Unexpected Medical Crisis

As many of you know Jeremy had open heart surgery back in August to replace his ascending aorta due to an aneurysm they found in his yearly check up. Part of that surgery they also repaired his bicuspid valve instead of replacing it.

Unfortunately around the second week of November he contracted a virus leading to a bacterial infection that caused his bicuspid valve repair to fail.

On Thursday we took him to the ER because he was weak, had a hard time breathing, blood pressure was low, and he was extremely pale and dehydrated. They did multiple EKGs and labs that were abnormal but the two echocardiograms were ok. They took x-rays and a ct of his chest and his lungs were clear. Everything from Covid to influenza were negative.

Late Thursday night they transferred him to the ICU due to his Troponin levels through the roof, meaning his heart was showing signs of distress and damage. Friday (11/22) they did a transesophegeal echocardiogram that showed his bicuspid valve had bacterial growth and thickening. They also found a blood clot forming on the aortic root and graph. His valve function has been regressing since his follow up echocardiogram he had on Tuesday for his follow up from his first surgery.

After the cardiologist and his surgeon have been going back and forth they decided that there is no other treatment other than to completely replace his valve. Depending on the amount of damage they may have to replace the graph they did 4 months ago, but we won’t know for sure until infectious disease identifies the type of bacteria. He is still in the hospital and will be getting transferred to the Cardiovascular Institute, where he had his first surgery, on Monday. We will be speaking with his surgeon then to find a date next week (Thanksgiving week) on when his surgery will be.

Jeremy is the soul provider for our family and just went back to work last month after recovering from the first surgery. We were put into financial hardship due to his short term disability being extremely minimal. We were able to make an agreement with mortgage that gave us a two month grace period with the promise to pay a mortgage and a half for the next four months to catch up starting this month. We have exhausted our options of getting more assistance with that at the moment. We were also given a grace period with our car payment during the first surgery as well and can not ask for another extension this soon. We are just asking for financial help with paying our mortgage and car payment for the next couple months until Jeremy can recover and get back to work.

We understand that everyone is struggling and it is the holidays so if you can spare anything or share we would greatly appreciate any help. We have asked our local food bank for resources and help but with the amount of the bills it is not possible for them to help.

All other bills were just caught up this month and we thought things were getting back to “normal” but then he got sick.

I know this is a lot to ask for but our main concern besides Jeremy’s health is to try and keep the house and car. All other bills are manageable at this time.

I will be sure to update on what his surgeon says and everything else as we learn more.

If anyone knows us, knows that this is extremely difficult for us to even ask for help, let alone this amount.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts ❤️