Thank You Everyone

Hi all,

I (Amy) am home from Toledo Hospital as of yesterday. I was there for 20 days, in the ICU and then a step-down ICU. I want to thank everyone, my family and friends, for all of your support, prayers, cards, visits, etc. I can tell you that is what helped me get through this so far and I have so much love and gratitude for all of you! I want to tell you that I have learned something FOR SURE. I can say that I am 100% sure that whenever a bad thing happens to you in life, a challenge, whatever, there is always a lesson and/or gift that comes with it. I actually learned this a long time ago. Most of the time, you don't always see it or understand it until much later, but in my case this time, I already see it and am so grateful all of this happened to me. According to my doctors, I may not be there to tell you this if this hadn't happened and we didn't find out about this infection in my body. When I went in 20 days ago, I had injured my back ( a common thing with me) and I had sepsis, a staph infection in my spine and blood stream. They operated on my spine and found the staph infection in my discs of my spine and there was an area, mass that was hardened, gel-like, which indicated the infection had probably been there a long time and was spreading. It did spread to several other areas in my spine but they got a lot out during surgery. To back up a little, when I was 14 on a youth group trip, I dove into a sandbar and cracked my spine in several areas, just something I've lived with, "no big deal". It became a degenerative condition and over each decade seemed to get worse, the back pain and ease of injuring my back. I was used to it and often just dismissed it. The day I went into the hospital, I was lifting something and thought I pulled a muscle in my back as I had done so many times before, but the pain was greater than anything I had EVER experienced (from back pain or natural childbirth, nothing was as bad as this!) and I went to the ER. Within 2 hours, my fever was 102 and they transferred my to ICU and the tests began and found the infection and led to the surgery, etc. The doctors (infectious disease dr., neurosurgeon, neurologist) feel the infection was probably there for a long time, either from 2 years ago when I broke my ankle and had surgery or last year in June when I burned the bottoms of my feet, second degree burns, which are still not healed as of today. ( I have not felt the bottom of my feet for over ten years due to my spinal injury from that dive at 14) They feel we won't know but it was likely one of those two events when this infection entered my body and landed on my spine, in the discs. So, had this not happened, we may not have caught this in time and the outcome could have been much worse AND with the surgery they did to release the nerves and discs (to be able to clean out the infection in my discs!), I will likely have a great deal of relief in my back pain for the first time in a very long time if all goes as they feel it will over the next year. I have a nurse coming to the house daily to give me my antibiotics and other meds through my PICC line and to take care of my PICC line for 8 weeks and then after that, I'll be on antibiotics for the next year to make sure we get rid of this infection. I have to follow up with my doctors in the next 2-4 weeks and another MRI next month to monitor the infection, etc. At some point, I'll have PT too. So, it will be a journey over the next year to heal but I don't mind at all! I am just so happy to have this opportunity to finally feel better and heal. It's been a bit frustrating over the past 2 years, being sick and not knowing exactly what was causing all of it, kind of attributing it to this or that, nothing helping. Now, I finally know what as going on and can heal my feet, my back, my body overall! So, when I say I'm grateful, I REALLY MEAN IT from the bottom of my heart! I can see God's hand in this and the love and support I've received from everyone just reaffirms for me what is most important in my life. I am going to work hard to heal and again, thank you!

Love,

Amy (and Team Hyndman)