Billy's Recovery Fund

On March 23, 2020 my son Billy was admitted to Weatherford Regional Hospital in Oklahoma, the state he currently lives in, with a small bowel obstruction.  The
obstruction was a result of scar tissue from  an emergency life saving surgery for a burst renal aneurysm which claimed one of his kidney's when he was 18. 

On March 31, 2020 a laparotomy was performed to remove adhesions from his
intestines and a re-sectioning of the bowels was deemed necessary. 
This was where the real nightmare for Billy began. He felt he wasn't recovering
"normally" and continued to have immense pain, nausea and vomitting. About a
week later due to vomitting he popped his stitches and he had to undergo surgery again. The surgeon was not able to close him up fully and a skin graft had to be
used to help the healing process. 

Billy was very scared because this was going on during the Covid 19 pandemic
and he was all alone in the hospital and was unable to have any visitors
whatsoever. It broke my heart to hear him speak on the phone and the feeling of
helplessness that I had as his mother was overwhelming. I couldnt imagine how
helpless he was feeling.

Flash forward to April 20, 2020. Billy was being released from the hospital with
home health care visits scheduled 3X a week due to the fact that he still had 2
large open wounds on his abdomen. As he was getting dressed he noticed that his
dressing was oozing "yellow puss." After a CT scan it was discovered that he had
an infection caused by an untreared abcess and fistula due to the surgeries. He
was placed on antibiotics and had a drain placed in his body to release the
infection. He called me daily complaining of pain, fear, and lonliness. Billy had a
couple more CT scans during the course of 8-10 days that indicated he had
another small bowel obstruction and the abcess and fistula were worse. At that
point he had been in the hospital for 30 + days, all alone, afraid and in excruciating pain constantly.

On May 3rd, Billy called Bill (his dad) and myself both because his pain was so
intense he felt something was terribly wrong. A few hours later I received a phone call from the hospital stating Billy had to be rushed to ICU becasue he had gone
septic and almost died. He required intubation, dialysis treatment and medication to level him out enough so that he could yet again undergo another surgery on
May 4th , 2020 to get rid of the infection and take care of the abscess and bowel
obstruction.

On May 7, 2020, after getting permission for Billy to have visitors (because he
almost died) Bill flew out to Oklahoma and he was scheduled to have yet another surgery. This surgery was to place an ilesotomy bag on my son at the base of his
small intestines to give his digestive tract an opportunity to heal and it was
supposed to be temporary. At this time we were (and still are) staying with the
Whip family who are close friends and have been invaluable to us throughout ths whole process. I can not thank them enough for allowing us into their home
during our family's hour of need.  At thar time Bill and I were flying out every
other week, taking turns to be with him at the hospital where we  were only
allowed to stay 2 hours a day. It was better than nothing. 

He stayed in the hospital another 20 days with minor issues here and there and
on May 27th, 2020 he was released.  He unfortunately developed another small
abcess and on June 10th, 2020 was admitted to the hospital again. They were
able to get it under control and on June 18th, 2020 he was released again with IV infusion therapy and pic line. Bill and I were giving him daily treatments of IV
antiobiotics. This lasted for about 3 weeks until all his labs were normal again.

On June 28th, 2020 , I went on FMLA due to the fact that Billy could no longer
 properly care for himself. He needs help with daily activities and I even had to
purchase a walker and shower chair. In the course of his 60+ day stay in the
hospital, he lost about 60lbs, has overall fatigue, fainiting spells, panic attacks and continues to have 2 substantial open wounds in his abdomen plus the ileostomy
bag, and an infection drain. He has weekly visits from a home health nurse who
draws blood and changes his wound dressing, taking pictures and such.

On a daily basis for the next 2 months his new "normal" consists of eating,
emptying his ileostomy every couple hours, 2 or 3 times a week the bag has to be replaced which causes an immense amount of pain as his skin is so sensitive to the adhesives that it is contantly irritated and even bleeding around his stoma (where the waste comes out.) There are daily wound dressing changes and medications
my son has never had to take before such as zoloft for depression, buspirone for
anxiety, iron supplements, potassium supplements, pain medication etc. 

The day finally arrived and it is time for what will be his last surgery on August
20th, 2020. This is where they reverse the ilesotomy and put his digestive tract
back together. Everything went well with the surgery and now we just wait and
see. He has currently had to have a couple blood transfusions and some infusions of vitamin k and iron supplements as the issue he seems to have now is a low
blood count which is most likely due to malnutrition.

As I sit in the hospital room with Billy I realize he has a long road ahead to regain a "normal" life again. He has about 7 feet of his small intestines left, which we were told is "just enough." He will be released from the hospital with open wounds
again and we have no idea how long it will take for them to fully heal. His surgeon advised us that his weight gain will be slow and it could take up to a year before
his digestive tract normalizes. His sisters will be moving to Oklahoma to stay with him and help care for him as he recovers.

I can not imagine how much the medical bills will be. The fact that he can not work and take care of himself  for possibly a year was daunting to think about as well.
For these reasons someone suggested I create aGo Fund Me to help with medical
bills, housing, food and general recovery.

Thank you for any and all help anyone chooses to provide. Your support and
prayers are greatly appreciated.

We are eternally grateful to all our supportive family and friends who have been
there and listened while I cried, shouted or screamed in anger as this was all
unfolding over the last six months.  A special thank you to the Whip family for
taking us in and treating my family as their own.  If the need ever arises we will be
there for you too.

Love and prayers,
Billy, Maria, Bill, Corinne and Erin Banning