Darren & Family with Medical and Living Expenses

Hey everyone, I am Amber,

Darren's wife. As most of you know Darren has been going through a roller-coaster of medical problems. On Friday May 20, 2022 (exactly one month after adopting Bryana) he came down with severe flu-like symptoms. All day Friday and Saturday he was having hot and cold flashes, fever, sweating, convulsions, body aches, loss of appetite and we had to force him to drink gatorade and water. Sunday, the symptoms went away, but turned into severe abdominal pain, which kept him bed ridden while still not eating and barely drinking. Monday morning I checked on him and he said he felt better, so I went to work. 2 hours later he text me and said the pain was back and worse and he needed to go to the ER. This is where it all went bad, very quickly. When we arrived at the ER, I noticed his skin was yellow and his eyes extremely yellow, which means jaundice. They got him in a room quickly because his blood pressure was super high and his pain unbearable. They gave him some pain medication, which worked for about 10 hours and he got some sleep finally. They drew tons of blood, did CT scans, an MRI, ultrasound and X-ray. The doctors told us that he had a perforation in his sigmoid colon that was leaking fluid into his abdomen, along with an inflamed spleen, jaundice and diverticulitis. His liver enzymes and bilirubin were through the roof, along with his WBC count. Seeing a healthy, active young man, with no prior issues or health problems, the doctors were perplexed. They sent him directly to ICU to be monitored until the blood cultures came back, which could take up to 72 hours. His pain was so severe over the next 3 days that he was constantly on pain medication and antibiotics. They still had no answers or even leads as to what was going on. On Tuesday they put a midline in his arm because they were taking blood samples daily and giving medications constantly. He had a team of 5 doctors working his case, which included GI, infectious disease, general surgery, liver specialist, and a PA. On Wednesday evening, the infectious disease doctor was talking to us about the cultures that came back as E Coli and Streptococcus Anginosus, he continued and said "Yes, sepsis is nothing to mess around with", my jaw dropped and I said "What, wait he is septic?", this boiled my blood to the core. We had been in the ICU for 4 days and noone told us he was septic and was dying??? He had not eaten or drank anything since friday, he was losing weight quickly and becoming very weak. The mental toll of finding out your husband has been dying before your eyes for 6 days is more than anyone can handle. It wasn't just pain from an infection, his body was literally shutting down. They then proceeded to say if we would have waited one more day, he may not have made it. There are no words to express what that statement has done to us.

They switched his antibiotics, and amazingly the next day he was feeling better, the pain had subsided, he was allowed to be on liquid diet, the most recent CT scan showed inflammation but no perforation. Thursday was a good day. Friday came and he was still feeling good, a little bit of back pain, which we figured was from laying around for a week straight and not walking or any activity. Friday at 5pm we were discharged, orders were to see a liver specialist, pcp, continue midline IV antibiotics for 2 weeks, home health nurse should meet us in a couple hours to show me how to change his antibiotics, his medication was supposed to arrive at our house around the same time. We were so happy!!! 

We got home and within an hour and a half his stomach pain returned just like it was in the beginning. His medication had not arrived yet, so I called the home health nurse who advised us to go back to ER get pain medication, and she would meet us back at our home to do the IV. We arrived at the ER at 630pm, explained our story, jumped through hoops to just get medication and go home. They did not discharge us until 1030pm. I called the home health nurse, but it was too late for her to come, even though the medications had arrived at out home and were waiting on the doorstep. Now at this point he has missed 2 rounds of antibiotics, the pain medication had kicked in so he felt ok. I went knocking on doors in our neighborhood at 11:30 at night trying to find someone to help me hook up his antibiotics to the midline. I was unsuccessful, so we fell asleep on the couch and he woke at 3am in sever pain. So we packed up and went to a different hospital. They did the same workup as the last hospital did, and guess what the CT showed...perforated colon. He would need surgery, but because of his jaundice, they wanted to hold off, because doing surgery with jaundice and an infection poses alot of possible problems along with a more difficult surgery and longer recovery time. He was put back on no eating or drinking since emergency surgery could be possible at any moment. They continued to monitor him and his daily bloodwork. He had lost almost 30 lbs since this started, super weak, exhausted, and frustrated. A few days go by with no change, just laying around and waiting for answers. Then his numbers were slowly getting better, and things are looking up once again. On day 5 in the second hospital, they tell us his CT shows a small abscess on his colon that wasnt there before. Antibiotics should shrink it, but they would need another CT scan in 3 weeks. He would need to continue IV antibiotics at home, but the midline won't hold up that long so they would have to place a Picc line. If anyone knows Darren, he has a huge phobia to needles, and in the first hospital he was on so much pain medication it really didn't phase him. But at this point he is not on pain meds and he is not excited about this situation. He finally agrees to do the Picc line, and it does not go well, it takes longer than normal, all while Darren can feel the pain and every move from the IV as they pull it out and reinsert, over and over. After an hour they think they have it in the right location so they stop and he goes for a chest xray to make sure placement is good. It is not, it curled up and went back into his armpit area. So, they have to start all over, thankfully this time they gave him a sedative to relax him and goes in the right location this time. 

We are discharged home once again, but before we leave they have a nurse come to the hospital to show me how to clean, flush and change his IV. 

He started eating small portions of easy digestible foods, resting, taking small walks daily to try and get some energy back, but there is pain in his back, none in his stomach. Hes not sleeping again and is getting miserable. After 4 days the pain was so bad, I called the doctor, who said he should not have pain in his back from the diverticulitis, to go in for another CT scan and make sure they aren't missing something. We go back to the ER at 2pm on Wednesday and they do another CT scan, the abscess has grown and they need to drain it. So he is admitted for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, they plan to do a scope in the morning to drain the abscess. The next day, they cannot do the scope because the position of the abscess is in a hard to reach spot between arteries, bones, and veins which could cause further damage if they try. His bloodwork numbers are increasing again, which means there is another infection taking over. They need to do emergency surgery and it will be 10-12 week recovery with 2 surgeries total.

Darren is not one to ask for help or handouts, but this is going to be very detrimental on our family. He is unable to get any short term disability or financial help. My income is not enough to take care of our family of 5. And with him being out of work the next 3 months or so, we don't know what else to do.

Darren has and will always be someone you can count on. He will help anyone in any way he can, he has a huge heart, helps friends, family, neighbors, and never asks for anything in return. I am doing this go fund me, to take some stress off of him during this

super hard time. While he should be focusing on getting better and healthy, he is stressing about how to keep our mortgage and bills paid and support his family. He's worked so hard his entire life to get where he is, and its heat breaking to see it all in jeopardy over something he has no control over. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a successful surgery and healthy recovery. If you can donate to help us, we would greatly appreciate it.