Help Kelli during her post-surgery recovery

Hello, my name is Kelli.  I am a 39 year old single mother with one child.  I am a second grade Language Facilitator at Burke County Public Schools in Morganton, North Carolina.  I work one on one with children who are hearing impaired or fully deaf or children with exceptional needs.  I have recently injured my back. I have hurt my back three times in the past 5 years.  Each time after my injuries,  I had physical therapy, acupuncture, occupational therapy, and massage therapy in hopes that I would not have to have surgery. Despite my best efforts, I had to have back surgery this year.

The surgery was planned for April 2020, but due to the pandemic, everything was shut down and my surgery was postponed until August.  This was really hard because that was when school would start back. I was only able to work for 1-1/2 weeks, then I had to be out for my surgery. The surgery was a spinal fusion for spondylolisthesis stenosis, degenerative bones in my tailbone in the base of my spine, and three bulging discs with 25% separation from my spine. I endured a spinal fusion, bone grafts, a laminectomy, and everything is screwed into place into my tailbone.

They scraped off sides of my hips so that they could ground that bone up and use it as extra bone in my spine kind of like cement around the screws, so my hips are healing now. I’m in pain.  I have to rotate my hips periodically. I lay on ice for 3 hours on one hip and then I rotate to the next hip for 3 hours.  I'm not able to lay flat on my back because my back is still so curved, plus it has 4 inch screws in it. It's extremely painful to put pressure on it.


I am recovering, but I have a ways to go.  I have physical therapy and occupational therapy 4 days a week. I'm close to my (physical) goal, but not quite there.  I have to be able to sit since my job requires me to sit for 7 hours a day.  I'm up to almost 2 hours right now, so for the next few weeks, I'll be working on building up support for my spine and endurance so that I can perform my job correctly when I go back to work in November.

Being unable to work, I'm worried about where the rest of my money is going to come from. I got paid this month, but I'm not going to get another check until at least January because I'm not going back to work until mid-November.

I am hoping to raise about $2,000, which would cover my bills and expenses until I can return to work and start getting pay checks again.  I am blessed to have my beautiful daughter.  She has helped out a lot around the house, and I'm thankful for that.  Anything is appreciated. Prayers are appreciated. And any donation that you could give is most definitely appreciated. I'm very blessed, thankful, and fortunate to have those of you in my life that can help.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  Truly.