Nate's Emergency Surgery Support
Donation protected
Dear friends and family,
As many of you know, Nate has severely suffered from Diverticulitis flares for many years. At this time, he is at UW Health Hospital in Madison, WI where he has been for the past 12 days. Nate has undergone Emergency Surgery stemming from this debilitating disease that quickly became life threatening. While we are very fortunate in many ways, high health care costs and the lack of paid family and medical leave have left him unable to afford this critical procedure and his regular occurring bills on his own.
We're asking our community for support.
Nate has been afflicted with stomach and bowel issues since he was a child. Over the years he has sought to find out what caused his pain with no clear results. Flares would come and he’d be given antibiotics by clinics and hospitals with the hopes that it would fix the problem, but still he had no idea what the problem was. Just before he turned 30 he finally had a diagnosis, Diverticulosis. Unfortunately for Nate, his diverticulitis flares continued regardless of changes in diet and exercise.
On February 21st, Nate was in extreme pain from another diverticulitis flare and visited his local urgent care for antibiotics. On this visit the doctor expressed concern and sent for a CT scan to be done immediately. From there things spiraled into an unexpected direction, Nate was advised that the scans showed a lot of inflammation with several abscesses along with a large abscess which was perforating. He was checked into the ER and then admitted shortly thereafter. After 3 days in the hospital, another CT scan was completed and the doctors found that the infection had gotten much worse.
Nate was rushed into Emergency Surgery on the 25 that which point they found that his colon had ruptured and the infection had caused so much inflammation to his colon that it had fused itself to his bladder. During surgery they removed his Sigmoid Colon and completed an Ostomy. Additionally, his colon had to be chipped away from his bladder causing damage to his bladder. His bladder was repaired and a Foley Catheter was placed to keep the bladder drained while it healed. As a result of the severity of the infection the surgeons were unable to stitch his incision up, instead the inside strength layer of the abdomen was closed and the 8 inch incision down the outside of his abdomen was left open with a few staples strategically placed on the skin layer. This will allow for the incision to slowly heal from the inside out.
Since the surgery Nate has made progress towards healing, though slower than expected. The first 5 days after surgery were found to be the most difficult. The recovery period has been rough for him and has been accompanied by lots of abdominal pain from the incision as well as pressure from gas and bloating as his body learns to process foods again.
At this point Nate is 9 days into his recovery from surgery and is working with the nurses and doctors at UW Health to learn at home care. In order to leave the hospital his white count has to be below 15 and his incision must be healing properly. Nate has currently missed about 2 weeks of work and will additionally miss another 2 weeks or more before he will be released to return to work. In 3 months he will have to undergo another surgery to have his colon re-attached to itself which will lead to an additional 2 weeks of missed work during the procedure and recovery.
We are cautiously hopeful that under the care of these doctors, this surgery could be curative, freeing Nate from the debilitating pain that he has suffered from for many years. While we feel incredibly fortunate that Nate’s infection was caught before a more dire result, we need your support to help carry the financial burden of the surgery, hospital stay and multiple unforeseen missed days of work.
Due to the high cost on his health insurance and at least six weeks of income that Nate will lose without access to paid family and medical leave, we are asking those who are willing and able to give to help him recover from this difficult time.
Thank you for your love and support. If you've read this far, we're already grateful for your care and compassion. If you can't support financially, and would like to offer support in other ways, you are also appreciated, we are so thankful to have you in our lives.
As many of you know, Nate has severely suffered from Diverticulitis flares for many years. At this time, he is at UW Health Hospital in Madison, WI where he has been for the past 12 days. Nate has undergone Emergency Surgery stemming from this debilitating disease that quickly became life threatening. While we are very fortunate in many ways, high health care costs and the lack of paid family and medical leave have left him unable to afford this critical procedure and his regular occurring bills on his own.
We're asking our community for support.
Nate has been afflicted with stomach and bowel issues since he was a child. Over the years he has sought to find out what caused his pain with no clear results. Flares would come and he’d be given antibiotics by clinics and hospitals with the hopes that it would fix the problem, but still he had no idea what the problem was. Just before he turned 30 he finally had a diagnosis, Diverticulosis. Unfortunately for Nate, his diverticulitis flares continued regardless of changes in diet and exercise.
On February 21st, Nate was in extreme pain from another diverticulitis flare and visited his local urgent care for antibiotics. On this visit the doctor expressed concern and sent for a CT scan to be done immediately. From there things spiraled into an unexpected direction, Nate was advised that the scans showed a lot of inflammation with several abscesses along with a large abscess which was perforating. He was checked into the ER and then admitted shortly thereafter. After 3 days in the hospital, another CT scan was completed and the doctors found that the infection had gotten much worse.
Nate was rushed into Emergency Surgery on the 25 that which point they found that his colon had ruptured and the infection had caused so much inflammation to his colon that it had fused itself to his bladder. During surgery they removed his Sigmoid Colon and completed an Ostomy. Additionally, his colon had to be chipped away from his bladder causing damage to his bladder. His bladder was repaired and a Foley Catheter was placed to keep the bladder drained while it healed. As a result of the severity of the infection the surgeons were unable to stitch his incision up, instead the inside strength layer of the abdomen was closed and the 8 inch incision down the outside of his abdomen was left open with a few staples strategically placed on the skin layer. This will allow for the incision to slowly heal from the inside out.
Since the surgery Nate has made progress towards healing, though slower than expected. The first 5 days after surgery were found to be the most difficult. The recovery period has been rough for him and has been accompanied by lots of abdominal pain from the incision as well as pressure from gas and bloating as his body learns to process foods again.
At this point Nate is 9 days into his recovery from surgery and is working with the nurses and doctors at UW Health to learn at home care. In order to leave the hospital his white count has to be below 15 and his incision must be healing properly. Nate has currently missed about 2 weeks of work and will additionally miss another 2 weeks or more before he will be released to return to work. In 3 months he will have to undergo another surgery to have his colon re-attached to itself which will lead to an additional 2 weeks of missed work during the procedure and recovery.
We are cautiously hopeful that under the care of these doctors, this surgery could be curative, freeing Nate from the debilitating pain that he has suffered from for many years. While we feel incredibly fortunate that Nate’s infection was caught before a more dire result, we need your support to help carry the financial burden of the surgery, hospital stay and multiple unforeseen missed days of work.
Due to the high cost on his health insurance and at least six weeks of income that Nate will lose without access to paid family and medical leave, we are asking those who are willing and able to give to help him recover from this difficult time.
Thank you for your love and support. If you've read this far, we're already grateful for your care and compassion. If you can't support financially, and would like to offer support in other ways, you are also appreciated, we are so thankful to have you in our lives.
Organizer and beneficiary
Charlene Arnold
Organizer
Oregon, WI
Lyntje Arnold
Beneficiary
