Help Get Chris Back On His Feet
Donation protected
A little Background:
Chris has been dealing with Psoriatic Arthritis for the past decade plus. At the start of the year, Chris started to notice strange bruises and a persistent ache on his left side and back just below the shoulder blade extending over to his spine. The pain and bruise never seemed to really go away, but he chalked it up to the Psoriatic Arthritis.
Towards the end of July, Chris noticed the pain intensified, and neither over-the-counter pain-relieving ointments nor pain medicine gave relief. Even after going to a walk-in clinic and receiving a prescription for muscle relaxers and pain medication, Chris’s symptoms didn’t improve. Instead, he started to feel numb from the waist down, and was unsure if it was the lidocaine patches and relaxants that were the cause. After seeing his Rheumatologist about the numbness, he was prescribed PT.
On the 2nd day of his PT, when Chris was getting out of his truck, his legs gave out, and he fell spilling items over the driveway. His mother came out of the house when she noticed that he was taking a longer than normal time to come in, and discovered Chris leaning against his truck with the items on the ground around him. He remarked that he had fallen down and said he couldn’t really feel his legs. He thought he had sprained his ankle. He fell again the next day and, as it would soon be discovered, had broken his ankle between the two incidences.
By the end of the following week walking was no longer an option, even with crutches or a walker. For a few days, Chris used a wheeled mechanics chair to get around the house. On Tuesday August 7, as Chris was trying to move to the wheeled chair from his bed he fell and was unable to get himself up. A trip to the hospital and a second MRI revealed he had a large mass on his thoracic spine which was strangling his spinal cord. He was sent by ambulance to the Hospital of Central Connecticut for emergency surgery performed the next day. While the surgeon was able to excise the mass in immediate contact with his spine relieving the pressure on the spinal cord, there were additional tendrils of Lymphoma located along his ribs and in additional soft tissue
Chris began a Stage 4 R-Chop regimen on Friday August 24, to be followed by radiation therapy. While his oncologist says that the prognosis for a cure of his cancer is good and the fantastic staff at the Hospital for Special Care where he is currently a patient hope to have him back on his feet and walking again sooner rather than later, the road ahead is a long one. As Chris goes through his treatments and rehab, Chris will be unable to work and won’t be able to earn a living to pay his personal and medical bills. As a family, we are providing what financial assistance we are able to, but it won’t come close to covering the treatments, let alone his cost of living expenses. Your non-tax deductible gift to help Chris get back on his feet, both literally and figuratively, is greatly appreciated.
Chris has been dealing with Psoriatic Arthritis for the past decade plus. At the start of the year, Chris started to notice strange bruises and a persistent ache on his left side and back just below the shoulder blade extending over to his spine. The pain and bruise never seemed to really go away, but he chalked it up to the Psoriatic Arthritis.
Towards the end of July, Chris noticed the pain intensified, and neither over-the-counter pain-relieving ointments nor pain medicine gave relief. Even after going to a walk-in clinic and receiving a prescription for muscle relaxers and pain medication, Chris’s symptoms didn’t improve. Instead, he started to feel numb from the waist down, and was unsure if it was the lidocaine patches and relaxants that were the cause. After seeing his Rheumatologist about the numbness, he was prescribed PT.
On the 2nd day of his PT, when Chris was getting out of his truck, his legs gave out, and he fell spilling items over the driveway. His mother came out of the house when she noticed that he was taking a longer than normal time to come in, and discovered Chris leaning against his truck with the items on the ground around him. He remarked that he had fallen down and said he couldn’t really feel his legs. He thought he had sprained his ankle. He fell again the next day and, as it would soon be discovered, had broken his ankle between the two incidences.
By the end of the following week walking was no longer an option, even with crutches or a walker. For a few days, Chris used a wheeled mechanics chair to get around the house. On Tuesday August 7, as Chris was trying to move to the wheeled chair from his bed he fell and was unable to get himself up. A trip to the hospital and a second MRI revealed he had a large mass on his thoracic spine which was strangling his spinal cord. He was sent by ambulance to the Hospital of Central Connecticut for emergency surgery performed the next day. While the surgeon was able to excise the mass in immediate contact with his spine relieving the pressure on the spinal cord, there were additional tendrils of Lymphoma located along his ribs and in additional soft tissue
Chris began a Stage 4 R-Chop regimen on Friday August 24, to be followed by radiation therapy. While his oncologist says that the prognosis for a cure of his cancer is good and the fantastic staff at the Hospital for Special Care where he is currently a patient hope to have him back on his feet and walking again sooner rather than later, the road ahead is a long one. As Chris goes through his treatments and rehab, Chris will be unable to work and won’t be able to earn a living to pay his personal and medical bills. As a family, we are providing what financial assistance we are able to, but it won’t come close to covering the treatments, let alone his cost of living expenses. Your non-tax deductible gift to help Chris get back on his feet, both literally and figuratively, is greatly appreciated.
Organizer
Dawn Bixby Saari
Organizer
Preston, CT
