Everyone knows Kay Briscoe, that friend/family member that is always there for everyone.  Well now she needs a little help.  On August 9th she was admitted to the hospital through the ER for another bowel obstruction.  For those of you that know her, you know that this is unfortunately her 5th bowel obstruction.  We have had three surgeons now over the course of 5 years  and all they can tell us is that after one obstruction, a person is susceptible to another.  You see just like those people that tend to scar worse on the outside, my mom is someone who scars on the inside.  These scars form adhesions often adhering the bowels to other organs, the stomach wall, or to itself.  Each surgery leads to more adhesions which can create obstructions in the bowel thus creating this vicious cycle we have been in.

After being admitted to the hospital on August 9th, they still tried to help clear the blockage by dropping a NG tube through the nose to the stomach.  This helps relieve the pressure and helps buy time to see if they can clear the blockage without surgery.  Sadly there was no progress and she was taken into surgery on August 13th.  The surgery was complex lasting 5 hours as the surgeon had to work through all the adhesions.  Once he removed all the adhesions, the bowel began to move freely and the blockage cleared.  She spent 5 days in ICU and was then moved to a step down room.  She began the healing process and even made it all the way up to soft foods before she started getting sick again.  Regrettably they told us that she had another blockage (Blockage #6).  They called it a chronic reoccurring small bowel obstruction, as it occurred in the same area of her bowel that they had just cleared.  Taking her to surgery to remove the obstruction now is too risky.  The bowels are still inflamed and healing and another surgery  this close to the last one would cause more damage. So now we are in a waiting period.  The surgeon wants to wait 6 weeks until he takes her back into surgery.  She has had a couple of small procedures to help make her more comfortable and help us buy the time we need until the next surgery.  They placed an IR drain to remove fluid buildup in her abdomen, and after three weeks of having a NG Tube in her nose they changed it to a peg tube directly in her stomach.  This week she moved to a long term acute hospital to wait the remaining three weeks until surgery. She has good days and bad days, but she is a trooper and a fighter.  The surgeon will see her again the last week of Sept and then schedule the surgery after that.  After surgery she will be in ICU again for at least 7 days, and then move to a step down room again to continue to heal enough to go home.  From there she would have another 4-6 weeks recovery at home before she could return to work.

Now is where the help part comes in.  In November of 2018 mom had a surgery and recovery process for what was then her 4th bowel obstruction.  Immediately after her recovery, she became the primary care giver for my grandfather who was diagnosed with dementia complicated by other health issues due to a couple of falls he had. As a result, she did not have any sick/vacation time. We have received some donated time to this point, but are now looking at short term disability.  That will start with a one month waiting period of no pay, and then a significant pay cut for short term disability. On top of that she will have to pay for her own benefits and life insurance while receiving no pay to reduced pay. As you can gather the last 10 months have been extremely rough, and Super Red needs help.   In addition to the medical bills that are starting to roll in, it is going to be tough to keep up with monthly bills.  Any donations will be used to cover both medical bills and help keep the lights on. We really appreciate any help you can give as well as continued prayers.