Help Brooke with Prosthetics & Medical Bills

UPDATE (9/28):Heyy its your favorite 'girl that lost all her limbs' as the girl at family dollar that described me to my mom would say, or the 'girl that broke her feet' as the little girl in Ulta described me

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that donated. It's been about a month since anyone checked it and I know it's bc it's been a while since I gave an update or shared it, I think the last update was the end of July? I have so much footage (pictures and videos) that I want to share but I haven't been able to edit it/compile it. For that I am so sorry but I promise it's coming soon. I just haven't had the energy or honestly the ability.

Unfortunately, I've spent more time in the hospital than I've been home the last couple of months. It's just been a lot of complications, long hospital stays, more questions than answers, so many tests and SO much pain and a lot of unknown. I've been admitted to the hospital 5 times since I got home. If im home for a week, im in the hospital for two. If im home for two, im in the hospital for one. When I have been home, I have follow ups and tests. Too many to even count. It finally got to a point last month that I had to take a step back and just try to heal mentally and physically just to end up in the hospital again last week. Im going to do my best to summarize where I think I left off but also tell the story from last weeks stay because I think it deserves to be told sooner rather than later.

In July and August, you guys raised almost $5k for what's now being referred to as the Thumb Fund™️. I know it might not seem like much to some who see how much further we have to go but I was truly blown away & shocked every time I seen the number move. Even if it takes a year or two, im going to keep fighting because everyone deserves at least one thumb, right? I think it's crazy it's even necessary considering I have good insurance (if you're new here, insurance providers consider thumbs/digits as miscellaneous and not medically necessary and to that i say, they should try not using their thumbs for a couple hours). But nonetheless, so many of you have picked up their slack by donating money you work hard for.

I know a lot of people have asked how im surviving financially and it's honestly Brenna and my mom. I have an amazing support system and I know not everyone is as lucky. I applied for disability in March, you'd think itd be an easy "yes" for them considering I've worked (and paid taxes!) since I was 15 years old and ya'know, lost more limbs than I kept but according to them, I still have an estimated 5 months before they make a decision.

Alright now that all that's out the way, to the chisme! So once everything started settling down (before it became unsettled again), we started to really focus on figuring out what ACTUALLY happened to cause all of this. We have best guesses and ideas but no solid answers. I had over 50 diagnoses coming out of the hospital the first time. Most of which were rare and life threatening. But we do know it was PID + peritonitis that caused that initial abdominal pain and the 1.5 liters of pus they had to emergently clean out. But we don't know what caused the PID to begin with because all of my OB testing came back normal. My IUD was removed and sent out for testing and my teams' best guess was a bacteria had attached to my IUD at some point within the last year meaning the infection had been developing for a long time but I was 'asymptomatic'. I use the word asymptomatic loosely because I either 1) had no symptoms at all or 2) the symptoms I had were identical to the normal symptoms I had with my IUD (if you spent any time with me 2022/2023 you know I had pretty much permanent cramps). The test came back with it being just a normal strain of bacteria so again, and with all my OB tests coming back normal, no real answer to be found there.

We also know I was COVID positive. One of the biggest risks for people who were hospitalized for Covid during the pandemic was blood clots. Almost every patient was on a heparin drip. The week before I was hospitalized, I was so sick but I thought it was just the flu or a bad cold. But I was 'fine' after a few days so Covid never crossed my mind.

I know this is already a lot of information but stay with ya' girl! So we know I had Covid, while having suspected Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) which led to peritonitis. We also know I was RIDDLED with blood clots so my blood was essentially: useless, clocked out, fell asleep in their figurative car on break, out of office, on vacation. You get the point. So remember were trying to back track to figure out where everything went wrong, testing hypothesis and what not. So at my follow up with my hematologist (blood doctor), they wanted to start from the top to see at what point my blood decided to do a mass lay off.

