Courtney's Climb

Hi my name is Eric Birmingham and this is my sister Courtney and my father Jim. Courtney is 18 years old and is definitely the strongest person know.  I Would do anything for her and it breaks my heart to see her have to go through what she is going through.  Since the summer going into her junior year in high school (2011) Courtney has suffered from multiple disorders from anxiety and panic attacks to and bipolar disorder, and the worst of all clinical depression. Courtney has been clinically depressed for the past 4 years.  For those who are familiar with depression, you can understand how it has been a rough journey for Courtney, myself and my parents.   Courtney became depressed after an accidental knee injury in our backyard in 2011.  Courtney had asked me to go outside and play some lacrosse with her one afternoon.  Being the lacrosse player I am I go right out to play with her, which would turn out to be a disaster.  We were outside throwing the ball around and I went to teach her how to shoot and to step with her opposite foot in front.  She had ran up stepped with her foot and POP! I witnessed her knee break in half.  She had dislocated her leg off from the knee and in doing so tore arteries and nerves.  At the hospital it was a very close decision to having her leg amputated but fortunately they found a way around it.  Courtney's knee has since heeled from the injury but is left with the inabliltly to control your foot from moving up and down. She has been forced to walk with a limp to keep her toes from dragging off the ground and tripping.  This injury was just the beginning to her long state of depression.   After years of struggling Courtney had bariatric surgery in May of 2015 and had lost up to 70lbs!  She was the most happy and outgoing person I had ever seen, It was like I had my old Courtney back.  She would talk about how things were "when she was depressed" and it would just make me tear up because it was like she knew she overcame it and can  finally move on in her life.  The end of June 2015 was what me and my family thought would be the beginning of a great summer.  Right when we see things turning around Courtney, due to her rapid weight loss and no change of medications from doctors, got Chronic Lithium toxicity.  We brought her to the hospital to find that the highest therapeutic level for lithium is 1.5 and hers was at 3.   Some of the effects of lithium toxicity that she was suffering from were decreased level of consciousness, slurred speech, muscle twitches, kidney failure, vomitting, tremors, movement disorders and memory problems.  Courtney did not even recognize our father at one point.  Doctors had then decided sedate her and run two dialysis treatments to help remove the lithium.  Courtney will now have to go for dialysis a few times a year due to the kidney problems caused from the lithium toxicity.   After her treatment she was going through, they took her off the sedation and her blood pressure went through the roof, heart rate out of control, uncontrollable breathing and a fever of 106.  This was what we were told to be something of a Thyroid Strorm and is very rare, it was caused from the lithium toxicity. The doctors had since put her into a medically induced coma in the ICU until they can figure out the reasons for her uncontrollable fevers and blood pressure.  During the process of her being in the induced coma her breathing tube has caused her to get pneumonia to add onto the other obstacles she is facing.  She is the strongest girl I know and I know she will get through this.  But through constant trips to doctors for her knee and psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists, over the years the bill is adding up.  Not to mention the bill adding up still for this terrible incident that has left her in the ICU for a week and a half and counting.  My parents are also suffering doing everything they can for her and still trying to keep making sure I'm still surviving at home as well.  My parents have not been working since this and have been sleeping at the hospital constantly to stay with her. My Mother can not go back to work as a special ed techer until  Courtney is fully healed.  My parents pay 100% of the health insurance out of pocket, and with my mother not working, and my father getting a few hours in a week it is really difficult to keep up with the growing bills.  Anything and everything will be greatly appreciated and a huge help for my parents,  aswell as helping Courtney make her FINAL CLIMB past this long and aggravating journey!!! PLEASE HELP AND KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!