My husband, Kevin, has been dealing with so many health issues over the past couple years and this year has been the most challenging for us. He is being treated for nonalcohol cirrhosis, and he’s also been dealing with knee problems. He had a knee replacement revision on Sept 10th which was supposed to be done last April, but it got postponed. In April he had an ultrasound of the liver which showed blood clot between liver and spleen. We went to Mayo Clinic & he had not 1, but 7 blood clots all between the liver and spleen, which both the liver and spleen were enlarged and had been enlarged for the past 2 years. So, he had to go on blood thinners for three months. He was having excruciating pain in his knee. He had replacement May of 2024, but in July and then again in October he ended up getting sepsis, and after that his knee went down hill. The doctor at Mayo and his orthopedic team did extensive x-rays and found that it appeared the replacement had come apart. That was when they started planning for a revision surgery.

When he had the knee surgery on Sept 10th, they found the device indeed had come apart. Also they sent tissue out to be tested and the culture showed he had two infections in the surgery area and one was a type of staph. They had to put a PICC line in and for 6 weeks we have to administer IV antibiotics through it. After that, he will be on an oral antibiotic for 1 year.

He also has a full immobilizer on his knee and a wound vac. His recovery and healing will be a process. He is limited on what pain medicine he can take because it cannot be anything that filters through the liver. So he can do Tramadol, ice packs, and some pain creams. When he had a CT scan on the 12th, two days after surgery, it showed he had 2 new blood clots and the one from last July was still there. So he continues the blood thinners & probably will stay on them the rest of his life. My heart aches seeing him go through all of this.

Due to Kevin’s health conditions he has not been able to work full time. At the moment he cannot do his job at all while he is recovering from surgery. He is self employed & only gets paid when he makes sales. And he won’t get to be fully vested until he gets a certain amount of sales and he still has quite a ways to go. We have struggled financially to pay our bills and are quite behind. My income doesn’t cut it. I have a lot of deductions coming out for health insurance, health savings account, taxes, other things, and are paying back a hardship loan against my 401k. Our youngest daughter got married in August and it was embarrassing as parents to not even be able to help her financially with it. Last Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, and our daughters’ birthdays … we were not able to get our girls and grandkids hardly anything. That truly broke my heart as well. There are things we hope to do in the future but until we can catch up on bills, those things will not be possible.

I am thankful for my job with Walmart, 25 yrs next month. It has been a great job and the insurance and vacation time has been a life saver for us. Most of our trips to Mayo Clinic with Kevin have been covered. A couple of the unplanned pop-up-out-of-nowhere ones we had to cover expenses ourselves. God helped me save up my vacation time in order to have it for Kevin’s surgeries and appointments this year, our daughter’s wedding, and the time around when she gave birth to our 2nd grandson. . God has been blessing us in various ways during the midst of these hard times. His grace, strength, our faith, and the power of prayer have been helping us.

I do not like having to ask for help, but feel maybe one of the ways God wants to answer our prayers is through you. We are reaching out with love and appreciation for all of those who have helped us, prayed & are praying for us, sharing your love and encouraging words.

If you would like to donate we would be forever grateful. It truly would mean the world to us, no matter how small or big. If God puts something on your heart, just remember that He blesses those who bless others. We have always been on the giving side for many, many years. That is our heartbeat, so I really struggle with not being able to help others as much as I want to. Our bills are a heavy weight right now.

Thank you again for your love, encouragement, prayers, and anything else you have done, and will do.

May God bless you in return for all of the ways you bless us.

Sincerely,

Jaime Duane (Kevin’s wife)