Cristina's Recovery and Support Fund

Cristina’s Road to Recovery

Hello family and friends,

As many of you know, Cristina’s pregnancy was uneventful and perfect. Her health prior to giving birth was unremarkable as she only went to the doctor twice a year for her regular checkups.

She was scheduled for an induction on 10/24/2023, and after a long 14 hours of labor, she was told that she needed to have emergency C-section. While she was on OR, she started developing pain on her chest and a burning sensation that made her ask the doctors if they had opened her chest, she felt she couldn’t breathe. Hearing this complaint, the doctors push a ton of narcotics to sedate her. As a result of this, she had to be in recovery longer and missed the golden hour and bonding time with her baby. Cristina gave birth to a perfect baby girl, Valeria, on 10/25/2023, 2 minutes before they pumped her with medications after she complained about the chest pain.

Two days after giving birth, Cristina started developing complications starting with ileus, postpartum eclampsia, chronic diarrhea, bloating, abdominal discomfort, ending with a suspicion of a pelvic infection, for which she had to be re-operated on an emergency basis 10 days later 11/5/2023. Fluid collections revealed that Cristina had an infection brewing with positive results for Enterococcus faecalis. She spent 17 days in the hospital, during all that time she was unable to care for her baby girl.

Cristina was discharged from the hospital with a long journey ahead for recovery and the new life with her baby girl Valeria, caring for her with help of her family. Unfortunately, 2 weeks after she got home, she started developing lower back pain, numbness sensation across her extremities and this has progressed to pain all over her body, nerve pain, and the numbness in her arms, hands, legs, feet, has continued to increase until today. She is unable to walk, sit, lay down, stand without pain. Cristina was re-hospitalized over the Christmas holiday for another 4 days due to a small bowel obstruction, that thankfully was resolved without the need for another surgery.

After months, and dozens of appointments with neurologist, pain management, physiatrist, gastroenterologist, general surgeon, rheumatologist, OBGYN, internal medicine, and even psychologists, she is still does not have a diagnosis. The only clue is from several auto-immune tests that have come back as positive, but doctors have advised that her clinical symptoms do not correspond with these positive tests… So still there is no clear answer. We will continue to explore all options available to get a diagnosis, but more importantly find a treatment that can help Cristina be the mom baby Valeria needs.

Cristina is on a strict regimen of strong medications to help her manage the nerve pain and help her get better sleep, which has been hard for her to get because of the on-going pain. She is thankful for have her Mom and Dad’s support, her mom has been the angel taking care of Valeria on her behalf since she was born. She is also thankful for her husband who is always by her side and has been her rock since this all started.

We are organizing this fund to help Cristina, her husband Tulio and their daughter Valeria in any way we can right now. Cristina is hopeful, and remaining positive that her health will improve, and that God will continue helping her through these tough times and will grant her total healing.

Currently, Cristina and Tulio face significant expenses from medical bills, due to all the diagnostic imagining tests that have been done this year, along with other bills while navigating this new reality.

In addition to donations, you can also help by:

- Sharing Cristina’s story with your network/social media

- Providing words of encouragement for Cristina and her family

- Keeping her in your prayers for a total healing, and sharing her story with your prayer groups. The more prayers, the stronger the power of God will manifest.

The Anturi and Guillermo families appreciate the continued love and support.

We greatly appreciate generosity and your prayers during this critical time.