Tara's Medical Journey

Our sis-in-law, Tara, joined our family officially one year ago this month. Honestly though, it seems like she was meant to be a part of it from the beginning since she has the same quirky sense of humor & loving heart as the rest of us. Unfortunately, in this last year, she's been hit with more obstacles, illnesses and hospital visits than one can keep track of. My little bro & her were were blessed with the ultimate (and unexpected) blessing of pregnancy right after their wedding day & being the responsible adults & parents of 5 kids (3 from Tara's previous & 2 from Cody's previous), they had the expense of a "normal" pregnancy all figured out & how much money they needed to set aside with each paycheck to pay for the balance after insurance. All good. Until Tara got Pre-eclampsia right away in the beginning of the pregnancy. Scary but thank God, after bedrest & many doctor's visits, all fixed itself. Then came her diabetes scare. She's had Type 1 Diabetes for years that she's handled on her own with an insulin pump & done perfectly well. For some reason though, the doctors were all stumped, she was vomiting the entire pregnancy, her blood sugars were all over the place & she had to be hospitalized numerous times. Once, she was put in the ICU & we were told that they had to be ready to deliver the baby very early because it was a fatal scare for both mama & baby. Harper Rae was born a month early & is doing amazingly well, thank the Lord. Tara, on the other hand, kept struggling with nausea & blood sugar craziness. After tests upon tests, they did an MRI & found a brain tumor on her pituitary gland. It was pushing on her optic nerve so she was told that not only did it need to be removed for obvious reasons, but if it wasn't removed soon, she may go blind. Her brain surgery was on June 18th. While the removal of the tumor went well & the biopsy of a bone growth that they were concerned about went well AND WE FOUND OUT THAT THE TUMOR WAS BENIGN, there was an unfortunate complication when the surgeon nicked the spinal cord & a leak occured. This is a common occurrence & she was warned that this may occur & that if it did occur, they would pack it & seal it. They took tissue from her stomach to do that. In recovery, her blood sugars were wonky. They diagnosed her with Diabetes Insipidus. It's very uncomfortable but thankfully treatable. She was experiencing terrible headaches but nothing this strong mama couldn't handle. Then came the worst news. She began leaking liquid out of her nose. The nurse & doc came in letting her know that it was spinal fluid & that she was experiencing a Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak. The wadding must've come loose. She's been in the hospital, only allowed one visitor, my little bro (thank GOD at least he gets to visit), for a week now. She had to have a painful procedure called a Lumbar Drain done, in order to try to drain the spinal fluid & let the leak fix itself. We are praying SO hard & trying to keep her spirits up the best we can from a distance, but she keeps experiencing complications as of last night & today. They're either going to clamp the drain tonight or tomorrow to see if the leak is still there. If it is still there, she will have to have yet another surgery which we can't hardly imagine. We don't know what the future holds but we do know, that with all of this uncertainty, a little help goes a LONG way.  This GoFundMe is being created on behalf of myself, my husband, my older bro & his girlfriend. We are asking you to PLEASE share anything you can with our sis-in-law, little bro & family. Check those sofa cushions & car cup holders. They could use anything you've got to help with mounting medical bills, a rent payment, groceries, etc. They are humble & would never ask anyone for anything. But I guarantee you that they also never DREAMED that they'd be here. Thank you in advance for all of your love, support, prayers & ANY financial help that you're able to give. I'll continue to keep you posted of course.