Hi! I'm Tracie! I am a 6th-Grade Teacher in Tennessee. I teach English Language Arts (ELA) to English Language Learners (ELLs). This is supposed to be my second year at my school, but I had a rocky start to the school year.

I am raising money to pay for unexpected medical expenses after my knee ruptured like a volcano from an abscess that caused an infection in my knee joint and my blood. I spent three days in the hospital after the surgery to drain the fluid in my leg and clean out what they could.

I went home for three days with a wound vac on my knee and a PICC line in my arm, which administered IV antibiotics around the clock. My husband had to change the bulb of medication daily.

On the third day, my wound vac stopped working, so we removed it. Underneath, there were gaping wounds where the sutures had not closed the incision. Blood began pouring out of my leg again!

My husband drove me to the ER, and they cleaned up my leg and wrapped it tightly. They told me to go to my surgeon in the morning.

Which we did! He took one look and sent me straight to the hospital to be admitted. I was placed in the Step-Down Unit, located adjacent to the Intensive Care Unit.

Three days later, I had surgery to remove my infected knee joint, which I am still without to this day, and I have no idea when a brand new, clean one will be put in!

Three days after that surgery, I had another surgery to close up the holes left on my knee, using a muscle graft from my calf and a skin graft from my thigh to create a new knee covering. While in the hospital, I had three blood transfusions, in which I received four pints of blood. I was septic!

Four days later, I was sent home in a knee immobilizer brace. I still had the PICC line with the IV bulb full of antibiotics. I was homebound and on bed rest again.

Home Health Nurses came to my home twice a week, and I had somehow to get down five back stairs or 10 front stairs once a week to go to Wound Care at the hospital, which I still have to do because my knee has a nickel-sized hole that has not healed and is most likely still infected.

Luckily, I am no longer confined to my home. The PICC line has been removed. I take oral antibiotics for a few more days, as long as my labs come back infection-free.

If my bloodwork is clear, I will wait two weeks to have fluid in my knee tested for infection. If that is infection-free, I can schedule surgery to have a knee joint put in. If not, I don't know what happens next.

All I know is that I have been off work for three months (since the end of August), and I am still unable to walk on my leg. I have to use a walker, crutches, or my husband pushes me in a wheelchair when we are in public, to get around. I'm tired of being in bed 24 hours a day!

I have accumulated enormous medical bills and have no incoming money. I am on FMLA until January, but I can't even afford to pay for the insurance at this point, let alone when the amount goes up after my FMLA period ends.

I would appreciate your help. We are three months behind on rent, and upcoming bills are about to be delinquent. We are currently unable to purchase even the essentials.