For those of you who don’t know me or our family well, I’m Sam Kahl a 38 year old who is eternally grateful for the most supportive wife, Sarah Kahl, that a person could ever ask for. Together we are parents of 3 human babies (ages 21, 14, and 6), 5 furbabies, and welcomed our first grandchild earlier this year.

Working for Nationwide Insurance afforded us the flexibility to work from home which allowed us to relocate to the Massillon/Perry area nearly two years ago. This was an exciting move for our family that let us to be closer to our extended family. As a Perry High School grad, Sarah was ecstatic to have our littles join the Perry Local School system. Our son is 14 and an incredibly gifted athlete, student, brother, and friend so we are always on the go with XC meets and travel baseball. Go Spikes!

Our youngest is a rugby queen who loves swimming and chasing rollie pollies in the front yard.

About 6 weeks ago we discovered I had a herniated disc at C5,C6. The plan was to do physical therapy to improve my symptoms, which at the time was weakness, numbness, and tingling in my right arm and wrist.

Those plans changed rapidly on 8/8 when I was taken to the hospital via ambulance due to severe head and neck pain. I was stumbling, unable to walk and vomiting relentlessly.

I was admitted to the hospital on the 10th because we were unable to manage the pain that had now migrated to my left side. The plan was to have an epidural on Monday 10/12, but due to some mishaps that plan was aborted. My pain was unbearable, uncontrollable, and muscle strength was significantly declining. It got to the point where I needed assistance to walk and couldn’t even hold a cup of coffee without dropping it. The Doctor's decided that due to the rapid decline it would be best to undergo an ACDF surgery. This surgery involves an incision from the front of the throat where the disc is removed and hardware added. I was reminded that this was a major surgery, but I should have an immediate improvement to my symptoms. I was honestly terrified of undergoing surgery, but after multiple days of what I thought was the worst pain imaginable and seeing my body start to weaken I was excited for the relief that surgery would bring.

on 8/13 I went into surgery with limited ability to use my left arm. Meaning, I kept it tucked at my side to avoid the electric shock pains that traveled down my elbow and into my fingers. I was also able to walk, although unsteady and weak, I was fully independent. When I came out of surgery I was in even more pain than before and unable to move my left arm or leg.

Fast toward to today, I can nearly lift my leg off the bed and slightly wiggle toes. I have no feeling in toes, feet, calf, knee and thigh. I have extreme nerve pain in my left arm that prevents me from being able to even touch it along with the same shooting, electric shock pain I had prior to surgery. I am unable to shrug my shoulder, move my arm in any capacity, and cannot close or open my hand at all. I am essentially paralyzed on my left side.

Overnight, Sarah became the sole caregiver for 2 children, 5 pets, and a significantly impaired spouse. She has been juggling back to school planning, coordinating pain management with nurses and doctors, teaching me how to get out of bed using a gait belt, cooking dinners, walking dogs, taking kids to practice, working with the physical therapy team to learn exercises, and so much more. She has had the weight of the world placed on her shoulders and she hasn’t stopped giving me and everyone else, positive encouragement.

There have been so many friends and family who have helped with bedtime routines, transportation for the kids, cooking meals, making phone calls on our behalf, and so much more. I am eternally grateful for their unwavering support and the love they have shown our family.

After 10 days in the hospital, 5 MRI’s, x-rays, and specialists the determination is that the disc issue had been there for quite a long time and removing that pressure had significantly disrupted the nerves. I am ordered to have extensive in home physical therapy and eventually out patient therapy with hope of regaining some of my independence. It will be a long and painful road to recovery and honestly I am just hoping to walk again.

As you can imagine all of this has come with a hefty price tag. We have no idea how much things will cost, but considering the hospital stay, testing, therapy, home care support such as a wheelchair and ramp, updating our home to be ADA compliant which includes redoing our bathroom, the expenses are piling up.

It is a humbling thing to ask for help, but going through this has taught me that I will have to ask for help for quite a while. Help to the bathroom, to brush my teeth, to cut my food, to play a card game with my children, to sit up in a bed, to do literally everything. So, I come to you asking for your help in contributing to the financial burden this has put on our family in hopes that we can elevate a little bit of our worries. If you can, please consider donating and if you can’t please continue to send positive energy our way because we will need every little bit we can find!