Craig Buetow

You won’t hear him ask, but one of our hard-working friends needs our help. Life has turned into a quest of determination and grit over the past few months for our friend, Craig Buetow.

Osteoarthritis has taken over Craig’s left hip. He was due for an entire hip replacement, per the doctor's visit in October 2020. As COVID ran rampant that year, Craig and his family were advised to stand by until an opening for him to see a surgeon.

Craig had given up defeat by then. After multiple other noninvasive treatment options were not working, Craig accepted he would need surgery to fix it. If he didn’t fix it, he was at risk of being unable to work due to the pain. He was at a crossroads between sacrificing his health and providing for his family. We see this over and over in a hardworking provider.

After almost two years on the waitlist, Craig was finally scheduled for his long-awaited and painfully needed entire hip replacement surgery at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater on August 31st, 2022. Recovery was expected to take about a few weeks.

Craig’s post-operation appointment did not provide the anticipated news needed for recovery. On September 20th, 2022; Craig was notified he had an infection called MSSA Bacteremia. This severe infection has a high risk of complications and death. Once it's in the bloodstream, the infection often spreads to other organs and tissues such as the heart, lungs, or brain. His surgeon wanted to make sure it had not spread and did another immediate surgery to indemnify his hip and other organs. This included changing the head and liner of the prosthetic and put an antibiotic in cement into his hip. His total hospital stay for this unexpected surgery was nine days. He was sent home with a wound vacuum on his incision to help assist with drainage. He also had a PICC line administered for IV antibiotics. He would be required to take antibiotics every 8 hours over the next six weeks. It was imperative the infection did not spread.

On October 4th, 2022, Craig had another follow-up appointment to check the wound and infection. The wound vacuum was removed due to not being any suction over the wound anymore. The next two follow-up appointments on October 11th and 18th proved his incision was still draining as his bandage was still excessively changed, although, his labs were showing positive results to the antibiotic treatment. This prompted the surgeon to want another surgery to confirm the infection did NOT spread to the hip and other organs. On October 31st, Craig had to go under the knife once again. His hospital stay was at Regions hospital and lasted five days.

The results provided the infection was in the subcutaneous area of the hip. This is good news because if it goes to his hip, he will require complete hip surgery again. He was also given a different antibiotic to cover a broader spectrum of infections. A drain tube was also inserted this time for excessive drainage.

November 22nd, 2022, Craig had another post-operation appointment to check the wound drainage and infection. The surgeon was not impressed with the healing of the wound. After inoculating his wound and fluid came gushing out, Craig was also notified another surgery would be required. There would be a fifth surgery, and a plastic surgeon would need to assist this time.

This is the moment he broke down. How much can one man take? How can he provide for his family if he must do another surgery? They were already two months behind what they had saved for bills and necessities. The amount of time this took off of work, had not only doubled, but it also seemed the end was still so far away. Nevertheless, endurance prevailed, and surgery was scheduled again.

Craig started to feel ill with a fever and coughing on Thanksgiving. His pre-operation appointment confirmed he has COVID. Surgery was canceled and will need to be rescheduled again.

His love, and wife, has been his home care nurse and the income provider of the home this entire time. While a forbearance has been placed on their mortgage, they are still behind on bills and unable to keep up with the cost-of-living demands. Credit cards are being used, but the balances have risen quickly. It’s hard to imagine what the winter will bring with the current health and working conditions of the home providers.

Even if Craig were to be healed by Christmas, this is when his seasonal job lays people off for the winter months. This is usually planned and prepared for. That proved to be extremely difficult to bear this year.

They say the middle class is one paycheck away from tragedy. This is an example of how quickly life can change. The ability to provide is an absolute necessity for Craig. He is devasted he cannot do that for his family right now. Let’s try to help him out to take some stress off for the next few months. Craig should focus on recovery, healing, and family.

From the bottom of our hearts, anything you can contribute to assist this family with basic needs over the next winter months is appreciated. We still have a long journey ahead, but determination and grit will always be top of mind.

Thank you