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LEARN MORE ABOUT 'JIM'S JOURNEY'

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Jim was a victim of type 1 diabetes.

Please help us spread awareness of this horrendous disease and what it can do to you if it's not kept in check and under control. 


Jim's "hospital days" since March of 2013

When he went in for the heart surgery in March of 2013- his total hospital stay was 69 days.

When he was hospitalized in January of 2014 for his neck surgery that failed so miserably, he was in for 36 days.

Between January of 2014 and May of 2014, there were several overnight stays, for "observation" that did absolutely no good. Roughly from memory- 4 or 5 of those, plus one of those stays was a 2 day one. So that was another 7 days, basically.

When he went in for the gangrene and pneumonia in May of 2014, he was in for 79 days.

When he went in in October of 2014, gangrene problems again- he just got home April 11, he was in for a total of 170 days.

After being home for only 9 days, he was re-admitted for the gangrene on April 21. He was discharged to home with hospice on Tuesday May 5'th. That was another 15 days.

He passed away only 4 days later on May 9, 2015.

His totals? From March of 2013, until now, May 13, 2015, he was in the hospital for 376 days.
If you add in the 27 days he was hospitalized in Virginia after his first major stroke, that total jumps up to 403 total hospital days in the last 5 years alone.


Please read the descriptions below, your help is deeply appreciated. 

These are the diagnosis of what Jim has, most of which have occurred in the last two to three years. The main culprit, diabetes, is first on the list, and he has had that since 1982. He is a very very brittle type 1 diabetic. Blood sugars have ranged in the last few weeks up into the 500 and 600 levels, prior to that, throughout December he was bottoming out down to the levels of 30 to 40 sometimes while hospitalized in St. Joe in Lexington. 

*Diabetes
Peripheral Artery Disease (also known as P.A.D.)
Afib
Gangrene
Osteomyelitis
Pneumonia
Prostatic hyperplasia,
High blood pressure
Pulmonary Edema
C.O.P.D.
Congestive heart failure
Postherpetic neuralgia,
Ventricular tachycardia,
Coronary artery disease
Ischemic strokes
Benign prostatic hyperplasia
Degenerative disc disease
Chronic pain
G.E.R.D.
Insomnia
Cachexia

Jim had the first disabling stroke in 2010. It was an ischemic stroke. When he had 5 bypasses done on his heart, he had another smaller series of strokes in the ICU directly following the heart surgery. The heart surgeon told the family that almost every single artery in his heart was blocked. He was hospitalized in three different hospitals, for a total of 79 days then. Every time they'd transfer him to a different one, something else seemed to have gone wrong.

He had neck surgery done on January 16, 2014, in Lexington, at Good Samaritan Hospital. Again- just as last year, things just started going wrong. This time it was his ability to swallow. When the surgeon had gone in and replaced the five discs in his neck, the esophagus and windpipe, and swallowing mechanisms were disturbed. That created the need for a feeding tube. A peg tube was put in place before he went home, so feeding could be continued there. This remained until the last few days of February.

From the time of Jim's discharge from the hospital, in January and February, his health began to decline at a rapid rate. There were many trips to the emergency room, for various reasons, but it almost always had something to do with his vital signs bottoming out. Doctors hadn't been able to figure out why, or what was going on.

Then, on June 8, 2014, he was taken to the emergency room in Morehead, Kentucky, with infection in his feet (gangrene) raging wildly out of control. While there, in the ER, an EKG was done, and it turned up abnormal. He was admitted.

From that point, up until June 20, his condition declined at a rate unmatched before. Within the first 3 days alone, he continued to spike fevers, became more and more lethargic. An overall decline. On Friday, June 13, a vascular surgeon named Dr. Victor, went in and put one stint in the main artery of each leg, in an effort to save Jim's feet. The procedure itself seemed to accomplish the goal of slowing down the gangrene, with increased blood flow to the feet, however, it was actually done while he still was spiking fevers, indicating infection somewhere in his body.

