Support My Family during JR’s Recovery

My name is Amber and that sweet boy in the photo is my youngest son, JR. On April 17th while at 7v7 practice JR was injured resulting in a facial trauma. After arriving at Children’s Hospital we learned he lost one tooth completely, it went straight thru his bottom lip. He also had two teeth pushed out of position, has an open maxilla fracture and a maxillary sinus fracture. He was treated in the emergency room, a plastic surgeon stitched both sides of lip while dental repositioned his teeth, placed a wire to hold them in place, and stitched his gum to try and help the exposed bone as it heals.

JR was released in the early morning of 4/18. His condition worsened slowly and by the evening of Easter his lip looked infected. We returned to Children’s and after lab work and another CT scan we learned JR had a 2cm abscess in his lip. The stitches had to be removed and the abscess drained, cleaned, left open and packed. He was admitted and we have been at Children’s since. JR cannot speak clearly as he’s having trouble using his jaw due to all the swelling. He is unable to eat, even with the soft food diet prescribed, and since he is unable to close his mouth simply drinking is now a tall task. He has been a champ through it all and is doing his best to get through.

Being with JR around the clock has caused me to miss work and the reality is that even once he’s home he will still require a lot of assistance with basic needs and medications. Ultimately he will need someone with him until he is in a better, more independent place. I unfortunately have no sick days left for the remainder of this school year meaning every day that I miss I go unpaid. I have two other teens at home and bills that will start piling up.

My hope of creating this is that I can put 100% of my energy into helping him recover without the added fear or stress of falling too far behind on everything else. If you’ve made it this far I appreciate you!