Amber vs. C. Diff.
Donation protected
Short story:
Amber has been sick/injured since October 2016. She's had mono, chronic strep, an emergency tonsillectomy, 3 fractured ribs, and now two fights with C. Diff: a deadly colon infection. Each C. Diff. infection caused a one week hospital visit. If the hospital bills weren't enough already, her antibiotics that she needs to prevent relapse after the second fight with C. Diff. will alone cost over $10,000 even accounting for excellent medical insurance. Her parents have been covering medical expenses, Baylor loans and contirbuting greatly to our upcoming October wedding, so they are getting stretched pretty thin financially. Amber and I are both recent college grads and though both employed, like many recent college grads, have little flexibility in our budgets. Truly any help at all would be appreciated. No donation is too small.
Long story:
Amber came down with mono in the fall of 2016. Recovery from mono is a long process, but it dragged on too long for Amber. The doctors informed us that she couldn't recover from mono because she kept getting strep throat, but once she recovered from strep, she should be back on track for getting over mono. Well, she never got over strep by herself. It turned into chronic strep, requiring an emergency tonsillectomy in February 2017. Through all of this, Amber was, rightly, on very strong antibiotics that are usually reserved for treating malaria. The doctors believe that during the spring, after her gastrointestinal system was flushed of most of its bacteria, good and bad, a very bad bacteria, C. Diff., took the opportunity to settle in.
Amber didn't start showing symptoms of C. Diff. for a couple months, allowing her the strength to finish her classes and break her ribs at a water park. But once it did show symptoms, it happened quickly and aggresively. Thinking the symptoms were a bad case of the stomach flu, we waited a few days to go see the doctor. The decline was so bad that when she did go to the hospital, it was in an ambulance.
C. Diff. had taken over her colon and entered her blood stream. I'll leave the (literally) messy details of the next week out, but I can say that she was miserable. We left the hospital with a few weeks worth of antibiotics and our fingers crossed. The antibiotics seemed to work as expected, and she started feeling better and better. We had a scare when some of the symptoms came back, but the doctors told us it could be normal to have a short stint of bad abdominal pain.
Then things declined again, faster than the first time. Within six hours, she went from healing to septic again. Each time C. Diff. relapses, it becomes harder to push back, so the pain and symptoms were worse and the antibiotics were stronger. And that is how we got here. The antibiotics she needs now, referred to by the doctors as the big guns, are more potent but more expensive. They are so expensive, in fact, that doctors are hesitant to perscribe them unless absolutely necessary because, even with 60% covered by insurance, the bill for the antibiotics is over $10,000.
That's what we are asking you for. Not for the medical bills from mono, strep, or surgery. Not for the two weeks of hospital stays. Not even for the C. Diff. antibiotics the first time around. $10,000 is what we need to keep her from going back to the hospital this time. Again, any amount of money is tremendously appreciated. We recognize there are greater needs out there, but if you find the compassion to give to us, we will be forever grateful.
Much love,
The future Mr. and Mrs. Everett
Amber has been sick/injured since October 2016. She's had mono, chronic strep, an emergency tonsillectomy, 3 fractured ribs, and now two fights with C. Diff: a deadly colon infection. Each C. Diff. infection caused a one week hospital visit. If the hospital bills weren't enough already, her antibiotics that she needs to prevent relapse after the second fight with C. Diff. will alone cost over $10,000 even accounting for excellent medical insurance. Her parents have been covering medical expenses, Baylor loans and contirbuting greatly to our upcoming October wedding, so they are getting stretched pretty thin financially. Amber and I are both recent college grads and though both employed, like many recent college grads, have little flexibility in our budgets. Truly any help at all would be appreciated. No donation is too small.
Long story:
Amber came down with mono in the fall of 2016. Recovery from mono is a long process, but it dragged on too long for Amber. The doctors informed us that she couldn't recover from mono because she kept getting strep throat, but once she recovered from strep, she should be back on track for getting over mono. Well, she never got over strep by herself. It turned into chronic strep, requiring an emergency tonsillectomy in February 2017. Through all of this, Amber was, rightly, on very strong antibiotics that are usually reserved for treating malaria. The doctors believe that during the spring, after her gastrointestinal system was flushed of most of its bacteria, good and bad, a very bad bacteria, C. Diff., took the opportunity to settle in.
Amber didn't start showing symptoms of C. Diff. for a couple months, allowing her the strength to finish her classes and break her ribs at a water park. But once it did show symptoms, it happened quickly and aggresively. Thinking the symptoms were a bad case of the stomach flu, we waited a few days to go see the doctor. The decline was so bad that when she did go to the hospital, it was in an ambulance.
C. Diff. had taken over her colon and entered her blood stream. I'll leave the (literally) messy details of the next week out, but I can say that she was miserable. We left the hospital with a few weeks worth of antibiotics and our fingers crossed. The antibiotics seemed to work as expected, and she started feeling better and better. We had a scare when some of the symptoms came back, but the doctors told us it could be normal to have a short stint of bad abdominal pain.
Then things declined again, faster than the first time. Within six hours, she went from healing to septic again. Each time C. Diff. relapses, it becomes harder to push back, so the pain and symptoms were worse and the antibiotics were stronger. And that is how we got here. The antibiotics she needs now, referred to by the doctors as the big guns, are more potent but more expensive. They are so expensive, in fact, that doctors are hesitant to perscribe them unless absolutely necessary because, even with 60% covered by insurance, the bill for the antibiotics is over $10,000.
That's what we are asking you for. Not for the medical bills from mono, strep, or surgery. Not for the two weeks of hospital stays. Not even for the C. Diff. antibiotics the first time around. $10,000 is what we need to keep her from going back to the hospital this time. Again, any amount of money is tremendously appreciated. We recognize there are greater needs out there, but if you find the compassion to give to us, we will be forever grateful.
Much love,
The future Mr. and Mrs. Everett
Organizer and beneficiary
Mason Everett
Organizer
Addison, TX
Amber Hemmie
Beneficiary
