Please help my dad with his ongoing medical journey!

Hello!

Those of you who know my family know how amazing my parents are and how much a part of our community they have always been. I have always lovingly referred to my dad as the Ambassador of Plains Montana. He has dedicated his life to the betterment of our town and school district, having served on school board, city council, booster club and even spent the past year as the Mayor of our beautiful little town.

On June 24th my dad had a routine knee replacement, the first surgery of 3 to address extensive damage to both knees and one of his hips. Arthritis has settled in and walking was difficult and very painful for quite a time. Post surgery my dad was appearing to progress well, completing the minimal rehab tasks as assigned while waiting for his first post op appointment and physical therapy to start. However, on Saturday, June 29th, things began to change. He began to experience some intense pain in his hip (the one identified for a future surgery) and began to have difficulty walking. By the early morning hours of Sunday he was in extreme pain, unable to ambulate safely on his own, and my mom had him transported via ambulance to the local emergency department. There he was told he was having muscle spasms and sent home with muscle relaxants.

After being home for a couple of hours, and zero relief, he asked my mom to drive him to the emergency department in Kalispell, at Logan Health, where he had the knee replacement initially. They took X-Rays and found that maybe he was having an "arthritic flare up." He came home with a prescription for a new arthritis medication, along with the muscle relaxers, and home he came. However, his condition deteriorated. He began to spike a fever, he was no longer able to ambulate safely and he began to not make sense. He caused a lot of concern for my mother, who is also unable to provide a lot of hands on care due to her arthritic condition. By Monday morning he was unable to get out of bed with my mother's help, he almost fell and was slumped to the left side, looking as if he had had a stroke. Again the ambulance was dispatched, and he was delivered to the Plains Emergency Department. This time he was admitted and quickly discovered he had a bacterial blood infection that they could not identify. Both hospitals/emergency departments worked with the information they had, and he has received amazing care at both facilities.

He spent several days in the Clark Fork Valley Hospital where they continued to grow cultures and talk with his surgeon and the infectious disease specialist in Missoula. Initially they started protocols where we were required to "gown up" when visiting him. Eventually it appeared this blood infection was beginning to infect his knee, and the hospital chose to transfer him to Logan Health in case the surgical area had to be re-opened.

It was quickly discovered that my dad was at septic levels, but the bacteria was not as "unknown" or as scary as initially thought. However, they found that both knees and the one hip were full of infection and required that he be opened up and "cleaned out." During this surgery they found that my dads hip joint was badly eaten by the infection and he would never be able to complete the necessary rehab on it or be able to walk on it. They completed a partial hip replacement (cement) with an antibiotic delivery system to deliver antibiotics to his hip over the course of the next several months. They took out part of the initial knee replacement, and removed metal and replaced with plastic (or other types of material) to hopefully avoid future infections in the new knee. Because it had recently been operated on, they put him in a large total leg brace to keep him from bending his knee at all for the next 2 weeks, and determined that he would need in-patient physical and occupational therapy, for at least 2 weeks, before he could be discharged home. They also found infection in the other knee (referred to as his good knee, although this one is also eaten up with arthritis and is in desperate need of replacement). They were able to flush this knee without any intensive surgery. This particular surgery took about 5 1/2 hours.

They placed in a PICC line, so that he can receive IV antibiotics over the course of at least 6 weeks they determined, meaning he will have to go into the hospital (or some identified location) daily to receive these IV antibiotics through this PICC line for as long as they determine necessary.

He was at Logan Health in Kalispell for about a week, and then they transferred him back to Clark Fork Valley Hospital (via ambulance) on swing bed status for Physical and Occupational Rehab. He slowly began to improve, although ambulating and pain have been very difficult to manage. A couple of days ago it was noticed that his "good knee" was swelling and becoming increasingly difficult to support his weight, and progress began to slow drastically. He spiked another fever, and it was hoped that it was just the rehab causing the pain, so ice and elevation was the protocol.

My dad had a 2 week follow up at Logal Health at his surgeon's office to look at the knee replacement and to assess if the brace could come off so my dad could begin to bend the knee and increase his rehab abilities. Here comes the next blow and set back. Instead of coming back to Clark Fork Valley Hospital to continue rehab my dad was re-admitted to Logan Health and surgery was scheduled for this morning. They found that both knees were full of infection again and the surgeon wanted to be "more aggressive." My father underwent his third surgery in less than 4 weeks, they removed the entire knee replacement and put in a temporary knee replacement (cement spacer) and had to clean out the hip and the other knee again. They also had to search out and find all screws from previous ACL surgeries my dad has had, as they are a magnet for infection. This surgery lasted over 5 hours, and post-surgery he looked worse than the initial 2. As I left my dad at 5 pm he was still on oxygen and not really waking up well, his surgery started at 8:30 this morning.

Along with these surgical interventions they have also chosen to switch up his antibiotic, so hopefully this begins to do a better job at fighting the bacterial infection he is dealing with. Several days ago he began to notice that the original antibiotic was making his heart hurt and "feel weird."

Today the surgeon informed my parents that until my dad has been infection free for a year he will not complete any of the planned surgeries scheduled. My dad started with needing 2 knees and 1 hip replaced. At this time he still needs 2 knee's and 1 hip replaced, and all he has to show for it are 2 temporary replacements for 1 knee and the 1 hip and a very aggressive bacterial infection.

A lot of people have reached out asking how they can help. Even with insurance the medical costs before my parents are beyond their ability to cover. The road ahead is long and unknown, outside of lots of appointments, infusions, rehab, and eventually more surgeries (hopefully only the ones scheduled and no more emergencies.) We are asking that friends and family help my parents meet the rising costs of bills before them. Inflation is high and I know that many are struggling month to month in ways they didn't even a year or two ago. Please pray for my dad, give if you can, and support my parents with phone calls/texts/cards, to let them know you are thinking about them. They are battle weary and overwhelmed, a little support can go a long way to reduce the intensity of the battle and the fears before them.

God Bless,

Tyrel (Tana), Lana (Scott) & Tim