Now of course, Covid could have explained the clots BUT I have the worst luck imaginable so it wasn't that simple - I also tested positive for not one, not two but THREE autoimmune diseases amongst other things: antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (immune system creates little immune soldiers that accidentally on purpose attack the normal proteins in blood & causes blood clots) this is also known as lupus anticoagulant syndrome because 20-30% of people w LAS have the antiphospholipid antibodies, Protein S Deficiency (rare blood disorder that's either inherited or acquired that causes your blood to clot too easily) and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation or DIC (this one is a vicious cycle of causing lots of clots or lots of bleeding - by clotting too much or not clotting fast enough within the blood clots themselves). Now my hematologists think this is the cause but historically, DIC is caused by sepsis not the other way around. Keep in mind this was all happening AT THE SAME TIME.

So that is how I ended with my first two emergency surgeries: cleaning out my abdomen & then removing the only clot they could safely remove near my left bicep. Then of course, just mere hours later, I went septic. Luckily for me, I got to be in a coma for this part. My heart failed, my kidneys failed, my liver failed, my lungs were in manual, and they had no idea if my brain was full of empty cabinets and cobwebs or not. My skin was a lovely shade of grey/blue, my eyes were yellow and I was taking what I thought was a short nap. Machines took over for my organs for the following 13 days. I woke up looking like I crawled on all 4 fours through the Arctic because my limbs looked like burnt hot dogs fresh off the grill on 4th of July. The necrosis and frostbite ven diagram is a circle and are both treated like you were in a fire in a clinical setting. Now at first, my coma was medically induced bc they couldn't believe I was still alive at this point but then they needed to know if they were knocking and nobody was home or if I was there just not coming to the door - so they stopped all medicine but baby I'm a Taurus ♉️, so I wasn't going to let someone wake me up unless I wanted to be awake, even subconsciously. So I took a couple extra days despite everyones including Brenna's best efforts to anger/annoy me awake via slaps, pinches, finger in the ear, screaming dreams and nightmares lyrics, etc. also, if you didn't know, atrophy (muscle deáth) happens much quicker than you would think and when you wake up from a coma, you can suffer pretty severe delusions.

So I finally wake up thinking all is well until I realize I cannot physically make sounds with my mouth, much less combine sounds to make words. I also could not take a look around the room to see where I was because my neck muscles decided they preferred the coma, so I couldn't turn my head. Oh, and my hot dog limbs? I couldn't feel touch at all, and they were now swollen beyond description. Imagine the scene in twilight breaking dawn when Bella is transitioning to a vampire. She's paralyzed and everyone thinks it's sunshine and rainbows and smooth sailing but she's actually internally screaming at the top of her lungs from excruciating pain bc she can't actually scream or move but no one knows. It was EXACTLY like that and now my favorite theatrical comfort series is probably ruined. In that time, I learned the phrase "your eyes are playing tricks on you" is literal. My eyes were open, I was alert and oriented but what I was seeing was not what was actually in front of me. I thought I changed rooms 3 times and thought I left the hospital at one point and apparently walked home and no one could convince me otherwise. Once I realized I knew the English language again and the doctor asked me if I was experiencing delusions, I was like do I look like someone who is delusional? I was so confident and so wrong. I very much looked like someone who was experiencing delusions. I didn't come to this realization for months. But surely enough, I learned how to use my neck and vocal cords again. Anywho.

My lungs decided to clock back in & my heart was a few quarters short of a dollar but I was able to at least come off the ventilator. I was on 24 dialysis at first but my kidneys were still traveling abroad so they had to change it to a more intense version of dialysis which is 3x per week about 6 hours each time. It wasn't painful but it was so uncomfortable it made you feel like you were being frozen from the inside out - like yours bones were actual ice cubes.. I was burritoed in 10 blankets, heat packs all over, the actual heat blasting and Brennas coat and it still wasn't enough. Truly this was one of the worst parts of my stay in the ICU. I cannot paint a picture that would accurately describe how I felt. I asked my kidney team (nephrologists), 'what do I need to do to never have to do this again?' They said they needed kidney function, meaning I had to start peeing again. This became my sole purpose for the following week and it worked.

