Leslie's Medical Premiums
Spende geschützt
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read about our situation.
This is very hard for me (us) to do. In fact I've deleted this about 10 times. I never imagined getting to this point but here we are, asking for a blessing.
Some of you know what's been going on with my health this Summer. Below is the full story and what my status is as of this week.
On Father's Day weekend of this year we were doing what alot of people were doing, grilling out. I accidentally ate a small piece of an onion. Before I knew it I had the worst indigestion ever. Pain in my abdomen, back, neck... I have a history of heartburn so I started taking my slew of OTC medicines but of course nothing worked.
The following week I was out of town for work so I pushed through the pain (which slowly got worse) and once I returned home I went straight to my doctors. My MD sent me in for a HIDA scan (so painful!). The results were my Gall Bladder was operating at ZERO percent and it was FULL of stones. It had to come out immediately.
The next day it was removed VIA incision. It was too hard and engorged to be removed laparoscopically. I spent three nights in the hospital sipping chicken stock.
A few days went by and I was back to work. Great, back to normal life, yay!
Two weeks later I began to feel some pretty intense pain in my abdomen but this time it was on the opposite side of where my Gall Bladder was located. This pain was on my left side. My first initial thought was, 'I pulled a muscle' so kind of shrugged it off.
That evening I couldn't ignore it anymore and told Brian about it. At this point I was stuck in the recliner. Luckily for me my sister Amy, who is an RN, was in town visiting.
We tried the heating pad, Ibuprofen, even laying in the bath. The pain would come and go but by 3AM I had a fever of 101.
The next morning I called my surgeon. Baffled by my symptoms he had me come back to the hospital. I was immediatly re-admitted. Many blood tests, an ultra-sound, a CT scan, and 3 days later showed that my Spleen was enlarged to roughly 22 centimeters.
All the doctors (3) working on my case were shaking their heads as to why this was happening. I was negative for all the normal reasons for why a spleen would be enlarged. They got the pain undercontrol and sent me home.
The plan was to see in a month if my spleen had gone down on it's own.....because sometimes they do that. You can only imagine how we felt leaving the hospital not knowing what was going to happen or WHY this was happening.
A week later I started experiencing sharp pain again so my doctors ordered a MRI. This time it revealed the problem. A blood clot in the portal vein (not the best place to get a blood clot). The diagnoisis is Portal Vein Thrombosis.
The clot is about the size of my index finger and the vein is/was completely blocked.
I earned another trip back to the hospital. I stayed about 5 days trying to get the Coumadin (blood thinner) levels just right.
So, it's been 2 weeks since the last hospital stay. Coumadin levels are still 'iffy' and my spleen is still swelling. My pain is so-so. I'm being referred to a Liver Specialist at MUSC in Charleston. I will hopefully see them in the next 7 days or so.
We're asking for this amount to help maintain our insurance premiums while I'm out of work.
My Mom and Dad (Ray and Susan), their church back home (Bethlehem Methodist) and our church here in Aiken (St. John's Methodist) have all been a tremendous support for us. We are so thankful for everyones generosity during this time.
~Leslie, Brian, & Carsyn
This is very hard for me (us) to do. In fact I've deleted this about 10 times. I never imagined getting to this point but here we are, asking for a blessing.
Some of you know what's been going on with my health this Summer. Below is the full story and what my status is as of this week.
On Father's Day weekend of this year we were doing what alot of people were doing, grilling out. I accidentally ate a small piece of an onion. Before I knew it I had the worst indigestion ever. Pain in my abdomen, back, neck... I have a history of heartburn so I started taking my slew of OTC medicines but of course nothing worked.
The following week I was out of town for work so I pushed through the pain (which slowly got worse) and once I returned home I went straight to my doctors. My MD sent me in for a HIDA scan (so painful!). The results were my Gall Bladder was operating at ZERO percent and it was FULL of stones. It had to come out immediately.
The next day it was removed VIA incision. It was too hard and engorged to be removed laparoscopically. I spent three nights in the hospital sipping chicken stock.
A few days went by and I was back to work. Great, back to normal life, yay!
Two weeks later I began to feel some pretty intense pain in my abdomen but this time it was on the opposite side of where my Gall Bladder was located. This pain was on my left side. My first initial thought was, 'I pulled a muscle' so kind of shrugged it off.
That evening I couldn't ignore it anymore and told Brian about it. At this point I was stuck in the recliner. Luckily for me my sister Amy, who is an RN, was in town visiting.
We tried the heating pad, Ibuprofen, even laying in the bath. The pain would come and go but by 3AM I had a fever of 101.
The next morning I called my surgeon. Baffled by my symptoms he had me come back to the hospital. I was immediatly re-admitted. Many blood tests, an ultra-sound, a CT scan, and 3 days later showed that my Spleen was enlarged to roughly 22 centimeters.
All the doctors (3) working on my case were shaking their heads as to why this was happening. I was negative for all the normal reasons for why a spleen would be enlarged. They got the pain undercontrol and sent me home.
The plan was to see in a month if my spleen had gone down on it's own.....because sometimes they do that. You can only imagine how we felt leaving the hospital not knowing what was going to happen or WHY this was happening.
A week later I started experiencing sharp pain again so my doctors ordered a MRI. This time it revealed the problem. A blood clot in the portal vein (not the best place to get a blood clot). The diagnoisis is Portal Vein Thrombosis.
The clot is about the size of my index finger and the vein is/was completely blocked.
I earned another trip back to the hospital. I stayed about 5 days trying to get the Coumadin (blood thinner) levels just right.
So, it's been 2 weeks since the last hospital stay. Coumadin levels are still 'iffy' and my spleen is still swelling. My pain is so-so. I'm being referred to a Liver Specialist at MUSC in Charleston. I will hopefully see them in the next 7 days or so.
We're asking for this amount to help maintain our insurance premiums while I'm out of work.
My Mom and Dad (Ray and Susan), their church back home (Bethlehem Methodist) and our church here in Aiken (St. John's Methodist) have all been a tremendous support for us. We are so thankful for everyones generosity during this time.
~Leslie, Brian, & Carsyn
Organisator
Leslie Gray Pannenbacker
Organisator
Aiken, SC