Help a loving mother fight CRPS
Donation protected
This is my mother, Melanie Banks, and her husband, Greg Banks. They will be celebrating their 1st year anniversary Dec 26. She is an Air Force Vet of 20 years. My mom served in seven wartime deployments 2 in Iraq and 5 in Afghanistan. Altogether there are 4 of us kids and she uses any free time she can to go out hiking through the mountains with her beloved labrabull, Rokki.
This was the last photo she took back in April of her and her husband happily on our family vacation in Texas. The day before this photo was taken, everyone was swimming in the Gulf and having a fun time, but before we knew it the rip tide dislocating her knee cap. My mom was up closer to the beach with Rokki jumping waves, as everyone else was about 80 yards out. We pushed our way thru the waves to get to my mom as she was army crawling up the beach digging her elbows and one foot into the sand. For every 2 pushes up the waves pulled her back one. She had reputured her ACL completely with the femural bruising and partial tear of her MCL and patellofemoral ligament of her left knee.
With surgery the injuries have healed but they left behind something that could take everything away from her forever and ultimately taking her away from us. It was later discovered that the surgery had developed a rare uncommon nervous system disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), also known as the ‘Suicide Disease,’ to form in her leg. It only takes 9 months to enter Stage 4 of this disease and by Stage 4, the pain has spread throughout the body, causing the bones and muscles to decay. In stage 4 the disease spreads to the organs causing them to decay. The pain and is so excruciating that most people don't make it to stage 4, they end up committing suicide in stage 3.
My mom has only been through 4 months of this disease so far to date and I have watched her go from someone who does miles upon miles of hiking every weekend to barely even being able to limp down the stairs.
She has recently gotten a wonderful opprotunity to meet with a doctor in Arkansas who has a consistantly been able to put this disease in remission and help her patients get their lives back. The doctor also wishes to professionally document her experience and this 10 week/8 hr daily treatment in order to help others with this disease in the future and to make way towards better treatments for these kind of nervous system diseases. The problem is that her insurance will not cover a single cent of this treatment, and she has to raise $20,000 by the 16th of October in order to cover all the out-of-pocket cost as well as her travel and living expenses.
My mom may not get another chance like this again. Please, anything at all will help, even a dollar and a prayer. I want to be able to take my mother off on another hike in her favorite mountains and see her smile again one day, and I hope this can lead to that.
Thank you for taking the time to read her story and for any donation or prayer! You can follow her journey at https://www.facebook.com/melanie.buchanan1972
and other patients at the The Neurologic Relief Center @ https://www.facebook.com/TheNeurologicReliefCenter/
This was the last photo she took back in April of her and her husband happily on our family vacation in Texas. The day before this photo was taken, everyone was swimming in the Gulf and having a fun time, but before we knew it the rip tide dislocating her knee cap. My mom was up closer to the beach with Rokki jumping waves, as everyone else was about 80 yards out. We pushed our way thru the waves to get to my mom as she was army crawling up the beach digging her elbows and one foot into the sand. For every 2 pushes up the waves pulled her back one. She had reputured her ACL completely with the femural bruising and partial tear of her MCL and patellofemoral ligament of her left knee.
With surgery the injuries have healed but they left behind something that could take everything away from her forever and ultimately taking her away from us. It was later discovered that the surgery had developed a rare uncommon nervous system disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), also known as the ‘Suicide Disease,’ to form in her leg. It only takes 9 months to enter Stage 4 of this disease and by Stage 4, the pain has spread throughout the body, causing the bones and muscles to decay. In stage 4 the disease spreads to the organs causing them to decay. The pain and is so excruciating that most people don't make it to stage 4, they end up committing suicide in stage 3.
My mom has only been through 4 months of this disease so far to date and I have watched her go from someone who does miles upon miles of hiking every weekend to barely even being able to limp down the stairs.
She has recently gotten a wonderful opprotunity to meet with a doctor in Arkansas who has a consistantly been able to put this disease in remission and help her patients get their lives back. The doctor also wishes to professionally document her experience and this 10 week/8 hr daily treatment in order to help others with this disease in the future and to make way towards better treatments for these kind of nervous system diseases. The problem is that her insurance will not cover a single cent of this treatment, and she has to raise $20,000 by the 16th of October in order to cover all the out-of-pocket cost as well as her travel and living expenses.
My mom may not get another chance like this again. Please, anything at all will help, even a dollar and a prayer. I want to be able to take my mother off on another hike in her favorite mountains and see her smile again one day, and I hope this can lead to that.
Thank you for taking the time to read her story and for any donation or prayer! You can follow her journey at https://www.facebook.com/melanie.buchanan1972
and other patients at the The Neurologic Relief Center @ https://www.facebook.com/TheNeurologicReliefCenter/
Organizer and beneficiary
Dillon Buchanan
Organizer
Taylorsville, UT
Melanie Buchanan
Beneficiary
