Support Dave's Recovery and Care Needs

Hi, I’m Jennifer and this is my husband Dave. He’s happy after finally moving from a two week stay in a hospital bed to a chair. Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse.

Dave struggles with arthritis and lymphedema. Both have caused daily pain and made it difficult to walk. He has sever spinal stenosis and has had knee replacements.

In August, his knee pain, which we thought was caused by the stenosis, was bad enough to have an orthopedic check him out, as a precaution. His knee replacement completely failed and the replacement shaft was poking through the bone due to an infection. It needed to be taken care of immediately. This is the second repair due to infection. He won’t be able to have this surgery a third time.

The first part of the repair surgery went well, but the recovery has been a disaster. While he was working on standing and pivoting, his surgery leg broke and he can no longer put weight on it, He spent two months in the hospital where they worked to move him from the bed to the chair. His lymphedema is out of control causing massive fluid retention, skin breakdown, fluid leaks and weight gain. He worked to stand with a lift and transfer to a chair then, five weeks in, his kidneys began to go into failure from the antibiotic used to cure the knee infection. The Doctors managed to keep his kidneys from failure.

Currently he is home waiting for the next surgery and needs more care than I can handle alone. Because of the lymphedema, his level of care is increasing. He is house bound and unable to move himself. My 90 year old mother is helping us but we need more help so I can work full time and keep our health insurance.