Hello everyone my name is Christopher Green and I’ve been a registered nurse for four years working in the Intensive Care Unit caring for critically ill patients. The last day I worked at the patient bedside was on June 27, 2021. On June 30, 2021 I began experiencing right sided sciatic pain which left me unable to return to work. The pain progressively worsened over the next couple of weeks until I was unable to tolerate the pain and started experiencing weakness and lethargy. I’m creating this GoFundMe page because on Wednesday July 14, 2021 I walked into the emergency room and was admitted to the hospital for what would turn into a several month long journey that included me relearning to walk and perform basic tasks. When I arrived to the ER I was diagnosed with acute urinary retention and a foley catheter was placed for the retention. Initially it was presumed to be caused by a kidney stone but all diagnostic test were normal which excluded that as the cause. The first night of admission after my pain was relieved with iv morphine I began to experience the right sided sciatic pain once again that radiated down my right leg. This turned into numbness that also progressed down my right leg which was a new and frightening symptom for me. The iv pain medication was not relieving the pain and throughout the evening the numbness progressed to the point I required a walker to get up. The numbness continued onto my left side and progressed up my left leg until I was completely numb and paralyzed from the waist down in less than 12 hours from the time I was admitted onto the floor. After advocating for myself and finally having an MRI of my lumbar spine, I was notified six hours later that I had a bloodstream infection, known as MSSA, that would require a consultation from an infectious disease specialist. I was also diagnosed with discitis between my L5 - S1 vertebrae that would require a consultation from a Neurosurgeon. After speaking with the neurosurgeon, with whom I worked with and had cared for his patients in ICU, he informed me that I needed to have another MRI done of my thoracic spine. Once again I had to endure agonizing pain for the imaging because it was not performed with my initial testing. The neurosurgeon was planning for surgery on Friday morning at 0800 but upon review of the images he notified me that the surgery could not wait until the morning and they had to rush me in for emergency spinal surgery. They found an epidural abscess that was compressing my spinal cord and I needed the surgery urgently. After three and half hours I woke up in the ICU amongst my family, friends, and coworkers. They performed a spinal cord decompression from my T8 - T11 vertebrae with a laminectomy from my T10 - T11 vertebrae. The surgery was a success and I was once again able to begin to move my legs. I have severe ataxia from the spinal cord injury and compression but I have been richly blessed because if they had not discovered the abscess when they did I would not be alive today.

As a result of everything I have been in inpatient rehab now since July 21, 2021 learning how to walk again. I have made tremendous progress but I am still not to a point where I am able to walk and will be discharged on Wednesday August 11, 2021. I will be discharged home with a PICC line because I will require 4 - 6 visits from home health in order to administer iv antibiotics to treat the MSSA bloodstream infection and then oral antibiotics afterwards for an indefinite period. I will also require outpatient physical therapy to continue working on my coordination and learning how to walk again. I have been the sole income earner until this point and unfortunately due to this traumatic event it has made it very difficult for my family and I. I’ve filed for my short term disability because I’m uncertain of when I will be able to actually walk or return to work. My family and I are living off of donated paid time off because I’m blessed to have amazingly generous friends and coworkers. My income is dramatically reduced now because I’m no longer able to work so I am not receiving my shift differentials or overtime as I had previously. I have been in the hospital for a total of 27 days and upon discharge I will have been in for a grand total of 29 days. I have medical bills that are starting to pile up and months of outpatient medical treatment ahead of me. It’s difficult for me to ask for help but this is a time when it is most needed. I was encouraged by friends, family, and coworkers to start a go fund me to ask for help as I have cared for so many, and now I need help. This has been a very humbling experience and also a blessing in disguise. I truly appreciate all the love and support from everyone. You all really are truly amazing.