Please Help Debbie Minger!
Donation protected
Debbie Minger is one of the most kindhearted, hard-working, dependable people you will ever meet. She hasn't exactly had a rose colored life. She had her son Danny at a very young age and was a single mom all her life, sometimes working multiple jobs to make ends meet. At age 47 she had open heart surgery to have a valve replacement. At age 52 she lost her eldest sister to colon cancer 10 months after diagnosis. Always doing for others and often doing physical labor, she began experiencing her own health problems at age 56. Bizarre symptoms with no explanation began occurring. She was told it was exposure to some rare fungus from bird and bat droppings, then told maybe cancer. Now at age 60 and after 4 years floating from doctor to doctor, still with no explanation for her symptoms, she experienced a stroke and seizure and is unable to return to work and faces losing her job and potentially her home. Debbie has one of the biggest loving hearts ever and is always helping others and busting her tail to help herself. Now she needs your help to get back on feet and find a cure and hopefully avoid losing her home!
She has reached Rock Bottom.
Our Dear Debbie is currently in the hospital after being sick for almost 6 years! She has gone to every type of doctor in Indianapolis and Terre Haute only to find no one can figure out what is wrong with her!
Losing her hair, enlarged lymph nodes, no energy, nauseous, sick to the point of being unable to work and most recently, having a stroke and a grand mal seizure. Now she is trying to regain her strength, memory and sight on the left side.
What’s wrong with Debbie Minger?
2013
It all started in 2013 when Debbie started losing her hair in large patches and had lumps on the back of her head/neck. She could not figure out why she was losing her hair so she went to her Dermatologist. The Dermatologist sent her to a lab to get testing for Lupus due to the swollen lymph nodes but the test results came back negative and he told her it was Alopecia due to stress. So she accepted the hair loss and started experimenting with Wigs.
2015
In 2015, her Dermatologist recommended Debbie try shots and cream to promote hair growth. Her hair started to grow back slowly, but not like it was before. She had flair ups of dry skin and eczema on her scalp still.
August /September 2016
She had reoccurring episodes of fever, sweats, extreme lack of energy (constantly sleeping) and enlarged lymph nodes all over her body (neck, armpits, stomach, back of head, throat).
Not sure where to go, she turned to her primary care doctor who thought it was a viral infection and prescribed many different antibiotics which decreased her symptoms for a few weeks.
October/November/December 2016
Her symptoms kept recurring and she was sent to the hospital for two weeks. Debbie was then sent to an Oncologist for further testing and for suspicion of Lymphoma. He took lots of blood and test saying she had old and inactive CMV and had been exposed to histoplasmosis …but nothing was active, it was all old and was not the reason for her symptoms.
They ended up referring her to a surgeon who scheduled a biopsy of her lymph nodes. In December , before the scheduled biopsy appointment, she was resting at home when her sister Sally came to check on her because she did not answer her phone. Debbie did not know what time of day it was, was disoriented, not eating, dehydrated and had a urinary infection. Sally rushed her to the Emergency Room. She was admitted with dehydration and a UTI. They did a bunch of tests while she was there. There was a surgeon in the hospital who took a biopsy of her chest and armpit and a nodule off her lungs. They did an immediate pathology on them but they were all found to be negative.
They gave Debbie fluids and put her on bed rest and antibiotics. After a couple of weeks She was sent home thinking she could eventually go back to work.
2017
January
Debbie returned to her job at Regional Hospital but worked only a short time before all symptoms reoccurred. The original surgeon ordered another biopsy, which turned out to be negative.
Debbie again returned to work for a short time until her symptoms returned again.
They tried another Oncologist who ordered a second lymph node biopsy and bone marrow biopsy, both of which were negative.
During the time they were waiting on results for the biopsies, Debbie was referred to a different Oncologist at IU Simon Medical Center in Indianapolis. He wanted to do a CT guided Lymph node aspiration but had to wait on the results for the other biopsies.
She returned to IU Simon Medical Center for a second appointment after reviewing the bone marrow results. Findings did not support lymphoma but did support Histoplasmosis. They began treating Debbie for Histoplasmosis (antifungal medicine) hoping she would eventually get better. She was on this medicine for three months and slowly started going downhill again.
August
August 15
A friend of Debbie’s came to check on her and she was sitting on the toilet moaning, disoriented, not knowing what to do, he called 911. While in the ER Room she had a Grand Mal Seizure and two or three days later the test results confirmed she had a stroke while at home.
Debbie was then placed on a ventilator and sedated in ICU.
She was found to have frontal Partial Occipital Stroke.
Debbie is currently on anti-seizure medicine and in hospital physical therapy.
She is not able to work because she is recovering from the stroke. Her employer has a rule you must work a minimum of six weeks a year and she is not able to meet that requirement because she has been out sick so much. Even if she could start back to work tomorrow and work full-time through the end of the year, she will not meet the employer’s rule. As a result, she will eventually be terminated. She currently has not been paid for the time off of work this year and has only received $2,000 salary this year.
