Support Keela Hopkin's Recovery Journey

Some of you may know, some of you may not, but our dear Keela Hopkin has been going through the ringer with over a month long series of surgeries, hospital stays and complications.

We are looking to raise funds to help with the medical bills, the hotels stays that her family needed to be by her side, and the costs of keeping up while trying to recover slowly.

She will have a long, slow road ahead once she gets out of the hospital and will need in home care and won't be able to go back to work for quite some time.

Please help if you can and help us share this fundraiser far and wide so that we can let our girl know that she is loved and help give her a little relief that she will be ok through her recovery.

Here is some of her story so far...

Some things just don't go as planned! I haven't made any formal announcements but I've been really sick for about 9 months.

I flew to Arizona by myself on Monday (December 9th) to spend a few days at the Mayo Clinic. As the plane began taxiing out, I had sudden and very intense abdominal pain that immediately made me nauseous. I spent the majority of the flight to Denver dry-heaving. The layover was rough, but i managed to get myself on my next flight (I was bound and determined to make it to Mayo). I don't even know how I made it with the blinding pain and heaving, but I did. As soon as the plane touched down, I made the decision to skip the rental car and to take a taxi to the hotel. I knew that I couldn't drive.

At about 2 am (12/10) I had to throw in the towel, and I called 911. I didn't have anything left in me. My hotel was near the airport, not Mayo Clinic which is unfortunate. Upon arriving at the ER they sent me for a CT scan which showed that I tore through my diaphragm for the THIRD time with large intestine in my chest cavity causing yet another bowel obstruction. The large intestine isn't normally part of a hiatal hernia. I was prepped for transport to another hospital with a thoracic surgical team. I asked repeatedly to be transferred to Mayo Clinic to no avail.

In spite of the emergent nature it was still a very slow process. A NG tube was placed and my upper GI was decompressed overnight. The thoracic surgeon wasn't too keen on operating on his own so he joined forces with a General Surgeon the next day (Wednesday 12/11). I spent about 6 hours in the operating room. Much to everyone's surprise I didn't require a colostomy but the process of pulling my intestine down did result in some full thickness tears of my colon requiring repair.

Logan flew in to be with me on Tuesday (12/10) but he had to go back to work on Friday (12/13). I will remain in the hospital for at least another 4 days. He is really struggling with this, so Macie traded him places, but keep him in your prayers too. My niece, Dusty Miller, is in Vegas and will come to drive me home so that I won't have the increased abdominal pressure during flights home. It delays the trip home but I was warned over a year ago my chances of a successful third repair was pretty slim and that I needed to baby the 2nd repair. Now I have to baby the 3rd repair. I've just been playing with fire.

My Sodium levels dropped quite low so they kept me for a little longer. My bowels were not functioning yet when discharged for travel, and I still didn't have bowel sounds but the General Surgeon is confident that they will come around. He says that I should anticipate a great deal of pain over the next few days. Having been in excruciating pain since Monday I'm not mentally prepared for more. This process has been exhausting. The diaphragm and abdominal pain has been rough since surgery. We started our trek home on 12/16 making it to Beaver UT and then on to Evanston before I had to call it a day and stop again on 12/17. From there another hotel room 911 call was made. I was transferred from Evanston to SLC and taken back into the operating room multiple times- at some point they opened my entire abdomen which they could not close, then later went in again to repair but that resulted in an ileostomy. I now have a stem to stern incision line, 2 chest tubes on the left because I deflated both lobes of my lung, and ive have had my lungs deeply sunctioned under anesthesia (12/24) .

Since arriving in SLC on 12/17 I have had procedures and emergency operations daily (with the exception of 12/21 and 12/25 ).

