Broken and Broke, But Not Down

Our dear friend and co-worker, Amy Garret Arendell, woke up last Wednesday morning unable to walk and in a lot of pain. She made some doctors appointments and everything moved very quickly. The photo is of her spine, you can see the break at L5 and S1. That white thing that is sliced and hanging by a thread to the right of the spinal column is her spinal cord. If it severed completely she would completely lose function of her legs/bowels, etc.
     She will be wearing a back brace for at least 3 months after an insanely complicated surgery. How did this happen? During the last week of her pregnancy, she had sudden intense pain in her lower back that was misdiagnosed as symphysis pubis dysfunction.
     After her son was born she had relief and the pain was manageable. She’d mention it still hurt/felt weak and they’d just said, “Oh well that’s normal, babies are heavy, of course your back will hurt when getting out of crib, etc, etc”.  It turns out that last week of pregnancy was the exact moment that her spine snapped. Bone density is great, vitals and blood work all prefect, just a baby with an unusually large head in an unusually small torso.
     They met their deductible 5 months ago when the baby was born and now they have to start over. They are now in over $15k in medical debt with a beautiful new baby to care for and more hurdles on the horizon.
     We hope you will consider helping take care of this beautiful family that cares so much for others.