Double the Hip Replacement; Double the Funds

After several years of waiting...2024 is officially going to be Mike's Hip-Boy Summer. Both hips will be replaced (in two different surgeries, the first: May 10th)!

If you know our story, you’re already aware that this is a longtime coming. It’s been an unrelenting period of increased physical punishment and stress, paired with decreased accessibility and funds for our family.

(Sass helps tie her Dad’s work shoes)

I am writing the gory details below, for those who prefer the novel to the flash fiction version.

But for brass tacks kinda folks, it comes down to this: Mike is our main breadwinner and has been disabled by a degenerative, genetic condition that has left him in extreme pain and limited his ability to earn.

The good news: there is a way to cure and achieve total rehabilitation—a double hip replacement. This will be two separate surgeries, hopefully, 7 weeks apart. That’s 14 weeks without his total income/tips at best, and 16-17 at worst.

Mike will need physio, various treatments, medication, food, and a clean roof over his head. He would also like his family to be able to support him during his recovery without worrying about living out of their car (which is already at legal drinking age).

We know these are hard times. Everyone has had to make do with less. We love you all, and completely understand if you’re unable to give monetarily. We need all kinds of help: runs to the grocery store, childcare, cooking/cleaning, trips to physio/doc appointments (Mike isn’t allowed to drive), thoughts, prayers, good vibes, and everything in between to get us through this crisis.

So: if you can give funds, even a dollar or two—great! If you can’t: see ⬆️. And if that’s not possible, you sharing this link with those who can—priceless.

We do want to thank, ahead of time, Mike’s employers at Hyatt and all of his co-workers for their support.

Some companies talk about inclusion, but Hyatt, hired him with the limp, and have continued to encourage him even when he had to use the bar as his walker. They are also guaranteeing his job when he returns.

We also want to thank our friends and family, especially Mike’s father, for helping us. He may have handed down his bad hips, but he’s been a lifesaver the last year.

Novel Version:

For those who don't know Mike's story, let's fill you in. TW: there will be TMI, x-rays, and a couple pics venous ulcers (this does look as gross as it sounds).

Mike is in his late forties. He’s a father of three, a husband, and a one-of-a-kind bartender/server. He's been working in the industry since he was a teen dishwasher at Swiss Chalet and climbed all the way up that ladder to the rooftop of the Park Hyatt.

Along the way Mike worked construction/contracting, apprenticed as an electrician, was an actor/print model, and even took fourth place in a reality TV competition show. But, service, giving people an exceptional experience on a night out--this is his life’s work.

The pandemic was intense for us, as it was for so many people working in the service industry. I'm immune compromised and disabled, so we had to take quarentine seriously. It was during this time that Mike started to develop a limp. We all figured it was the reduced activity of the pandemic/putting on the pandemic 15 or just aging. Unfortunately, it continued to worsen, along with some other physical symptoms (increased blood pressure, a strange wound on his ankle that wouldn’t heal, stability issues at work).

It was after he injured his arm on the job that he got some imaging done on his hips--just in case. No one, especially the docs, expected the results we received.

Mike was quickly sent for assessment with the amazing team at Sunnybrook Holland. We were told that despite Mike age, he had the hips of an 89 year old man and needed a double hip replacement.

None of the docs understood how he was still working full-time and/or walking without accessibility aids. They said the pain should've made it impossible.

Several years later, Mike’s pain and mobility levels have finally reached the point that the docs predicted. He’s in excruciating pain, graduated from cane to walker, and is several inches shorter due to the deterioration of his hips/adhesions/cysts in and around his pelvis.

So why has it taken so long?

Many things: needing to lower his blood pressure, our failed attempts at working to save the money for the 4 month recovery period during a global recession, my own health crisis last year, and the inability to heal those holes in Mike’s leg (they will not operate if there is an infection or wound in a patient’s leg).

This is where it gets icky (TW!!). Turns out Mike had developed two venous ulcers (not a werewolf bite, like I originally thought). These are notoriously hard to heal, especially if you work on your feet AND have poor circulation due to degradation of the hips/pelvis.

This is before tri-weekly treatment at WCH

The pic above is 6 months after.

The for-sure cure for this is a procedure, not covered by insurance or OHIP, that is over $4,000, out of pocket.

Since we can’t pay that, Mike can no longer get a two-for-one, double hip replacement as originally recommended. Instead, the docs are performing replacement on the unaffected leg and hoping the other leg’s ulcer will be healed 7 weeks later.

So, that means 3 trips a week for bandage changes and skin sloughing (barf) until it heals.

Hip-boy summer, indeed.

(Greeting Daddy after shift 2014)