Ok here goes…

In November of 2006 my wife and I were moving into our new place where my wife twisted something in her back and started to have horrible pain in her left leg and lower back. This was nothing new at the time because my wife had suffered back issues for many years and usually a day or two of rest would allow her to function normally again. This pain though did not go away and we eventually went to see her orthopedic doctor she had been seeing for many years. After some x-rays and a MRI scan it was found that she had a badly bulging disc in her lower back that was putting pressure on some nerves running to her left leg. This causes her to have shooting sciatic nerve pain while at the same time leaving it sometimes numb to external feeling and periods of inability to support herself on it. The doctor recommended cortical steroids to be shot into her back to try and make the disc shrink and relieve the strain. She had 3 injections spaced out over some time leading her into the February of 2007 with no improvement.

At this time her doctor said the problem was more advanced then previously thought and recommended her to see an orthopedic surgeon who would be better able to help her with this problem. He looked at the scans we brought with us and ordered new ones to see if the shots had any internal effect. She was told shortly after that she would need a laminectomy operation to lop off the bulging part of the disc. The surgery was scheduled for April and hopes were high that this would solve the problem. The operation was deemed a success and she started to recover at home. The wounds from the surgery started to heal and when she felt well enough to venture back out into the world she did and tragedy ensued. While at a place to help a friend of hers, a drunken idiot jumped on her back in a way that his knee was driven right into the incision spot at the small of her back. The pain flared intensely and continued to get worse for her as the days passed. We went back to the doctor who confirmed with more scans that her operated disc had ruptured and was spilling fluid into her back causing unrelenting pain.

The doctor thought it best to go back in and use a newly FDA approved implant to repair the disc, he also would work with the nerves to try and give them more room so they would not be pinched. The surgery was in September of 2007 and the implant worked great and she started to recover once again. My wife’s return to health looked good but then suddenly pain started to creep slowly down her back and leg again. It was found that scar tissue was slowly forming over the nerves causing them to send increasing levels of pain throughout her body. The doctor tried several medications to try and halt or slow the scar tissue growth so as to spare her another surgery. These drugs did not work and shortly after she was scheduled for another surgery in December of 2007 to have the scar tissue scraped and removed from her nerves in the hopes that combined with medication it would not grow back.

The results of the surgery were tentative at best but it seemed with enough time that she would improve enough to live life normally again. Several months passed and she slowly improved, our winter was unusually harsh though this year in the chilly northern Midwest and the ice created many hazards with leaving the house. While getting out of her car after a trip to the store she slipped and slammed her lower back into the running boards of her car with the wind promptly slamming her car door into her chest. This caused unimaginably amounts of pain which refused to lessen after a week or so of rest, so back to the doctor we went.

He delivered the bad news in the last week of March 2008 that the accident broke one of her vertebrae in half right up the middle and caused her injured disc to bulge severely from the opposite side and around the implant that was put in. She has to have a fourth surgery on April 15 to repair the broken vertebrae, remove the destroyed disc completely, and fuse her two vertebrae together. This will limit some of her range of motion and confine her to bed rest for another 9 weeks before she can even start the 28 weeks of physical therapy and the rebuilding of her atrophied muscles. She is scared and in constant pain but we are praying that this will finally put an end to her suffering.

Grace has always had to take special care with her back due to childhood problems and horseback riding accidents. The string of unfortunate events that has led us to this point has never allowed the pain to subside to a degree where heavy pain medication was not needed to get through the day. When this is all said and done these medical issues will have stolen two years of her life that she has spent confined to her bed and scared to even leave the house. We have always been thankful that these problems were not a life threatening illness but in my opinion this is more pain and suffering then anyone should experience much less a vibrant active 24 year old woman.

I have worked as hard as I can to get us through this financially but the cost of 4 surgeries in 12 months not to mention the scans, medications, and trips to see the doctor (who is close to an hour away) has left us gasping for air. I am hoping for some donations to help us through this dark period but honestly I would be happy just for some people to leave her well wishes and for you to know her story and keep her in your prayers. If you decide to donate even 1 dollar it will help and the Paypal button I have created allows for almost any kind of electronic payment. If you are uncomfortable about using your credit card on the internet we also have a postal address where donations or cards can be sent to in the Contact Me area of the website. I promise you that all donations recieved will be used for hospital bills and to make my wife's recovery easier. Thank you for reading and I wish you luck and safety in your travels ahead in life.

~Matthew~


(Donation Update: I want to send out great thanks to everyone that has visited this site and also to those that have dropped a donation in the bucket. Your donation means alot to us and will be used in an appropiate fashion. I wanted to put up a standard donation meter like you find on other sites but for the life of me I can't find a site that has the code for one. What I am going to do until I find one is have a text based update so you know where we are at. If someone knows where I can find some free or cheap code to put a meter up please contact me through the Contact Us page...Thanks!!)


Donation total as of today's date: $739.80