Yesterday (12/26) a CNA was a little careless and pulled out one of my chest tubes. A new one had to be placed immediatetly because my lung collapsed again. They also found multiple pulmonary embolism so I was started on a heparin drip to prevent further complications. Pain control has been really tough and I'm just exhausted. Today, they still intend to place a new PICC line and I've already had another esophagram to make sure that my repairs are holding tight. Tentative plans are for my discharge to come sometime after the 1st of the year and to continue TPN (IV feeding) for at least another month after I get home. TPN brings many risks but unfortunately the ongoing risk of malnutrition brings its own complications and is something that has to be managed aggressively. All in all I just feel very defeated and broken after major setbacks over the past couple of days. It's silly but something as simple as losing function of the IJ (intrajugular IV line in my neck) has been enough to tip the scales and leave me defeated. I'm just tired, but hope is in the morning so I'll just hang on until then.

I've taken a few more wrong turns while attempting this healing process. Yesterday 1/5 brought immediate nausea while taking AM medications. This isn't really anything new but it didn't respond to Zofran as usual. My abdominal pain increased throughout the day and didn't respond to medications. A CT was ordered but it was a busy day for the ER and I wasnt a triage priority. Hours later I had an out pouring from my ileostomy and my pain improved. We went ahead with the CT and it showed an improvement in the amount of fluid in my abdomen. The surgical team assumes that I had a blockage above my ileostomy. We also found a whole pill in my ileostomy which required some changes to discharging planning. I wont be able to go home on Eliquis (for the pulmonary embolism) if they are able to pass through whole.

1/6 I was was worn out and tired from the day before, but much improved. The surgeon changed my blood thinner back to twice a day Lovenox injections which the nurse administered this morning. At about 2pm while getting out of bed to go to the bathroom I felt a sharp pain. There was a significant sized bruise at the injection site. It continued to get worse throughout the day and had a good bit of swelling behind it. The doctor came to assess it and had concerns because my hemoglobin was was only 7.1 this morning and now I have obvious bleeding. The CBC he ordered to recheck was reassuring and my hemoglobin levels have increased. Hemoglobin levels below 7 require blood transfusions, so that was a very important increase. Everyday brings something new to worry about!

1/7 Hemoglobin levels dropped below 7 this morning and I was given a blood transfusion. I was overly hopeful that it would make a significant difference in how I felt. It didn't make much difference. It was however necessary and will help with the healing in the long run.

1/8 I had a real shower! It took me over 30 minutes to brush my hair and my noodles for arms were worthless afterwards but it was very nice. I had a lot of nausea and vomiting throughout the day and evening. Zofran, Compazine, and Reglan were hardly holding it back. It was rough.

1/9 Today started off with so much process. The trauma doctors met with me early this morning and thought that I would be ready for discharge tomorrow! Seriously, TOMORROW! I am ready to go home. It's been an entire month since I've been home. I met with the infusion team and we hammered out some final details for my TPN as well as the Case Manager. The trauma team then rounded again. The blood test they had been waiting for came back positive and indicates that I have HIT (heparin induced thrombocytopenia). They have another blood test that is still pending and they were hopeful that because the 1st test wasn't insanely high that it it is mild case that won't cause anymore trouble. HIT causes the body to attack it's own platelets and increases the risk blood clots. Soon after I realize that my left thigh is swollen and red so I had both legs ultrasounded to check for clots. I'm still clot free! Everyone decided that it would be best to delay discharge until after the weekend since problems keep cropping up (like a pressure sore). We are also trying a new ostomy system and hopeful that it will hold better than the previous system. Fingers crossed. It's been an emotional days but I'm still hoping to get to go home on Monday. I need to go home!

1/10 Update

The big bruise looking thing on my side is actually ischemic tissue without blood flow. The dermatologists were here just now. They said that because of the way HIT causes clotting that it blocked off the vessels and now that entire area will eventually die off and be a big nasty wound. They are working to get wound care set up for at home now too because they believe it will be a big. They also explained that the pain is horrific (which I can attest too, it has been awful) and that I probably need more pain medication than what I've been taking. I've been using ice to keep the pain at bay along with my other pain medicines. It was very validating to hear them say that though because you get a constant speech from everyone else about using less pain meds "if you want to go home"

We are still planning for a Monday discharge so that's good.