Medical Funds For Claudette
Donation protected
As some of you may know, my mom, Claudette, was transferred and admitted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on 7/6/2017 and was released to go home on 7/24/2017 with still a lot of unanswered questions.
She started experiencing strong neck pain and spasms back in April 2017 that progressively took a turn for the worse. She was prescribed multiple different pain killers, muscle relaxers, steroids and anti-inflammatories, along with having several pain shots in her neck, going to physical therapy and accupuncture. All of which did not even begin to touch her pain and discomfort.
Her doctor finally sent her to see a nuerologist where they did an MRI and came to find a large mass on the anterior (front) side of her first 3 vertebrae, extending between her cervical spine and the base of her skull. The mass appears to be in/on the soft tissue & spine, wrapping around the back side and eroding the boney spinal structure in her neck.
She had undergone CT scans, a 2 hour spinal MRI, and a biopsy to determine the nature of the mass on 7/10/2017. Still, the pathologists were having a hard time figuring it out. Therefore they scheduled a 2nd, more invasive, surgical biopsy to obtain a larger piece of the mass on 7/19/2017. From there, the mass was tested thoroughly for a few days and we prayed that they would get the answers they needed from this procedure in order to come up with a plan to give my mom her quality of life back.
Finally, on 7/21/2017 they informed us that she has a bacterial infection of some kind. Whether the mass is related to the infection or vice versa, is still somewhat unknown. However, she is now back home with visiting nurses and physical therapy coming a few times a week to help her with her mobility and to check her vitals/take bloodwork. She is still in a large supportive neck brace, and mostly in bed, but seems to be making some really positive slow progress in the right direction. She will continue 2 different antibiotics and multiple other prescriptions for another 3 weeks on top of the initial 3 weeks they started her on. The infection appears to be getting better and she is able to sit up with help from the neck brace for about 30 minutes now (whereas a few weeks ago, it was only for a few seconds...) and is even able to get herself up and down the stairs to grab food and water when needed.
She has a lot of people and doctors caring for her and we feel confident that she will get the proper extended treatment going forward. There is still a lot to look into and follow up on once this infection is gone, as there is no way to know if the mass will still be there, if it will have shrunk, or what further treatment plans will be needed.
She has been so strong through all of this. We ask that you all please continue to pray and donate if you can, as she can use all the help she can get. Her extended hospital stay, in-home care, medications, CT scans, MRI's, biopsies, potential future surgery and personal bills are piling up, as she has been out of work for over a month now, and we are entirely unsure of when she will be able to return. Every little bit helps! Thank you so so much for all of the continued love, support and donations so far! It means more than my family can express right now.
She started experiencing strong neck pain and spasms back in April 2017 that progressively took a turn for the worse. She was prescribed multiple different pain killers, muscle relaxers, steroids and anti-inflammatories, along with having several pain shots in her neck, going to physical therapy and accupuncture. All of which did not even begin to touch her pain and discomfort.
Her doctor finally sent her to see a nuerologist where they did an MRI and came to find a large mass on the anterior (front) side of her first 3 vertebrae, extending between her cervical spine and the base of her skull. The mass appears to be in/on the soft tissue & spine, wrapping around the back side and eroding the boney spinal structure in her neck.
She had undergone CT scans, a 2 hour spinal MRI, and a biopsy to determine the nature of the mass on 7/10/2017. Still, the pathologists were having a hard time figuring it out. Therefore they scheduled a 2nd, more invasive, surgical biopsy to obtain a larger piece of the mass on 7/19/2017. From there, the mass was tested thoroughly for a few days and we prayed that they would get the answers they needed from this procedure in order to come up with a plan to give my mom her quality of life back.
Finally, on 7/21/2017 they informed us that she has a bacterial infection of some kind. Whether the mass is related to the infection or vice versa, is still somewhat unknown. However, she is now back home with visiting nurses and physical therapy coming a few times a week to help her with her mobility and to check her vitals/take bloodwork. She is still in a large supportive neck brace, and mostly in bed, but seems to be making some really positive slow progress in the right direction. She will continue 2 different antibiotics and multiple other prescriptions for another 3 weeks on top of the initial 3 weeks they started her on. The infection appears to be getting better and she is able to sit up with help from the neck brace for about 30 minutes now (whereas a few weeks ago, it was only for a few seconds...) and is even able to get herself up and down the stairs to grab food and water when needed.
She has a lot of people and doctors caring for her and we feel confident that she will get the proper extended treatment going forward. There is still a lot to look into and follow up on once this infection is gone, as there is no way to know if the mass will still be there, if it will have shrunk, or what further treatment plans will be needed.
She has been so strong through all of this. We ask that you all please continue to pray and donate if you can, as she can use all the help she can get. Her extended hospital stay, in-home care, medications, CT scans, MRI's, biopsies, potential future surgery and personal bills are piling up, as she has been out of work for over a month now, and we are entirely unsure of when she will be able to return. Every little bit helps! Thank you so so much for all of the continued love, support and donations so far! It means more than my family can express right now.
Organizer
Jennifer Comer
Organizer
Manchester, NH
