Chris Williams Medical Bills & Living Expenses

Chris Williams is an integral part of Cherry Street's success. He has been a part of our family since almost the beginning. We are setting this GoFundMe to help Chris & Angela as they go through this tough time with this illness. Angela has been by his side and out of work as well. Let's help them out financially so they can focus on Chris's health! We love you, Chris! 



A message below from Angela: 



If you don’t already know, Chris has been dealing with some health issues for the last couple of months. What started as a lingering fever in April turned into a very serious diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis. This is an infection of the heart valves and/or the inner lining of the heart. It happens when bacteria enters the bloodstream and collects in one area. If you look that illness up, you’ll see that it mainly affects heavy IV drug users or people that have had recent dental work, neither of which pertain to Chris. After more specific testing, a 1.9 centimeter “vegetation” was discovered on Chris’ left mitral valve. Think of it like a group of bacteria hanging out in a dark room having a huge party and no one’s going home!
Chris was checked into Northside Forsyth and the immediate goal became to determine the exact bacteria strain in the blood and to begin continuous antibiotic treatment to get rid of the vegetation. Blood cultures determined that the strain of bacteria was coming from inside his body and was most closely associated with the GI tract, specifically the colon and colorectal cancer. CT scans didn’t pick up any masses or abnormalities anywhere in his body and the antibiotic treatment was shown to be working, so after a week, the hospital released us. We were under the impression that Chris would undergo 6-8 weeks of daily IV antibiotic treatment, the vegetation would dissipate and resolve itself and we’d talk to the cardiologist about a valve replacement surgery down the road (we knew the valve was already damaged so it was more than likely going to have to be replaced). We’d also be setting up an appointment with a GI doctor to follow up on any colon issues.
Well as they say, nothing ever really goes as planned. After 9 days of being out of the hospital, Chris spiked a fever again and began experiencing severe leg pain behind his knee. Back to the ER we went and more tests were run. It was quickly discovered that this vegetation had started to shed pieces and they were going to other places in Chris’ body. One piece went to his spleen, one lodged in the right leg artery and two pieces went into his brain. The one in his leg was restricting blood flow to his lower leg and ankle and will require an additional surgery at a later point to restore full use of his leg. Thankfully the two in his brain were so small that they didn’t cause any neurological deficiencies. Of course now the doctors at Northside Forsyth realized that Chris was a ticking time bomb and at any moment another piece could shoot off and cause detrimental damage. We were immediately transferred to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta to work with a team there and the plan was to quickly undergo open heart surgery to remove the infection and replace the damaged valve.
We have been at Piedmont Hospital since last Saturday. In the last 4 days we have had so many ups and downs. There have been times when we thought surgery wasn’t going to be an option. There were times we thought that it was a foregone conclusion that cancer was causing these issues. The tests and procedures Chris has had to go through have been nonstop. He’s been poked, prodded, carted off places, given anesthesia and basically has had every vein used for IVs and blood samples. We are so thankful to have learned that Chris’ leg is not at risk of losing complete blood flow right now. Amazingly, we found out that he doesn’t have colon cancer and 6 precancerous polyps were removed during his colonoscopy. He also didn’t have any bleeding or damage done from the pieces that got into his brain. We learned the arteries around his heart were clean with no blockages which meant one less thing for the surgeon to worry about during the operation. There are so many things to be thankful for!
Today Chris will have open heart surgery to remove the infection and replace his mitral valve. Bacterial endocarditis is 100% fatal if not treated quickly. Obviously we had hoped the antibiotic treatment would work and we’d have more time to ready ourselves for such a huge surgery but this is where we are now. The surgeon is well renowned in the field of valve replacement and the entire surgical team is completely confident that the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Thank you to everyone who has been with us on this journey, sending your love, prayers and good thoughts. The outpouring of support has truly been appreciated by both of us and gotten us through some difficult moments. If you know Chris, he’ll be ready to get back out there and live life to the fullest once he’s recovered from this surgery! We can’t wait to get through this, visit friends and family and make a million more memories together