Debbie is trying to contest the times she has been denied for pay for being off sick. The claim keeps being denied because she has no diagnoses. She needs to find a specialist who can figure out what the root problem is/ the origin of what is wrong with her.
She has no income right now and no answers as to why this is all happening. No diagnosis has been made at this time for all of the former symptoms prior to having a stroke. Her insurance will eventually be denied as well if she does not figure out what is going on with her.
She has reached Rock Bottom.
Our Dear Debbie is currently in the hospital after being sick for almost 6 years! She has gone to every type of doctor in Indianapolis and Terre Haute only to find no one can figure out what is wrong with her!
Losing her hair, enlarged lymph nodes, no energy, nauseous, sick to the point of being unable to work and most recently, having a stroke and a grand mal seizure. Now she is trying to regain her strength, memory and sight on the left side.
What’s wrong with Debbie Minger?
2013
It all started in 2013 when Debbie started losing her hair in large patches and had lumps on the back of her head/neck. She could not figure out why she was losing her hair so she went to her Dermatologist. The Dermatologist sent her to a lab to get testing for Lupus due to the swollen lymph nodes but the test results came back negative and he told her it was Alopecia due to stress. So she accepted the hair loss and started experimenting with Wigs.
2015
In 2015, her Dermatologist recommended Debbie try shots and cream to promote hair growth. Her hair started to grow back slowly, but not like it was before. She had flair ups of dry skin and eczema on her scalp still.
August /September 2016
She had reoccurring episodes of fever, sweats, extreme lack of energy (constantly sleeping) and enlarged lymph nodes all over her body (neck, armpits, stomach, back of head, throat).
Not sure where to go, she turned to her primary care doctor who thought it was a viral infection and prescribed many different antibiotics which decreased her symptoms for a few weeks.
October/November/December 2016
Her symptoms kept recurring and she was sent to the hospital for two weeks. Debbie was then sent to an Oncologist for further testing and for suspicion of Lymphoma. He took lots of blood and test saying she had old and inactive CMV and had been exposed to histoplasmosis …but nothing was active, it was all old and was not the reason for her symptoms.
They ended up referring her to a surgeon who scheduled a biopsy of her lymph nodes. In December , before the scheduled biopsy appointment, she was resting at home when her sister Sally came to check on her because she did not answer her phone. Debbie did not know what time of day it was, was disoriented, not eating, dehydrated and had a urinary infection. Sally rushed her to the Emergency Room. She was admitted with dehydration and a UTI. They did a bunch of tests while she was there. There was a surgeon in the hospital who took a biopsy of her chest and armpit and a nodule off her lungs. They did an immediate pathology on them but they were all found to be negative.
They gave Debbie fluids and put her on bed rest and antibiotics. After a couple of weeks She was sent home thinking she could eventually go back to work.
2017
January
Debbie returned to her job at Regional Hospital but worked only a short time before all symptoms reoccurred. The original surgeon ordered another biopsy, which turned out to be negative.
Debbie again returned to work for a short time until her symptoms returned again.
They tried another Oncologist who ordered a second lymph node biopsy and bone marrow biopsy, both of which were negative.
During the time they were waiting on results for the biopsies, Debbie was referred to a different Oncologist at IU Simon Medical Center in Indianapolis. He wanted to do a CT guided Lymph node aspiration but had to wait on the results for the other biopsies.
She returned to IU Simon Medical Center for a second appointment after reviewing the bone marrow results. Findings did not support lymphoma but did support Histoplasmosis. They began treating Debbie for Histoplasmosis (antifungal medicine) hoping she would eventually get better. She was on this medicine for three months and slowly started going downhill again.
August
August 15
A friend of Debbie’s came to check on her and she was sitting on the toilet moaning, disoriented, not knowing what to do, he called 911. While in the ER Room she had a Grand Mal Seizure and two or three days later the test results confirmed she had a stroke while at home.
Debbie was then placed on a ventilator and sedated in ICU.
She was found to have frontal Partial Occipital Stroke.
Debbie is currently on anti-seizure medicine and in hospital physical therapy.
She is not able to work because she is recovering from the stroke. Her employer has a rule you must work a minimum of six weeks a year and she is not able to meet that requirement because she has been out sick so much. Even if she could start back to work tomorrow and work full-time through the end of the year, she will not meet the employer’s rule. As a result, she will eventually be terminated. She currently has not been paid for the time off of work this year and has only received $2,000 salary this year.
Debbie is trying to contest the times she has been denied for pay for being off sick. The claim keeps being denied because she has no diagnoses. She needs to find a specialist who can figure out what the root problem is/ the origin of what is wrong with her.
She has no income right now and no answers as to why this is all happening. No diagnosis has been made at this time for all of the former symptoms prior to having a stroke. Her insurance will eventually be denied as well if she does not figure out what is going on with her.
Organizer
Jesika Gunter Boaz
Organizer
Indianapolis, IN
