Hello. My name is Joe Spencer and I have a friend and co-worker, Nicole Hatalla, who has had quite a health ordeal since just before Christmas. What she has been through over the course of six months has been nothing short of crazy. She is still trying to recover--literally having just got out of the hospital again last night (May 16th) and is struggling financially.

Here is a short summary of what she has been through. It started just before Christmas when she was in the office walking around hunchback and in severe pain. We had her go to the emergency room to be checked out.

That was December 19th and she went to the hospital and ended up being admitted to have her gallbladder removed due to gallstones.

December 20th her gallbladder was removed but a stone escaped and was lodged into a bile duct.

December 21st the first ERCP procedure was performed to retrieve the stone that was lodged however it was unsuccessful and she ended up being diagnosed with pancreatitis.

December 22nd the 2nd ERCP procedure was performed to retrieve the stone that was lodged. This time it was successful but despite this, her pancreatitis became worse.

She spent three and a half weeks in the hospital. I left for vacation the day she went to the Emergency Room. The evening I came home ( a week later) I went right from the airport to the hospital and I will tell you when I saw her--I left the hospital fearing the worst-she looked that bad.

During those three and a half weeks she was retaining fluids, her abdomen was stretched to the point she had difficulty breathing or eating. She was on oxygen and she got a pick-line with a TPN bag for nutrition.

She was finally released. While at home during the following week she just didn't feel well and in fact at times felt worse than when she left so she went back to the hospital. She found out her abdomen had grown abscesses and generated a blood clot from the pick-line. They performed a CT guided drain installation into her abdomen to release the fluids inside the abscess and put her blood thinners for the clot. She was hospitalized again. This time she was there for about a week and a half.

Upon this discharge, she was released with one abdominal drain and a midline IV in her bicep. She was at home giving herself IV antibiotic infusions daily, and doing a daily drain. This went on for about a month or so. She had numerous appointments with multiple doctors to check her status and monitor her recovery. She finally reached the point that the surgeon felt it was time to remove the drain and midline.

After working remote during the time she was at home, she was finally able to return to work in office. She showed signs of minor discomfort, but it just seemed like that was part of the recovery process after all that her body had been put through.

Several weeks into "normal" life, her back started hurting extremely bad. She was back to walking "hunchback" again. After consulting with her surgeon she was told to go back to the hospital to get checked out. When she got there, they found two more abscesses in the abdomen that had grown. One of them was pushing against her kidney--which was causing the back pain. They did another CT guided abdominal drain installation this time putting in two drains instead of one. This hospital stay only ended up being about 5 days & she was released with the two drains and another midline for in-home IV antibiotics.

About a week and a half later she felt like she had the flu or something. She had body aches all over, fever, etc. She was on a ZOOM meeting I had with our staff and I could tell she was not well and after the meeting, I encouraged her to go to the emergency room. She talked to her Mom who concurred and she went back to the hospital. They found that the infection inside had taken over the abdominal abscesses.

The first few days of being back in the hospital the doctors were aspirating the drain trying to get the pockets inside smaller. While some progress was made it wasn't enough and they decided to do surgery to do the draining. During the surgery the surgeon saw signs that the appendix was in the thick of the bacteria so rather than risk her coming back with appendicitis he decided to remove the appendix on the spot. They re-inserted a single but much larger drain.

She was released to go home today (May 16th at 7:00PM). She has to flush the drain three times a day and she has to do her pick-line IV treatments daily too. She is hopeful to return to work remotely next week as long as her doctor releases her for that. We are very hopeful that she is finally on the road to recovery--but it's still going to be a long road and her body has so much recovering to do from not only the illness but the trauma in dealing with the illness.

During this ordeal she missed Christmas with her daughter---New Year's celebration with her daughter ---her daughter's 4th birthday---Mother’s Day with her daughter. It's been alot not only for Nicole--but for her little girl who doesn't quite comprehend why Mommy is away in the hospital so much.

Aside from the emotional impact, this has taken a huge toll on her financially. She had only been with our company for about 4 months or so when this mess started for her so she had very little in the way of paid time off. As a single mother she worked hard to pick herself up after her divorce and move into an apartment with her little girl--an apartment that she fought to hold onto through all of this but with this last episode realized she had to give up and move back in with her parents.

She is going to have to move out of her apartment within the next week and get everything into a storage unit. She has a storage unit out of state that has some meaningful belongings that she needs to make sure she pays for. Weekly daycare expenses for her daughter to continue having a somewhat normal life. Add in car insurance---cell phone---and things like that--and we haven't even addressed the mounting medical bills.

If all of this wasn't enough for one person to handle--just the other day it was discovered that her apartment had been broken into. It was ransacked pretty good--and while most of her belongings were still there--they did manage to find a jewelry box with some family keepsakes and a file box with her important papers (birth certificates/daughter's social security card).

How this woman is still standing is beyond me--but it is a true testament to the person she is.

That is why I have decided to create this page for her. I discussed it with both her and her mom before doing it--and the funds donated will go directly into Nicole's bank account.

Whatever you can help with will be appreciated. She worked so hard after her divorce to start making a life for herself and her beautiful daughter---and to see her not only have to start from scratch but essentially from a huge deficit--I knew I had to do something for her. If anyone deserves the help she does. Her life was turned upside down in December---and now we can help turn it right side up again.

Any donation helps big or small and as I said I know will be greatly appreciated. This is not someone who needs a hand-out. She simply needs a hand back-up.

Thank You