The following day, his oxygen stats were bottoming out. He was dropping into the upper 60's, and low 70's on such a regular basis, they put him on a "bipap" machine, which recycles the air one breathes in and out, as well as supplying a small amount of oxygen to assist in the breathing. However, the mask continually came off, either by him moving around, or pulling it off in his confused state. It had gotten to the point where his 02 stats were down in the low 50's.

Finally, Jim was transferred to Central Baptist hospital in Lexington Kentucky. When it was known that he was being transferred, doctors moved him to ICU in St. Claire in Morehead. He was not put on a ventilator until the very last hour or two there.

He finally made it to Lexington, and remained on a ventilator for 6 days, as doctors worked to save him life, essentially.

Jim remained in ICU for 8 days at Central Baptist. He was then transferred for a few more days to a different ICU unit, and finally, moved to a floor about the 12 or 13'th of July.

Among the other things that doctors have discovered that Jim has, is a condition called cachexia, a disease in which he is "wasting away", The doctors at Central Baptist have also said that his brain appears older than what it should, meaning it's "atrophied".

All of these conditions, along with his previous diagnosis', have culminated in creating a situation that is very serious indeed.

On October 23, 2014, Jim was taken to the ER for some of the same types of symptoms that he had been experiencing, but with a few added ones too. One of those was extreme pain in his left foot, confusion that was much worse, almost unresponsive.  Turned out to be that the gangrene had gotten into the bone of his left leg. He was transferred to St. Joe hospital in Lexington,  and was treated with hefty doses of IV antibiotics. From there, he was discharged to go to a nursing home in Winchester Kentucky for therapy and rehab, but the place was horrible, and he actually had a heart attack the one day he was there.  He was taken to the local hospital and admitted. He stayed there for another 2 weeks, and was finally discharged once again to another nursing home in Lexington this time for therapy. He has begun to improve very slowly, and there are numerous other problems to deal with now as well. 
Among those, he has a pocket over his esophagus, that the attending physician in St. Joe found- and it was caused by the neck surgery he had in January of 2014.  It will have to be surgically corrected. Until then, he is only able to have either mechanical soft food, with honey thickened liquids, or pureed foods.  He is still having periods of being extremely lethargic,  and also periods of extreme confusion. 
It doesn't seem to matter whether medicines are not given, or are given, that doesn't change the confusion levels, or the lethargic levels. We all have been told that it is from his brain being atrophied. 

And so we continue on. 

The expenses of either traveling to and from home in Frenchburg, Ky, to Lexington, Ky, on a daily basis, or the expenses of staying in a motel, and purchasing food every day to eat, both situations are very exhausting for family members, as well as impossible to finance alone, and still keep other bills paid up regularly.

Any donations or gifts, or help in any way will be greatly appreciated, and is much needed.

BELOW, I AM INCLUDING WHAT WAS OUR ATTEMPT AT A FUNDRAISER LAST YEAR, THAT NEVER WENT ANYWHERE EITHER.
PERHAPS YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP. IF NOT- AT LEAST THIS BELOW WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER IDEA OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED. 
THANKS



