Some time ago, a friend asked "Do you remember what you were doing a year ago?" How could I not? A year ago, I was fighting for life and limb. A multi-strain bacterial infection that entered a tiny cut on my right foot had spread through the flesh and into the bone. A below-the-knee amputation was on the table. After three surgeries, two hospitalizations, three weeks in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and months of home nursing care, it appears that - for some time at least - I get to keep my life and my leg. Well, all but the bottom rear quarter of the heel bone, which was surgically removed in order to stop the infection.
Along the way, there were months of round-the-clock PICC intravenous antibiotics for the infection and Hydrocodone for the pain (with regular morphine chasers in the hospital). Plus six months of wheelchairs, walkers and a RollerAid. Going on two years later, I’m now vertical and bipedal: able to stand and walk on my own two feet. Not as fast and far, nor as sure as before; but with a few accommodations (e.g. special shoes and a cane), I am back in my decades-long normal routine: daily weight workouts and bike rides plus my daily schedule of work, chores and errands. Considering what I’ve been through, I count myself lucky.
Well, lucky except for the medical debt I have accumulated along the way. My major medical health insurance has covered the lion’s share of the $385,000+ bill for hospitals, doctors, labs, nurses and supplies, etc. But with deductibles and co-pays, I have paid $17,000 in medical bills out of savings in the past year. I’m still left with $10,000 in medical debt. Between now-higher monthly health insurance premiums, hospital debt payments and follow-up medical care, my total monthly medical expenses now average $1,000 a month.
A little help, please? If you can contribute just a few dollars toward my medical debt account, I will be grateful. A little bit goes a long way, if it’s spread among a lot of people. If each of my Facebook friends would contribute an average of $5 to the cause, it would retire the debt. That’s the miracle of crowdfunding, and I invite you to participate in any way you can. You can contribute using any major credit card or from your own PayPal account by clicking on the donate button below; or by sending money directly from your PayPal account by email to me at rnolle@cox.net in the amount of your choice. If you prefer to contribute by paper instead, please feel free to mail a check to me: Richard Nolle, P.O. Box 26599, Tempe AZ 85285-6599. If you're tapped out, I can relate. (Oh, how I can relate.) But you can also help by sharing this page on your social network of choice (e.g. sharing it with your Facebook friends, tweeting it on Twitter, etc.). Thank you!
FEB 24 UPDATE
Now over six months into this appeal, my online friends have already contributed just a little over 25% of the funds needed to pay off my outstanding medical debt, as illustrated in the accompanying graphic. And I've been writing checks out of this fund for months now, paying off over $2,200 of doctor, lab and hospital bills as of last week. That still leaves nearly $8,000 of medical debt to go, which I'm paying in installments (for the remaining hospital bills), in addition to the ongoing care still required. So the need remains, and I do appreciate your help. Thank you, one and all!
Many of you have been beyond generous - for which I am in your debt. Please, if you have already contributed to my cause, please accept my gratitude and take a pause. Let others shoulder what they can. The last thing I want is to be a burden.
On the medical front, I'm continuing to get good reports at each check-up with my foot surgeon. It was nearly six months ago that he said there was no need to bandage the foot anymore, since the wound had healed over again and was no longer bleeding - for the first time in six months, at the time. (This was after the setback of the wound reopening from being on my feet too long back in March 2013, when my father died.)
Being able to put on socks without donning a sterile bandage and gauze wrap first is another one of those simple things that I'll never take for granted again. My regular checkups with the surgeon are now down to a bimonthly schedule, from weekly not so many months ago. And the debridements are now very minor in comparison to the substantial procedures of a few months back. After a partial relapse of several months due to my setback, I'm now back into my regular workout schedule - alternating days for upper and lower body weights, daily core work and 45-minute bike ride. (Admittedly, there have been as many as three days at a stretch when professional and/or personal tasks have caused me to miss all or part of the daily schedule - but those shortfalls are the exception rather than the rule.) Apart from a little localized pain when putting my weight down on the remodeled right foot, it's almost as if nothing had happened. And now being acutely aware that stressing that foot too much can result in a big setback, as it did some eight months ago now, I'm being very prudent with every step.
For details on my misadventures with microbes – including photos (some icky) taken along the way - click here.