On Monday, April 13, I woke with some minor hip/joint pain. I made it through work but by the end of the day was really struggling to move. I called a friend who attempted to get me into her car for a trip to the ER. We were unable to get me in so we had to call an ambulance. I was taken to the hospital where I told I had sciatica pain that just needed to be treated with anti-inflammatories. I went home to rest and take the medication. The next morning, I could not get out of bed or feel my left foot. After a few hours of lying there, I also started to lose control of my bladder. We called an ambulance back and were taken to a different hospital. An MRI showed a ruptured disc. It was causing the nerve pain, bladder dysfunction, and paralysis of my foot. The original plan was a few days in hospital with pain management and therapy but a second MRI showed no improvement after 5 days. I started to retain urine and also developed an infection. The next step was surgery. On Wednesday, April 22, after 8 days in hospital, I had back surgery to remove the ruptured disc. The doctor had initially said that my symptoms did not make medical sense based on the size of the rupture. However, the fragment ended up being much larger than the MRI showed.

The surgery went very well.

I am improving and feeling better already.

Now the vulnerable part - I am a main income provider in my home. My husband recently started a new job and we were just starting to get back on our feet financially. I do not know when I will be able to go back to work and missing weeks is going to cause a financial strain like we've never known. I will have physical and occupational therapy, as well as home health coming daily until I am healed enough to walk on my own. While my insurance will pay for the majority of this, there will still be co-payments and bills piling up.

Asking for help is really the last thing I want to do. I'm usually the one asking for help for others, not myself.

But I don't know where else to turn.

I am so blessed and appreciative of all of the support and love we have received. You all have no idea how much it all means to me.