In January 2018 Tara went to the ER in the early morning due to such excruciating pain that she couldn't walk. This was, unfortunately, the first of many ER visits for Tara. Doctor's found not one, but multiple large blood clots in her hip and leg.  She was given Heparin and was whisked into an emergency procedure to put in a stent to open up her vein and inserted a intraluminal device to break up the clots and performed a fluoroscopy (which stayed in her leg for several days.) They found that she has May Thurner Syndrome. Following a three day ICU stay, Tara got to go home. For a few days. Again she ended up back at the ER. This time, the doctor's discovered that the Heparin they had been giving her was not helping, but hurting her. For most people, Heparin breaks up clots. For Tara they learned that she is actually allergic to it. They found that Tara has HIT as well as a rare blood clotting disorder called Hyperhomocystenemia. So not only had her clots not gone away, things had gotten worse. She had to have a filter inserted into her vein to keep one of the clots from moving. While most people can keep the filter in for longer, she couldn't because the clots were too far up her IVC (meaning the filter had to be placed higher which is too dangerous to leave in for more than a few days.) She had six total procedures to try to address the clots. The most serious surgery entailed flying a specialist in from California, putting her on a bypass machine, taking the blood out of her, trying to filter out the clots and finally putting her own blood back into her body. Due to being on such high levels of blood thinner and having so many entry points from procedures, fluid and blood were escaping. After the final procedure a nurse had to apply pressure to her neck for an hour before it would stop bleeding. Unfortunately, she had lost so much blood that she had to have a blood transfusion. Due to all of the procedures and complications, she was given so much fluid that her leg swelled up twice it's size (gaining 12 pounds of fluid!) Her liver started having problems due to HIT, and her blood platelets dropped to 20 (that's really low.) Because of how long she was there, and the issues with being able to draw blood because her veins were destroyed, they put in a midline (which only worked for a day and then randomly went out.) From all of the ventilation during the procedures, she got thrush (can she not catch a break?) If that wasn't enough, she had a pulmonary embolism and pulmonary infarct, damaging her lung. Overall, Tara spent about one month in the hospital battling blood clots and all the complications that came with it. 

Tara might be out of the hospital, but her journey is far from over. She has physical therapy sessions to help regain all the strength in her legs and lungs. She has regular hematology appointments, as they are STILL trying to get all of her clots under control. She even has doctor's appointments for her other medical issues, like her cluster headaches, because she now cannot take certain medications. And she will forever be on medication to manage her clots. 

As you can imagine, co-pays from doctor's appointments and ER visits are things she had to pay for upfront. Now, the hospital bills are  piling up. Her need is now (yesterday really), so any financial assistance would be so appreciated by her. The last thing she needs to do right now is have to get a second job (and the stress that comes along with it) to try to keep up with the bills.