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As you may, or may not know, our friend Mark has been in the hospital since January 3rd.
Mark woke up this morning with extreme pain in both of his knees. Let's rewind a bit...
On December 8th, 2017, Mark woke up and prepared for a parent-teacher conference with Tina for Blair at his school. This wasn't just an average Friday morning as Mark woke up with an unusual pain in his left knee. There was an assumption that he may have twisted or sprained his knee while sleeping or possibly the day prior when jogging to sneak up on Blair while he was walking home from school.
Over the next few days, his pain seemed to increase causing concern that he may have done some damage, and it was not just a simple sprain. So that following week he made a trip to an urgent care facility. They referred him to get an MRI. That was done the following week. Results were received on December 30th that there was indeed fluid in his knee joint. We were told by the urgent care facility that he should seek an Orthopedic for further treatment. The appointment was scheduled that day with an orthopedic for January 9th. There was no urgent concern from the urgent care facility, and as we all know it takes a bit to get an appointment with most specialists. So... he just took it easy until that appointment.
If Mark is committed to anything he is going to give it his 100% best effort. He had a very long day scheduled for New Year's Eve. Some of you may not know but Mark always covers his commitments and Prides himself on his dependability. It was expected to be a 16 hour+ a day. Being his proactive self he decided to purchase a wheelchair off craigslist so that he could still be mobile and satisfy his commitments while easing his potential pain.
After the day ended Mark was utterly exhausted. Way more then he was expecting. He slept the majority of the next day just from pain and extreme exhaustion. On January 2nd he knew something wasn't right when his right knee started to have pain. It felt like it may have just been sore due to overcompensating from the injury on the left side. We couldn't have been more wrong!
Later in the evening on January 2nd, Mark could no longer walk on either leg. He is extremely weak, his legs would buckle and he was unable to get himself to the restroom let alone care for himself. Off to the Emergency Room, him and Tina went the morning of January 3rd.
One thing not mentioned above is Mark's extreme thirst over the prior week. He didn't have much of an appetite due to the pain so he was really just consuming lots of liquids. But no liquid seemed to quench his thirst.
January 3rd he was admitted to Howard County general hospital as his blood sugar was 660, it was confirmed he had ketoacidosis, as well as sepsis. All 3 of these diagnoses/conditions are life-threatening. His white blood cell count was over 27000.
He was admitted to the ICU.
On January 4th at 6:00 a.m. Mark's right knee received orthoscopic surgery to clean out the MRSA staph infection. Also, on January 4th at 6:00 p.m. his left knee received orthoscopic surgery to clean out the MRSA infection.
Mark's white blood cell count improved and then declined over the next few days causing another orthoscopic surgery clean out to occur on his right knee the evening of January 11th.
Once his white blood cell count hit a normal range, he qualified for discharge. This took nearly a week.
After a ton of struggle and back and forth we were finally able to get Mark some additional support. January 18th Mark was transferred from Howard County General Hospital to a nursing care facility to assist him with his medical care as well as physical rehab over the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Obviously, every day is an ongoing struggle. Currently, he does not have the ability to walk, even assisted with equipment. He still has a way to go before developing the skills to get himself into a wheelchair, as well as a few other more private issues.
He has been diagnosed as type 1 diabetic as well as being on a long-term PIC line iV for antibiotics that is fighting his Sepsis.
Although Mark has significantly improved over the last few weeks, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him that may include additional surgery to repair the damage to his left knee.
For Mark... He says that the two hardest things he has had to do is (1) trying to maintain his dignity while In need. (2) wanting to make sure that he has no additional burden on his blended family.
This account has been created to assist with the additional medical costs, lost income, and any additional expenses his family is incurring during this time of need.
Give early, give often,
Tina and Todd
Mark woke up this morning with extreme pain in both of his knees. Let's rewind a bit...
On December 8th, 2017, Mark woke up and prepared for a parent-teacher conference with Tina for Blair at his school. This wasn't just an average Friday morning as Mark woke up with an unusual pain in his left knee. There was an assumption that he may have twisted or sprained his knee while sleeping or possibly the day prior when jogging to sneak up on Blair while he was walking home from school.
Over the next few days, his pain seemed to increase causing concern that he may have done some damage, and it was not just a simple sprain. So that following week he made a trip to an urgent care facility. They referred him to get an MRI. That was done the following week. Results were received on December 30th that there was indeed fluid in his knee joint. We were told by the urgent care facility that he should seek an Orthopedic for further treatment. The appointment was scheduled that day with an orthopedic for January 9th. There was no urgent concern from the urgent care facility, and as we all know it takes a bit to get an appointment with most specialists. So... he just took it easy until that appointment.
If Mark is committed to anything he is going to give it his 100% best effort. He had a very long day scheduled for New Year's Eve. Some of you may not know but Mark always covers his commitments and Prides himself on his dependability. It was expected to be a 16 hour+ a day. Being his proactive self he decided to purchase a wheelchair off craigslist so that he could still be mobile and satisfy his commitments while easing his potential pain.
After the day ended Mark was utterly exhausted. Way more then he was expecting. He slept the majority of the next day just from pain and extreme exhaustion. On January 2nd he knew something wasn't right when his right knee started to have pain. It felt like it may have just been sore due to overcompensating from the injury on the left side. We couldn't have been more wrong!
Later in the evening on January 2nd, Mark could no longer walk on either leg. He is extremely weak, his legs would buckle and he was unable to get himself to the restroom let alone care for himself. Off to the Emergency Room, him and Tina went the morning of January 3rd.
One thing not mentioned above is Mark's extreme thirst over the prior week. He didn't have much of an appetite due to the pain so he was really just consuming lots of liquids. But no liquid seemed to quench his thirst.
January 3rd he was admitted to Howard County general hospital as his blood sugar was 660, it was confirmed he had ketoacidosis, as well as sepsis. All 3 of these diagnoses/conditions are life-threatening. His white blood cell count was over 27000.
He was admitted to the ICU.
On January 4th at 6:00 a.m. Mark's right knee received orthoscopic surgery to clean out the MRSA staph infection. Also, on January 4th at 6:00 p.m. his left knee received orthoscopic surgery to clean out the MRSA infection.
Mark's white blood cell count improved and then declined over the next few days causing another orthoscopic surgery clean out to occur on his right knee the evening of January 11th.
Once his white blood cell count hit a normal range, he qualified for discharge. This took nearly a week.
After a ton of struggle and back and forth we were finally able to get Mark some additional support. January 18th Mark was transferred from Howard County General Hospital to a nursing care facility to assist him with his medical care as well as physical rehab over the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Obviously, every day is an ongoing struggle. Currently, he does not have the ability to walk, even assisted with equipment. He still has a way to go before developing the skills to get himself into a wheelchair, as well as a few other more private issues.
He has been diagnosed as type 1 diabetic as well as being on a long-term PIC line iV for antibiotics that is fighting his Sepsis.
Although Mark has significantly improved over the last few weeks, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him that may include additional surgery to repair the damage to his left knee.
For Mark... He says that the two hardest things he has had to do is (1) trying to maintain his dignity while In need. (2) wanting to make sure that he has no additional burden on his blended family.
This account has been created to assist with the additional medical costs, lost income, and any additional expenses his family is incurring during this time of need.
Give early, give often,
Tina and Todd
Organizer and beneficiary
Todd Hurley
Organizer
Baltimore, MD
Mark McKoy
Beneficiary
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