If you’ve spent any time around Dwight Munn, you’ve shared a laugh with him. With his quick wit and love for “Dad” jokes, he is surely to bring a chuckle to the room! In their three short years of marriage, Dwight and Jenn Munn have had quite the winding road.

In less than 3 years of marriage:

1. Dwight has had 3 surgeries. The first was a back surgery right after they married while they were still living in Covington. The second was minor. The third was surgery to repair a totally torn Achilles tendon in June of last year.

2. Three weeks after the last surgery, Dwight developed a massive saddle blood clot as well as a second large clot in his femoral artery. These came within a few hours of taking his life. These were removed by a catheter-based procedure using a tool called clot-triever. spent 4 days in ICU and finished recovering at home. Dwight then started back working on his room at CCS about two weeks later.

3. A couple of months into the school year, Dwight’s hip and back started bothering him. It was discovered he had a broken rod from the back surgery two years earlier. For the next several months many doctors were seen trying to determine if the broken rod was the problem. Some issues were identified in his back, but no real major concern over the rod.

Dwight sought further medical advice as his pain and difficulty walking increased. About 10 days ago, in Dallas, a myelogram was done on all three sections of his spine. He found the lumbar spine (lower back) had not only a broken rod, but also:

A. Several screws that had backed out and were floating in his back and several others showing signs of doing the same.

B. The fusions that were attempted in the surgery had failed.

C. A vertebral fracture was discovered in his lumbar spine as well.

Dwight’s neck became painful during this time, and his neck was found to have major degenerative disk damage along with spinal compression and spinal nerve impingement.

What’s to come:

Dr. Park, orthopedic spine surgeon in Dallas at Texas Spine Specialists, will be doing two surgeries on Dwight in the near future. On April 17, his lower back will be completely redone. From T12 to his sacrum will be fused, with multiple rods and screws placed to stabilize the lower back. Approximately 3 weeks later, Dwight’s cervical spine (neck) will be cleaned up and he will be fused from C3-C6.

The hope is to shorten the total recovery time by having some of the recovery from each surgery overlap.

Dwight is out of work already on disability, and Jenn will take 4 weeks of FMLA so they can be together in Dallas at an Air b’n’b. This will ensure Dwight the best outcome by cutting out back and forth trips to Dallas.

Dwight and Jenn moved to West Monroe to be near the Walkers amidst a tough season of multiple surgeries for their granddaughter Ryan. Jenn searched for a job in Monroe and took one as a Case Manager at St. Francis. She continues to work in that capacity.