Support Mitch Miller's Journey to Recovery

This is Angela, Mitch Miller's wife, and I wanted to post an update on Mitch's recovery journey. It's now 40 days into Mitch's stay at this skilled nursing facility for rehab & Mitch is speaking often. Sometimes it's loud & specific with intention & other times it's with intention, but comes out all jumbled up. He knows what he wants to say, but his brain just can't get it to his mouth to make it come out correctly. He seems to have dysphasia. Everyday his speech gets a bit better & I pray his brain makes new pathways to learn how to speak again. He succesfully completed his swallow test 5 days ago & is now cleared to drink liquids & eat soft foods. It's truly miraculous how far he has come & what God has done to heal his ability to swallow & eat! God is truly our Saviour!!

Mitch is still improving each day, but he still needs so much time & therapy to get stronger. He has been in a bed without walking now for over 3 months now. I believe Mitch can walk again!! This will take a lot of time & dedication. Not just for Mitch, but his therapists as well. My goal has always been to get Mitch on his feet before he comes home. He gets a lot more therapy here at the facility than insurance would ever pay for at home. I just received notice yesterday that insurance doesn't want to pay any longer for Mitch to be in this rehab facility. This means it will cost $388 per day to keep him here. I'm prepared to do what it takes! But I'm also realizing that my husband will never be able to be left alone & I will need to pay a nurse to stay with him while I'm at work. I can't even begin to understand what that will cost us. I pray insurance will help with that cost. I'm also trying to imagine & accept what our lives look like when Mitch is home. I must begin to prepare for what I know Mitch will need now. This means he will need a wheelchair and a wheelchair ramp to get him in the house. I believe insurance will help with a hospital bed & certain equipment, but I know it will not help with purchasing a hoyer lift to get Mitch from the bed to a wheelchair if he isn't able to do it himself. I pray I won't need all of these things to care for my husband & give him quality of life, but I must prepare for them as insurance doesn't give you advance notice & allow you time to prepare for everything you may need. I cannot begin to say how thankful I am that so many wonderful friends, family & strangers have given us the gift of time in the form of donations. It's so difficult to realize you can't do it yourself & need to ask for help...especially financial help. Medical tragedies happen all the time for so many of us & it's just a shame that insurance still leaves us short! Anything at all you could do to help will be appreciated. I still can't believe this is our new normal. I just want my husband to be healthy & happy & enjoy our lives together! Thank you & God bless you!

ORIGINAL POST:

I'm Angela and I want to tell you about the love of my life, Mitch Miller. Mitch is the person you always remember from the party or event you attended. He has never met a stranger or a person he didn't make smile. Mitch loves life & people. He loves telling jokes & seeing people smile. On January 19th Mitch told me he was having trouble breathing and he needed to go to the hospital. When we arrived we were told he was in heart & lung failure. I have never seen my husband so afraid. He was admitted & discovered he needed open heart surgery. The plan was 5 bypass, but the surgeon was only able to successfully complete 3. They implanted a device called an Impella which allowed his heart to recover & heal. The device forced blood through from one ventrical to another. It needed to be in for about 9 days. The day it was removed Mitch suffered a massive stroke on February 5th. The stroke wasn't discovered until the next day. I'll never forget the feeling of fear & hopelessness I felt when I was told he suffered a stroke. I was devastated. Our lives had changed forever. The stroke affected a large portion of the left side of his brain affecting his vision, speech & entire right side. Neurologists can't really tell you what type of chance you have for recovery & that's the most devastating part...the unknown. We would go through the worst roller coaster ride of moving back & forth from ICU to intermediate care & back again to ICU. All the time not knowing if Mitch would ever speak again. Not knowing if he could see. Not knowing if he could ever use his right hand/arm or his right leg. His ability to swallow was also affected so he has been on tube feeds as well. All he could do was look at you. And there were moments he couldn't even do that. I can't even begin to talk about how many times I thought I had lost my wonderful husband. But by the grace of God, Mitch is still here with me today. He was hospitalized for 60 excruciating days. The only thing that kept me going is my love for this man of mine & my faith in God. Mitch & I have so many friends and family that stepped up to help me get through this. People are wonderful and good. I couldn't have survived this without them! Now Mitch is in a rehabilitation facility. He arrived there on March 27th. In the past 20 days he has miraculously began to communicate with head nods & head shakes. He never communicated like that in the hospital. He also has spoken a word or two here & there. He did say a few words in the hospital, but every setback he had caused us to feel like we were starting over during his stay in the hospital. Mitch is slowly coming back to me! It's truly a miraculous thing to witness, but it's a very slow process. Our medical system isn't set up for people & situations like this & I'm learning the scary truth that insurance & the system want to leave them behind & forget them. I won't let that happen to Mitch, the love of my life. We have been together for almost 34 years & I need my husband back. I know he can get his life back, but it will take a lot more therapy & time. His insurance won't cover his therapy 100% any longer & I need help providing it for Mitch. I waited this long thinking I could handle it myself, but now I must admit the harsh reality that I can't. Mitch's copay for rehab is $214 per day & I won't be able to do it for as long as he needs. I humbly ask for your help. Anything you could afford would mean everything to me and Mitch. I need my husband & I desperately want him to have quality of life. He's strong & I know he can get stronger & gain his abilities back. I need financial assistance to give Mitch a chance at life. I don't know at this time what it looks like to bring him home, but that must be my goal. He deserves to be home with his wife! Anything you can give will halp us get his therapy & make it possible for him to come home when it's time. Thank you for reading my story. God bless you!