Support Alexis And Her Mom

Hi! I'm Alexis Swiatkowski. I love playing sports, going to the gym, and spending time with my family and friends. The past year has been pretty rough. It started with an out-of-state bicycle accident leading to a skull fracture and brain bleeding which led to a long hospital stay out of state which Medicaid isn’t able to fully cover. My mom is still getting a $3000 ambulance bill from California every month.

Currently, I am recovering from double knee surgery that I had at Joe DiMaggio Children’s hospital. The season before, both my knees would always dislocate from playing volleyball. It got to the point that it would pop out and wouldn’t go back just from me walking or sitting. The last straw was another ambulance ride from both knees popping out at the same time while I was just sitting there working on my homework at a cafe.

So we decided on surgery. On January 30th, I got patella stabilization surgery on both knees. It was supposed to be a straightforward procedure with one overnight stay but it didn’t go as planned. Right as I woke up, I began to scream; it felt like both my legs were being shocked and stabbed. They set me up on medication, and even on high medication, you couldn’t even touch my left foot. I had drop foot, which means I cannot lift it or move it. We ended up spending 22 days in the hospital when it was just supposed to be one night. After we got out of the hospital, we went to check on what was causing the foot pain/shooting pain, and my peroneal nerve was completely damaged. I randomly get attacks where it shoots up my leg into my spine into my other leg and is the most painful thing i’ve ever been through. My foot is numb, sensitive to touch and sometimes gets purple.We do not know how long it will take to be back to normal, and it may not come back, but there is a low chance of that, and the minimum is 1.5 years. Knee recovery was supposed to be 6 months. There is a non-invasive therapy called the Scrambler Therapy, which I was told by my doctor would take all the pain away; however, insurance won’t cover it even though it’s FDA approved. It would cost $5000. Instead, I am going to physical therapy 5 days a week and currently insurance keeps declining to pay but I have to go to get better. I’ve only been home 12 days and it’s getting better but I am still in a lot of pain and a lot of assistance to do simple things.

So you may wonder why I'm writing this story, and it is because I want to give back to my mother. My amazing momma was there with me in the hospital for 22 days and has been there for me since. She would spend her last 5 dollars in her bank account on ice cream for me. Working and taking care of me at the same time doesn’t always work, and there are some medical issues as well. She never likes public attention, but it’s what she needs and would cause her way less stress from everything else. My father lives in Ohio and was always a call away. He would do anything to come see me, and that would be a great goal as well. It’s only been 34 days since surgery, and we will just keep pushing. Insurance covers most of it, but there are still bills piling up, creating more stress for my mom. Anything would help, even spreading the story. My mom and I are best friends and are helping each other.