My name is Olga and I am raising money to help my husband, James get the care he needs to recover from severe medical condition brought on after spine surgery in April.  April 11, 2019, my husband had surgery on his spine to prevent possible paralysis being caused by a neurological injury in his thoracic spine.  Three days after surgery, he lost all feeling in his legs. He was taken by ambulance back to the hospital only to find out a blood clot had developed under the incision pressing on the injured nerves and they needed to do surgery right away to remove the blood clot before his condition became permanent.  After the second surgery he had no feeling from his belly button to his toes and developed a severe muscle disorder called Dynamic Spasticity causing constant severe muscle spasms from his stomach to his feet. After 4 days in the hospital, he was sent to an inpatient rehabilitation center at a local hospital to attempt to regain control of his legs and learn how to function with his new disability.  He had daily physical therapy and was able to use their machinery to begin rehabilitating his legs. The more he did physical therapy, the more he felt in his legs.  He was achieving milestones everyday. James was just discharged from the inpatient rehabilitation center on May 20th.  He has regained some feeling from his upper thighs up. He is starting to have feeling in his legs at times but not consistently. He is expected to regain a good portion, if not all of the feeling in his legs and feet but it could take six months to a year or more.  He will most likely have to deal with the spasticity in his legs for life.  He has regained some core strength and learned how to maneuver in a wheelchair.  He cannot walk or stand as of now, and is confined to the wheelchair. 

As you can imagine, this has impacted our family drastically.  He is confined to our living room because we have no safe way to move him up and down the steps. We live in a 3-level townhouse with several steps to get in the front door. From there, two flights of steps to get to our bedroom. My sons and I had to carry him in the house step by step when he was discharged. This was very unsafe and we cannot do that again for risk of further injuring him or ourselves.  We have no way to get him to his much-needed doctors’ appointments or outpatient rehabilitation safely. He requires intensive physical therapy at the rehabilitation facility to work towards overcoming this, as it stands, we cannot get him there. His rehabilitation has slowed down drastically since he was discharged.  He is limited to basic exercises that we can do in our living room and nothing to work towards standing/walking.  He was discharged with a 30-day dose of his 19 prescriptions, its imperative that he gets to his doctors appointments to get these prescriptions renewed before he runs out. Time is running out fast. I was quoted $500 to $750 plus mileage, one way for a medical transport to physically take him from the house to a doctor. Insurance does not cover transports. On top of this, we now need to find a functional safe place to live while he is healing and working towards regaining the ability to walk and controlling his spasticity in his legs, and just finding some peace of mind in his life.  We have to stay in my son’s school district because he was accepted into a trades program beginning next school year and this is not offered at another school. This situation will become even more heartbreaking if we have to move and take this opportunity from him. My husband is not getting the care he needs stuck in our living room.  I have been out of work on Family Medical Leave with no pay since he had his surgery because he needs my emotional and physical support to get through this.  He cannot be left alone for risk of causing injury to himself because of his severe spasticity and needs assistance with daily functions and helping to manage his severe pain.  This is a very scary situation. I am hoping to raise enough money to pay for his medical transports and in home equipment like chair lifts and ramps to make home safe for him and get the treatment he needs. I am praying for blessings and healing to come his way. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read our story. May God bless you all!