was spilling over with crystallized stones that don't show on normal scans, and they never considered to do the special scan to see if that was the issue. Unfortunately, due to these specific stones, they shredded her upper-abdomen. Her pain continued as massive scar tissue was built up in her stomach where people never usually GET scar tissue. This can not be fixed, she simply has to live with this pain for the rest of her life.
She had cystic fibroids on her left ovari, so they removed it. Then, 6 months later, they decided to go in and remove both fallopoian tubes. 2 years after that, after having dozens of infections due to a prolapsed uterus, they did a full hysterectomy.
During this time, her thyroid began to fail, not producing what it needs to for everything to function properly. More medications, more tests, no solutions. She has also had to have knee surgery, she has developed a tear in the cartilage in her hip, her OTHER shoulder has developed the same “bone-hook” that she previously had surgery for, she also has developed calcification on the tendons in both shoulders, she’s also had several exploratory surgeries to no avail.
She’s had 9 surgeries over the last 8 years. As a result of all of this, she is now on 13 different medications to try and deal with the sheer amount of pain and problems she has just to try and function day to day. All of these medications and the IV-Therapy sessions have also caused her Kidneys to fail. She has been in and out of Stage 3 Kidney Failure for the past 3 years. As a result of that, ALL of her teeth have shattered, taking her beautiful smile and keeping her from going out even if she could.
Now, just a few days ago, she began to feel "off". With all of her medical issues, we have had to be very diligent. She's a tough woman, so when she complains about something, we and her doctor tend to listen. Her resting heartrate is 128. If she walks the 8 feet from her bed to her desk, her heartrate goes up to 180. After several tests it’s been found that she has Tachycardia - 2 out of the 3 “wires” that tell her heart to beat aren’t working. 3 out of 4 main arteries are also clogged with one of them partially collapsed. She needs more medications that aren’t covered, a pacemaker and 3 stents. She’s on medications to slow her heart rate and help with the strain on her heart and bloodthinners to help with the flow. As a result of some of the medications, her thyroid levels have completely dropped. But if she stops taking those medications, her heart rate goes up and is at risk there. She’s at risk no matter what she does. We have more tests coming for her heart over the next month. Her upper-abdominal pain continues.
The money raised will go to removing the roots of all of her shattered teeth, getting dentures made, to pay all of the medical and medication bills that are piling up, and to pay for her future medication costs. If the family didn’t have these medical costs, while still living pay check to pay check, we’d be able to make ends meet, as opposed to ends not meeting, always being behind, having to ask for extensions so utilities would not be cut off and rent being paid late. We have had to skip Christmas a few times, and this year is another one. If the medical costs could be paid for just a period, the family costs would be at least on-time.
Thank you all for reading our story. Lisa is an amazing person, everyone that knows her adores her. If you decide to help, know that we would be very grateful and you would make a huge difference in her life.
Organizer
Jay Bianco
Organizer
Abbotsford, BC
