Dr.'s orders- Reduce Colleen's stress
Donation protected
Our friend Colleen Hill-Rakunas has had an incredibly scary and stressful few months at a time when she needed it least.
On September 30th, Colleen's heart went into ventricular tachycardia. Not knowing what was happening, she drove herself in to Urgent Care and then swiftly got an ambulance ride to the Emergency Room. They ended up having to put her under and shock her heart. She then spent 6 days in the hospital having every test imaginable: blood work, chest x-rays, ultrasound, echocardiogram, MRI....every test was inconclusive. There was no sign of heart disease so it is currently unknown why this occurred, but as it is quite deadly, they don't want it to happen again, so on October 3rd they installed a defibrillator/pacemaker that will shock her heart if it decides to launch into tachycardia again. They are also doing a very expensive genetic test to determine if there is a faulty gene responsible. If so, her son will also need to be tested.
Recovery was painful and with complications, so many of the above tests were run again. It was determined that the defibrillator lead was not staying placed where it should because she is in the 1%! No, not the financial 1%, the medical anomaly 1%. It seems her left ventricle is not shaped the same way as 99% of the rest of the population. So on November 1st she had to have lead revision surgery, where the defibrillator was removed, lead moved, everything put back in, and the recovery process started over again. Everything is going much better the second time around.
Colleen didn't have a penny to spare before all this happened, and the medical bills are causing great stress in a year that already has so many extra expenses due to a college-hunting senior in her home. Any assistance would be so greatly appreciated.
See what I mean! At this time of giving, if you can find a little something extra to send her way I know she would be incredibly grateful.
On September 30th, Colleen's heart went into ventricular tachycardia. Not knowing what was happening, she drove herself in to Urgent Care and then swiftly got an ambulance ride to the Emergency Room. They ended up having to put her under and shock her heart. She then spent 6 days in the hospital having every test imaginable: blood work, chest x-rays, ultrasound, echocardiogram, MRI....every test was inconclusive. There was no sign of heart disease so it is currently unknown why this occurred, but as it is quite deadly, they don't want it to happen again, so on October 3rd they installed a defibrillator/pacemaker that will shock her heart if it decides to launch into tachycardia again. They are also doing a very expensive genetic test to determine if there is a faulty gene responsible. If so, her son will also need to be tested.
Recovery was painful and with complications, so many of the above tests were run again. It was determined that the defibrillator lead was not staying placed where it should because she is in the 1%! No, not the financial 1%, the medical anomaly 1%. It seems her left ventricle is not shaped the same way as 99% of the rest of the population. So on November 1st she had to have lead revision surgery, where the defibrillator was removed, lead moved, everything put back in, and the recovery process started over again. Everything is going much better the second time around.
Colleen didn't have a penny to spare before all this happened, and the medical bills are causing great stress in a year that already has so many extra expenses due to a college-hunting senior in her home. Any assistance would be so greatly appreciated.
See what I mean! At this time of giving, if you can find a little something extra to send her way I know she would be incredibly grateful.
Organizer and beneficiary
Betsy Willis
Organizer
Traverse City, MI
Colleen Hill-Rakunas
Beneficiary