Help my Brother Chris & his wife Angie

Hi my name is Debbie. Chris is my brother and Angie is my sister-in-law.

Chris was diagnosed with TYPE 2 DIABETES 4 weeks ago. He had a sore on the ball on the bottom of his left foot, which he thought was a callous from working nights on his feet. It was not, it was a BAD DIABETIC ULCER. When the doctor saw this, she arranged for an MRI to see if the bone was involved. If the infection had gone into the bone, Chris would lose his left foot. Following the MRI, he was sent to ER, ASAP. The report showed suspicion that the bone was infected. They continued to do tests, talk to doctors, to see if the bone was infected. Praise Jesus, it was not!

During a routine urinalysis while at the hospital they discovered something was wrong and decided to do a CAT scan They found him going into kidney failure! From his last blood work and urine test, less than a week apart, he was in kidney failure! If he had not gone into the ER, we don’t know if he would have been here at this moment in time. They found his right kidney to be totally blocked and had been so for quite some time. The craziness of it all, was that he felt no pain. He was prepped for surgery right away. During surgery, they found he has two ureters coming out from the right kidney. They were both totally blocked. One side was stented and the other side had a huge stone blocking it. They could do the stent on the first surgery, but couldn’t blast the stone, so not to stress out that kidney. He would need another surgery the following day. They did the second surgery and blasted the stone that was blocking. Poor guy, was down for two days, the first one had him pretty much out for that day. Chris came home with a Foley catheter for 10 days! Yes, that was not fun at all! But he is alive!

So this was all in a matter of less than a week! Then he gets released and had to go to Wound Care on a weekly basis. Chris now has a big hunk of a fiberglass cast on his foot to keep any pressure off the wound. That is the only way it will heal, and 90 grams of protein a day. He is so proteined out, it is a struggle. Then on top of that hunk of a cast, he as to wear a boot over it! Every week he needs to go in and get the cast sawed off, leg cleaned, wound cleaned and dressed and have the cast put back on. This is an hour and a half to a two hour process. Needless to say, he cannot walk freely without the assistance of a walker. This will take months until this wound can heal.

Chris and Angie are now trying to adjust to a life as a diabetic. For a diabetic to be successful, the spouse also has to live life as close as possible, as a diabetic. Being diabetic means trying to get the right foods, the appropriate medicines, correct dosages, etc.

Chris had informed his boss that he wanted to use his sick and vacation time. He will not be able to return until the doctor releases him. He has applied for FMLA but you all know that only protects your job, not pay you. His boss chose not to inform him that he would not be receiving a check and he needed to go through HR. That really showed a lot of care from a manager who stated she didn’t want to lose him.

Chris had to call HR. If he had known this, he would have by-passed his boss right off the bat! He was informed by HR that the sick time on his pay stub was not all accrued. What? You never have unaccrued time show on a paystub unless another column is noted. Chris did not get paid on his normal Wednesday. He did contact HR and hopefully, what little time he had, would be paid out. Granted, Chris has been working there since April of 2020. He couldn’t take time off because of coverage. He tried very hard to be considered at his own expense. The likelihood of Chris losing his job is now REAL. Angie has had to stay home with him since his release to care for him. Angie had to go back to her part-time job so some kind of money is coming in. Healthy food is costly.

Chris and Angie are very PROUD human beings and THEY ARE MY FAMILY. I have discussed this with them and have their blessing to proceed to see if we can set up a GO FUND me page. Together we can help them and do what we can. If anyone can donate even $5.00, as we know times are tough, any amount will help them tremendously. Please know HOW MUCH THIS WILL BE APPRECIATED! Everything together adds up. I know them well enough that someday they will PAY THIS GESTURE OF GENEROSITY forward! If anyone has any other ideas to help them out, please PM me. Thank you for your understanding. I will be working to set this GO FUND ME page up this afternoon.

From all of us, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!