Support Donna Langman Rehabilitation Journey

Donna has been experiencing extreme back pain for many years.  Finally, her family doctor ordered a biopsy of the spine – lower lumbar in March 2006.   The doctor who performed the procedure nicked her spine and this created a whole host of problems.   Donna went into the hospital walking with the aid of crutches and came out in a wheelchair unable to walk.  This 3-4-day procedure ended being a 6-week stay in the hospital with doctors wondering why she was unable to walk.  They sent her home anyway and it seemed they washed their hands of her and never contacted her again.   A year later in March 2007, she was referred to another team of doctors.  They needed to perform a Spinal Fusion (which was known to the largest one in Western Canada at the time).  Donna now has titanium rods on either side of her spine.   She fought through adversity to teach herself how to walk once again, only to find out 3 years later that one of the rods broke due to lack of reinforcement.    Donna has been in severe pain for all this time, and because of these 2 failed back surgeries, she has irreversible major nerve damage in her back, which now has caused severe nerve pain from the top of her thighs to the tips of her toes.  This isn’t the end of her traumatic journey.   Down a long painful road, she was then referred to one of the best neurosurgeons in Canada in 2012.   He told her the titanium rod didn’t need to be fixed unless it started moving.  In the meantime, he tried to ease the pain by inserting a pain pump implant which required more surgery.  Many different complications arose from her body rejecting the pump and the potency of the medication.   He then took the pain pump out and put in a stimulator implant in February 2015.  More surgery!!  It relieved some of the pain, but not all.   The neurosurgeon than performed X-rays in October 2017 on Donna’s back only to discover that the titanium rod WAS moving.  He put her on the urgent list for surgery.  His concern was if the rod moved Donna could be totally paralyzed.   The surgery was performed on January 2018 to remove all the old hardware and redo the Spinal Fusion surgery.   This was an 8-hour procedure.   Recovery time in the hospital was for 2 weeks and then they sent Donna home.   He did not want Donna doing any physio as she needed to be completely healed.   Her husband Doug had to leave work 4 times a day to assist his wife with day to day functions.   Donna started experiencing issues with bodily functions that she couldn’t control or feel.  At this time, Donna still had the stimulator implant.  Her neurosurgeon was concerned that maybe the lead for the stimulator was putting pressure on her spinal cord.   In November 2018, he took the lead out to see if things would change.   After he called several different specialists and with Donna going through several different tests, it was decided to remove the rest of the stimulator in January 2019 so he could do a full-body MRI.   It was discovered from the MRI that her C2-C7 of her neck was falling apart and needed to be repaired immediately or Donna would be completely paralyzed.   At this point, Donna has had 3 surgeries in 4 months, back to back, and has not left the hospital.  These surgeries have been hard on her body, causing breathing issues coming out of anesthetic.    The last surgery was the most painful and scariest time of her life.   Her family, doctors, and nurses were concerned that Donna would not pull through.  She was breathing 3-4 breaths a minute for almost 2 weeks.   Donna is a warrior and a fighter and managed to pull through this last horrific surgery.   Donna was transferred to Wascana Rehab Facility at the end of March 2019.   She couldn’t move her arms & legs, and unable to even feed herself.   Doug her husband has been to the hospital every day without fail.  He even had his own health issues and required surgery just 4 days before Donna’s neck surgery.  Yet, he fought through his recovery to be with his wife.  Talk about real love and support.  This has enabled Donna to fight through her own adversities because of the strength Doug has given her.   Donna has been going to intense physiotherapy everyday.  She can now move her left arm and has limited movement of her right arm.   She has been working on standing up and getting her legs more limber.   However, the rehab facility will not spend anymore time with her on the rehab unit.  Seems they have certain timelines even though she is progressing forward, which is completely unfair.    They now have forced her to move to long term care as she is not able to be at home even though rehab could still choose to keep her longer.   Doug is unable to stay home and retire to assist his wife with day to day functions that we all take for granted.    Moving to long term care comes will be a financial burden on the family and therefore I am starting this Go Fund Me page to help my sister move forward in her recovery as physiotherapy and medical costs need to be covered as well.   

The end goal is to bring Donna home to her family.    Please help us support my sister.   

Thank you & God Bless 
Gina & Keith