Father In Need of Emergency Spinal Surgery

Hello!

My name is Mars (Nicolette legally) and I am setting up this GoFundMe on behalf of my friend Koda (legally Dalton Skiles).

Koda has been a great friend and has been helping me and my spouse out while we're searching for a new living situation and while I am personally going through a deep medical crisis, as well. They have been helping support me with shelter, rides to the doctors, helping getting appointments set up, and emotional support through everything.

Koda is 30 years old, has an 8 year-old son with sensory-processing disorder, is a single father, and has already previously had 3 spinal surgeries.

Koda was diagnosed very early on with degenerative disc disease, degenerative joint disease, arthritis of the spine and left knee, and multiple other spinal issues.

In 2017, Koda had an injury that left him hospitalized with multiple slipped discs, pinched nerves, and a tear multiple layers through the L3 vertebrae.

After a year of steroid injections, physical therapy, and agony, he collapsed at work and wasn't able to get up.

A month later, they had their first spinal fusion of the L3 - S1, which involved adding 2 rods, 8 screws, and 8 grafts into their spine, as well as shaving down the L3 vertebrae multiple times.

All seemed well until 3 months in when both of the screws in the S1 snapped, which led to a 2nd surgery.

Because the bases of the screws were so deep with no anchor, they had to keep both bases inside of his spine, but thankfully the S1 was big enough to add new screws, but this meant removing a portion of the right hip bone for the bone mixture.

After the 2nd surgery failed, they tried to do a trial spinal stimulator implant. There was complications with the surgical entry site which caused severe pain and swelling, which ultimately led to the doctors not receiving the results they wanted and denying the full spinal stimulator due to lack of improvement.

Once all the surgeries were done, Koda was officially diagnosed with "Failed Back Surgery Syndrome" and has been on a strict pain management regiment for 2 years.

On February 1st 2022, Koda had weight loss surgery and dropped from 420lbs to 260lbs in one year. Reducing this weight was supposed to help with the pain, but actually had the opposite effect. Due to the weight loss, the decompression of the spine started causing nerve misfires, which led to a new issue.

Because of the support the L2 vertebrae was providing above the fusion of the L3 - S1, it wore down the vertebrae to the point where it can't support the pressure anymore. The nerve canal between their L2 vertebrae is so compressed that it's causing severe nerve pain and nerve damage down into the hips and legs. This is causing issues with walking, bending, being a father, and functioning.

This leads to the next surgery. The doctors want to rush surgery due to Koda collapsing in the shower on 1/30/2023. They were in the shower and felt a deep painful tingling in their spine and then numbness along the entire outer left leg, then slid down the shower wall, nearly unable to move.

The 4th spinal surgery includes fusing the L2 vertebrae to add to the already fused L3 - S1, shave down the arthritis on the L2 that has formed, and re-form any bone that didn't fuse properly during the previous surgeries.

The recovery time for surgery varies greatly due to the previous surgeries and can take anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks, with the full setting and healing time taking up to 6 months.

We're trying to shoot for $15,000 to cover bills for those 12 weeks, as well as to hopefully have some wiggle room for food, gas for doctors appointments, and basic necessities.

If you aren't able to help, please share to someone who maybe can.

Every bit helps, even $1.

Thank you all in advance,

Mars Wolfrey