Support Lindsey's Journey to Recovery and Hope

Top of the day to you! My name is Lindsey Spohr. Over the last three years we have been battling the story of my life. If you have a minute to go through my journey if anything it’s an interesting read.

On Good Friday April 2022 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time I thought it was the worst road I could go down. I got through the first surgery with no problems. After the procedure the pathology of the lymph nodes came back with a positive lymph node for cancer. Another surgery was scheduled and along with this surgery added in was a hysterectomy. I didn’t even make it to the lymphadenectomy because I started to crash on the table during the hysterectomy part.

I started the target therpy and also the 36 rounds of radiation.☢️ During this time I had another echo done and it showed stenosis. I got with my heart doctor quickly. The target therapy drug was causing my liver to fail, in turn filled my arteries up faster than my genetics would have. I needed an immediate triple bypass. I was told I had to finish radiation first and wait 30 days before they could touch me.

Triple bypass day came june 27 and all goes as planned. So I thought. I went for a 2 week follow-up and NP didn’t like the way I was healing. She cut my incision open. I ended up in parkview noble few days later. I wasn’t able to tend to the wound and many issues I think stemmed from there.

At the end of July I was in a lot of pain was taken to hospital by ambulance and sent home. That night was so painful in the morning I went to fort wayne. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was causing the pain but went ahead and admitted me to the heart ward so I could be given pain meds.

I then contracted Covid and on the night of August 3 I coughed to hard and sliced my right ventricle open, which caused me to go into emergency surgery. When they got inside me they found the reason for all the pain. All the wires from the triple bypass came loose which they did not see on x-ray. My sternum was rotting away from the radiation ☢️. With being in the right place at the right time it is a miracle I am alive. 100 stitch’s exactly and a patch to keep the heart from attaching to my sternum again.

I was kept in a coma for about three weeks. During which time they had many debridements on the wound.

During the emergency surgery, something happened to cause me to have dropfoot. This makes it to where I could no longer lift my left foot. I still wear a brace so my foot doesn’t curl under me and I fall while i’m walking.

I also learned that sometime during the triple bypass I contracted candidia. This is a yeast infection in my bloodstream. That is bringing us to the problems of today.

It’s been a long road coming back from all of this, but I’ve made it through it. Yes, it’s a miracle but with its high’s and low’s. On 17 June I had a PET scan that showed I no longer had cancer. So the weight of that was lifted off my heart.

Then following day, the center of my chest opened because of the infection. It has been draining since.

Infectious disease doctors, and I have tried the option of antibiotics for life, but the candidia is too persistent. It has infected my entire sternum, which now requires it to be surgically removed.

After referrals to IU health, we finally have a very good team. They know what they’re doing and a good plan to fix me. This is going to take a series of surgeries. The first one is going to be on September 30th. They have to first go in and get all of the infection out of my chest. There were also foreign objects that were left behind that they have to go fishing for, as well as the patch. When all is said and done I will no longer have a sternum and nothing foreign for the candidia to attach itself to.

We are praying and hoping that it has not reached the 100 stitch’s on my heart.

This series of surgeries is because they want to do it little by little, because they can always take more out, but they can’t put me back in.

Since the initial “muscle flap” failed and now I have a large gap (20.5mm) in my chest that goes straight to my heart. I will now be required to take a section of fat lining that is across my intestines and pull that up in between my boobs. I’ll end up with a uni-boob but I’ll be alive. This has its downfalls and more surgeries due to that.

Life without a sternum is going to be extremely hard. In the future, I won’t be able to have CPR. I know that this GoFundMe seems like I’m asking for a lot of money. But if you’ve read this far, you can tell that I’ve gone through a lot. For one I do owe people money that I have borrowed from throughout this. Also, we will still have many trips down to Indianapolis. This is a lot more on us so we’ll have a lot more travel with that. I’m also going to need to buy a breast plate so it is safer for me to be in a vehicle.

If I’m able to raise enough money, I would love to be able to buy myself a defibrillator. Because if anything ever happened like I said, I cannot have CPR and if i have a defibrillator with me, there’s a chance that I’ll live will be saved.

If you’re able to help out in anyway, I so graciously appreciate it. This battle has taken a toll on me, but i’m making it through and If you’re unable to Donate anything, Your prayers still would mean the world to me. Everybody says it’s a miracle that I’m here and God hasn’t put me here and put me through everything I have so far, to fail this time.

Thank you and with all my love, Lindsey