Jennifer, Mike, and Luca Spence Medical and Bills

My name is Dr. Leigh Ballard, 4th grade teaching partner of the amazing Jennifer Spence, and I am trying to help this sweet family through a very sudden and difficult medical issue.

Jennifer DiScenza Spence is currently a teacher in the ASPIRE program at Glenhope Elementary located in Colleyville, TX. She has been married to the love of her life, Mike, in 2016 and had their miracle son, Luca, in 2019.

As you know, teacher salaries rarely cover much above basic living costs. This past week, Mike went to the hospital with an acute infection in his foot.

Being a diabetic with advanced neuropathy in his feet, we feared he might lose part of his foot. Thankfully, the first surgery only removed a large amount of infected tissue and no bone.

Jenn's update following surgery (Monday Dec. 11) "Surgery went well. Removed an extremely large portion of skin, basically down to the bone. His bone and connective tissue looks good as of now. They need to watch the skin around the wound for the next 3 days. If it doesn’t start to heal properly, he needs to have another surgery done to remove more skin, and then watch for another 3 days, etc. Recovery is going to be long and difficult requiring weekly doctor visits, skin and tissue grafts, wound vacs, and the list goes on. The surgeon explained a lot can go wrong in this type of situation and diet,medical care, and his diabetes all will play a role. Recovery right now is 6 months where he cannot work or put weight on it which brings a whole slew of other issues to the situation. Just trying to process everything right now. We have a long road ahead. The surgeon explained that with weekly office visits and continuous tissue/skin grafts, possible additional surgeries, at home health care for wound vac, and length of recovery time, etc. we are talking about 100’s of thousands of dollars for this process."

Mike works in security on his feet a good part of every day, so you can connect the dots.

This precious family is facing an uncertain 2024 not only health-wise, but financially. Mike lost his medical insurance.

At this time of year, when many want to help others, please consider donating even 1 present's worth of money to this family to help them be able to make ends meet while Mike is out of work.

If you know Jennifer, you know she is a giver and has personally walked with me through some dark days in the past year. I am sure many of you who know her have similar stories. It's our time to help ease her mind so she can focus on Mike, sweet Luca, and knowing they will be able to stay in their apartment and help Mike at every turn.