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DATED JUNE OF 2013:
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Jim Bishop was diagnosed with diabetes in 1982.
Among the many things that this disease had already caused him were the diagnoses' of peripheral artery disease (better known as P.A. D.), diabetic nerve damage, diabetic retinopathy, coronary artery disease, cataracts, disabling degenerate disc disease in his neck, arthritis, and a severe stroke in 2010 that left his left side weak, and basically crippled him, although he had, over a time period of 3 years, begun to get some of his motor skills and coordination back.
However, in February of 2013, the damages that the deadly disease had caused became more evident, when he began to experience symptoms of what was later determined to be mild heart attacks.
Having recently become dissatisfied with the medical care he had been getting, his wife had just started him with a new physician, who was extremely thorough, and very competent. He referred Jim first to a neurologist in Lexington, Kentucky, for the extreme neck pain he has been in since 2010. That neurologist probably saved Jim's life, as we told him about the recent symptoms, he immediately stated that Jim needed to be seen by a cardiologist asap. He was sent to a well respected cardiologist who performed a Heart Cath in Morehead, Kentucky. The results were troubling- Jim had to have open heart surgery in which five bypasses were to be done.
So, on March 11, 2013, Jim was admitted to U.K. Chandler Hospital in Lexington Kentucky, and the surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Sekela. We had been told that Dr Sekela was such a good surgeon that people come from all over the world for him to operate on them, and that he was so good he could "sew a silk, purse out of a pigs ear." Well, yes, we agree he is good, but unfortunately, due to his other medical conditions, Jim suffered a series of small strokes in the ICU unit directly following the surgery. This series of strokes affected his right eye, causing it to droop, and also causing temporary double vision in that eye.
After being transferred from U.K. hospital to Morehead's St. Claire for therapy, he had to be sent back to UK two weeks later, because of numerous complications, including a fearful bought with what was treated as MRSA, and some internal bleeding.

From UK the second time, he was transferred out to a rehab hospital in Lexington called Cardinal Hill. Here, again, he began to experience other setbacks. Someone had added the drug Depakote to his daily medications, and he was having a terrible reaction to the medicine. Doctors had even speculated that possibly he had vascular dementia, with the surgery that had been done, coupled with the fact that he had had very severe ICU dementia after his surgery, during the time he was also having the series of small strokes. However, after searching frantically for answers, his wife came across the one thing that was being done so differently- the drug depakote. Once it was stopped, Jim began to come back to his normal self finally, though he has still had small episodes of confusion and memory loss, it is much better than it was in the hospital.
From cardinal hill rehab hospital, he had been transferred back to U.K. hospital (3'rd trip back into UK since surgery- still not having been able to be released to come home), with the reason for the transfer being listed as diminished mental capacity. Finally, after about another week or so in UK, he was able to be transferred out again, this time back to Morehead, Kentucky's St. Claire. Finally, he began to improve. His mental status, his medical status, and his physical status all finally began to come together, and Jim was at least released and able to come home on May 22, 2013, after having been hospitalized since March 11, 2013.
His physical impairments include extreme dizziness, fatigue, weakness on the left side, inability to focus his eyes on things for very long, which greatly impairs his ability to be able to read, and extremely debilitating pain, among other things.
All of his life, Jim has always tried to help everyone he knows. He'd give the shirt off his back to someone if he knew it would help them. He's never asked for things in return, but this time, he is the one who needs the help.
Jim has always dreamed of owning his own log cabin, since he was a child. While he has worked so hard all his life to achieve this dream, many things have continuously held him back: A huge number of unforeseen medical problems, lack of work in the job he'd held for 16 years installing overhead cranes, then finally, a lay off in 2008. After the layoff, he and his wife then lost their home, and wound up in a camper for 3 years. He was finally able to purchase a small 1 acre homestead on land contract, where a mobile home exists and an older home that needs to be torn down. It is here that he had hoped to finally be able to build that log cabin he'd always wanted since he was a child.
However, there is little hope for this to finally happen for him, unless he finds some help. That's what this give it forward site is for. To raise money to help pay for that dream cabin to be built, to help him pay his monthly bills, to pay his land contract off, to be able to put food in the refrigerator and on the table every night, and keep electricity on, and to pay for his very extensive medications every month.

Please share this story, and help us to help keep Jim and his wife on their feet, financially, and to help Jim finally achieve his dreams.
If this were happening to his family members, Jim would be among the first to step up and help out in anyway he could.
Thank you so much for reading this, and taking the time to make a small contribution to help him in his time of need. 

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Donations 

  • Mary Myers
    • $200 
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer

Nancy Mayo Bishop
Organizer
Frenchburg, KY

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