UPDATE BELOW

Hey family and friends! As most of you know I have had a grueling 3.5 years of dealing with 3 reconstructive surgeries on my left foot, hospitals, botched procedures, staph infection and more, but what is happening now is something attacking my body and so far no one can find anything.

I had my first reconstructive surgery June 6th, 2020. Which needed to be redone by the same doctor march 24th 2022. Immediately after the surgery, it was very obvious that one of the incisions was infected. It progressed at such a rapid speed, it was only days until I had a gaping hole in the side of my foot which was MRSA, a form of staph infection. This facility is located 3 hours away from me. For the Next eight months I was driving back-and-forth, being hospitalized, and finding out that there was too much hardware placed in my foot so none of the bones were fusing, and it was completely botched. I went to a different surgeon to get an opinion, and that’s when he had told me that none of the bones were fused, and it was completely needing to be redone. So with my new team of doctors at Twin City Orthopedics, I underwent reconstructive surgery for the third time November 29, 2022. My left foot will never be the same because there was too much damage with all the surgeries but they did what they could to save my foot at all.

Then everything was coming along beautifully. I actually had just gotten okayed to transition into tennis shoes with my new orthotics and mentally I had improved significantly right before everything crashed. After dealing with all of this for years at this point, my mental state improved and I was excited to get back to being me and living life again.

Unfortunately, around April 17th my body started to go numb, extreme pressure and pins and needles from my thighs down. Within days I couldn’t walk and it has moved up to my chest, affecting my arms, chest tightness and full body tremors and random motor skills. Absolutely the scariest situation I have ever experienced. I have been hospitalized 4 times, 3 times I was brought to the e.r in Waconia and the Mayo in Mankato. Every doctor, specialist, neurologist, psychologist, my primary, and local hospitals cannot figure out what’s going on. They have performed MRIs of my brain, neck, spine, spinal tap, tons and tons of blood work and panels trying to find anything and everything comes back normal. Sadly with questionable ideas for diagnosis, functional movement disorder and conversion disorder have been discussed but ultimately nothing that they can actually figure out.

I will be admitted in Rochester hospital Monday to hopefully find some answers because it just keeps worsening. Which leads me to where I am in a rut financially, I am so very blessed to have close friends that have been able to help me and it is time for me to start reimbursing them and catching up on so much that I have building up. I have been unable to work for almost 1.5 years due to all these hardships. Ultimately I stay very positive in pushing forward; but I am unsure of the near future and what will conspire. If you are able to help, I greatly appreciate it. Just know I hold all of you dear and keep those positive vibes going and I love each and everyone of you and never stop smiling!

UPDATE: barely any improvement, had numerous more tests done. CT scan of my pelvic area, everything looks good. Bloodwork still coming back normal. Multiple more hospital and doctor visits and still no definitive answers. One ER doctor suggested I try a med which is for Parkinson’s and it immediately gave me relief of just the extreme clenching of my feet and legs but unfortunately the numbness, pins and needles and extreme pressure are still very active. He classified it as a movement disorder, Dystonia, and Paresthesias. I see another neurologist in a few days and am having an EMG performed. This is still all so scary and beyond frustrating. I thank all you for the love and support! I appreciate it so much