Help Jodi Battle The Mystery Infection from Hell

If you know Jodi Coolman at all (and maybe even if you don’t) you know she’d happily give you the shirt from her back if you needed it. In fact, she’s dedicated most of her life to helping others. And now, she needs our help.

Back in May, Jodi had what _should’ve_ been a routine surgery to remove an impacted wisdom tooth that was causing her pain. Unfortunately, her recovery has been anything but routine, and has involved a lot of extreme pain and illness, owing to a mystery sinus infection that her doctors aren’t (yet) able to get a handle on. In the almost 9 weeks since her initial surgery, Jodi has had to have additional surgery, along with 5 different rounds of antibiotics, and at least a dozen other visits to doctor’s offices. The pain has been near constant and unrelenting, and the infection won’t budge.

Being self-employed and uninsured for all of this, you can probably imagine the financial (and mental health) cost of all this for Jodi and her family. And, she’s not even out of the woods yet!

In September, she’ll have Endoscopic Sinus Surgery, in the hopes that it can relieve the pain being caused by the infection, and will allow her surgeon to get to the root of the infection itself. This means more scans, more time off work, and a lot of pain management in the meantime. Unfortunately, this also means a LOT more expenses, on top of an already hefty medical bill.

Jodi has agreed to let us help raise funds for her, which is no small thing. She’s used to being the one helping, after all, not the one who needs the help. And she really needs the help right now.

We are aiming big, at $10,000, but even that is a fraction of what this has cost her. We’re hoping that if enough people chip in, we can get there, even $5 at a time. Every little bit counts.

Please consider pitching in if you can, and/or passing this fundraiser along. She’s also set up a Venmo account, if you’d rather contribute directly to her (@Jodi-Coolman).

Let’s get our lovely lady through this!

-Pippa & Mary

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Jodi’s timeline, in her own words:

“May 19th, I went in for a scheduled impacted wisdom tooth extraction because it was causing me some pain (headaches, etc). I was uninsured and budgeted for the surgery, meds, and 2 days off of work. The upper wisdom tooth removal left a hole in my sinus cavity (which can happen). It immediately got infected. I also got dry socket. It was excruciating pain (10/10). The pain meds were not helping at all. There was no “pain management.” 6 days after the 1st surgery, I went in for a 2nd surgery. My oral surgeon opened up my socket again and flushed out my sinuses (which was awful) and put a drain in (between my gums and my cheek). That caused non-stop 10/10 pain for over a week, day and night. I couldn’t eat (nausea, pain, etc.), I couldn’t sleep (I paced all night long for over a week). My oral surgeon had me come in for an IV steroid, which helped for 1.5 days and then the pain came right back. I was taking a stronger pain medication, which barely helped, anti-nausea pill, Motrin, antibiotics, nasal steroid spray, a week of oral steroids, etc.

I am currently on my 5th round of antibiotics and they aren’t touching the infection.

My mom had to move in with me for 8 days and manage my medications, my nutrition, and even help me walk to the bathroom. I was extremely sick. It took a massive toll on my mental health. And my anxiety, from being unable to escape the pain, was worse than I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve gone back to see my oral surgeon probably 10-12 times since my first surgery.

He cannot figure out why I can’t kick this infection.

8.5 weeks later, I am still battling this infection. I have horrible pain and fatigue every single day. I’m on pain meds and Motrin to manage the pain until my next surgery.

I’ll be having a CT scan done of my sinuses in early August and then I’m having Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (ESS) on September 1st. An ENT doctor (Dr. Heichel) will be doing my surgery in the OR at Marquette General Hospital. This will require more time off of work.

I missed 3.5 weeks of work with the first 2 surgeries (and because I’m a private practitioner I don’t get paid when I don’t work) and I’m planning to take off 1.5 weeks of work to recover from this 3rd surgery.

It has all cost me about $15,000 so far. I did finally sign up for BCBS insurance to help with the cost of the CT scan and the surgery but I will have to pay the deductible right away which is $6950.00.

Btw, I also just set up a Venmo account for those wishing to use that instead of go fund me.

I have swallowed my pride and fears of asking for help because I really need it! It’s not easy for me to do.

I guess the target number I’d be aiming for would be $10,000.00. I know that is a staggering number….

It makes me very uncomfortable to even put out there…. But that’s where I’m at.”