Support Denise’s Road To Recovery

Over the past year or so, my mother started experiencing some concerning symptoms. It started with dizziness, fatigue, some weakness, and brain fog. Around Thanksgiving, things started to escalate, and quickly at that. She started having falls and balance issues, trouble finding her words, debilitating fatigue, pain, and extreme weakness and numbness in her limbs. Her primary doctor was immediately concerned about Multiple Sclerosis (MS). A CT scan of her brain was ordered, which showed lesions similar to those in MS and damage to her brain. She was then referred to a neurologist, and while undergoing tons of testing her symptoms were quickly progressing and worsening. At the beginning of February, she woke up one morning unable to move her legs or stand. Her neurologist sent her to the ER and admitted her to the hospital for 10 days for monitoring and more testing. While awaiting an MS diagnosis and plan for treatment, a spinal cord injury was found that the doctors felt was exacerbating her symptoms. After being referred to and seen by a neurosurgeon in St. Louis, she underwent a surgery on 4/14 to fix the part of her spine that was compressing into her spinal cord.

While we are hopeful that this will lessen many of her debilitating symptoms, she still has quite a road to recovery ahead. She has been unable to work due to all of her health issues for months, and now is off even longer to recover from the surgery. Not only are the medical bills adding up quickly, she is falling behind on everyday bills due to lack of income from not being able to work.

As much as she (and I) are not typically people that like to ask for or accept help, I have done all I can and we have exhausted all other options. I am making this in hopes that some of the financial burden from medical bills and other expenses can be lessened so she can focus on healing and getting back to a sense of normalcy. If you made it this far, thank you! Prayers are also very appreciated in this chaotic time of life.