Support Amanda's Recovery

We are reaching out to family, friends and the community for help in aiding our friend Amanda.

Amanda is a single mother raising her two children, Reign & Jax. On June 21st while working her AM shift, she started to have tightness in her chest and chest pain. She completed her shift, picked up her young children from daycare and made her way to the walk in. Once there the doctors discovered that her left lung was 15% collapsed. They called for an ambulance and she was taken into Beebe. Once there they discovered that she had spontaneous pneumothorax. Spontaneous pneumothorax is a condition where air builds up in the pleural space between the lungs and the chest wall causing a partial or complete lung collapse. A chest tube was then inserted to put negative pressure in the chest cavity and allow lung re-expansion. After being there for 5 days Amanda’s lung was able to heal and she was able to go home to her babies.

During this time, Amanda had some serious catching up to do as far as bills were concerned. She continued her full time job and also picked up a part time job to help cover her expenses.

On July 21st, Amanda started to feel an all too familiar sensation in her left lung. After completing her shift she was off to the walk in again. At this time they discovered one bleb in her left lung. She was instructed to take it easy in hopes that it would heal and not worsen. Unfortunately, with this economy it is very hard to do that, especially as a single mom of two.

Although she kept in with the doctors instructions, (no lifting over ten pounds, resting as much as possible) on July 31st she knew that her lung was collapsing and went to the emergency room. Once there the doctors discovered that her left lung was 5% collapsed. Unfortunately once the lung starts to collapse it will only get worse without medical intervention. They admitted her and ordered lung surgery.

During surgery the surgeons will be removing small balloon like tissues (blebs) that cause lung collapse (pneumothorax). The chest wall is then abraded to prevent recurrence.

Once surgery is complete, Amanda will be in the hospital for 3-5 days. Two days after surgery the three chest tubes that will be inserted will be removed. At that point she should be able to go home and be restricted for 3-4 weeks.

With that being said this single mama is going to need help. She will have a very challenging time in the weeks to come. Her two children are very young and have endless amounts of energy. Besides that she will be out of both jobs for about a month. Let’s rally and help ease some of her stress financially so that she can take this time to recover, rest and get back to her responsibilities. Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated and helpful. ❤️