Now you would think, wow that's so much, that had to be when things got better? WRONG AGAIN. At this time, there was also constantly blood in my stool and that's definitely not supposed to happen so off to get a endoscopy I go. Not a terrible experience and you get to take a really good nap by force. But they didn't find the problem so they send me back and rinse and repeat, still nothing. They decide I now need a colonoscopy. Now if you've had one, you know the prep is horrendous. You drink A LOT of this stuff and spend the rest of your day on the toilet. Except, I was unable to swallow so they had to put that liquid in my feeding tube. That's a gallon (more in my case) of liquid being shot directly to your (my) stomach. Oh, and my legs were essentially stage props at this point meaning they were there and looked like the real thing but couldn't actually do anything. I couldn't even roll to my side on my own for them to place The Bag™️ that would be taped to me for the next 12 hours. I'll let you use your imagination for the rest. It was dehumanizing, traumatic and gross but I made it to the endoscopy in one piece and all of my organs in their rightful place.

I know what you're thinking, it couldn't possibly get worse but I am me so it did. I woke up from my medically induced nap being rushed to yet another emergency surgery where they had to reopen my abdominal wound that WAS JUST HEALING to remove half of my small intestine due to an ulcer / perforation / bleeding. I remember waking up post-up en route back to my ICU room, screaming in pain when they moved me back to my bed while my family stood in the corner of the room. They also left my stomach open, no stitches, because I had a wound vac instead. If you've never seen one, it's essentially Saran Wrap and tape with a vacuum attached taking out all the nasty stuff. It's a much faster and cleaner healing process but they have to rip that off weekly and you get to see your insides the entire time. The next day, I had physical therapy and I was so down bad that my PT was just sitting up which required two people and I cried the entire time. Every time.

All of this went on at the same time & was a lot of the same up until my amputations & I'll spare everyone from having to read through all of that again. I got home in May, so excited that I'd be able to celebrate my 30th birthday at home just to spontaneously lose all of my hair the week before. I've since learned that it was due to a delayed reaction to stress trauma - telogen effluvium. 2-3 months after the stressor/trauma, hair sheds in enormous amounts and then is a good news bad news situation- the good news is my hair is already starting to grow back, the bad news is it could just fall right back out because it typically takes around 3-6 months for it to resolve. But it actually was/is a blessing to have short hair because im now perpetually sweating/in a permanent hot flash these days.

As for the next few hospitalizations, a good portion of my time in the hospital was spent dealing with complications from the laundry list of problems (52+ diagnoses remember?) and it took a while to narrow down the causes. It doesn't help that I am the highest of risks for the most minor of things so the typical tests they could run on the average patient are out of the question. But apparently my reproductive organs trying to take me out once wasn't enough, they had to give it another good ol' college try. They found a cyst and ean abscess on my left ovary & we just had to hope with round the clock antibiotics that it would just stop there and for the first time ever it did. However, given that we don't want to struck out on the third try, we've decided yeeting said productive organs is the best bet so we've scheduled my hysterectomy for 10/24. The residents that were around the first time actually asked if they could be present/involved in the procedure which of course I said I'd love that. It's still so mf cool to me how invested everyone was and still is. Granted I get it bc my case feels like an entire season of House at this point. We're not sure if the hysterectomy will solve any of the problems but it will at least minimize a lot risk factors.

Then I get home again and as soon as I started improving, I was back in the hospital. I had spent a few days progressively feeling worse, kind of like I was getting a cold, but then I woke up and I couldn't even stand up or hold myself up enough well enough to get into my wheelchair and what was left of my legs felt like they were just going to detach from my upper body and pop off like a spring. It was so painful & there was no relief for my hips. It felt like both of my hips were popped out of socket while simultaneously being electrocuted - the bride of Frankenstein cosplay I did last year did not age well . After about of week of us all scratching our heads bc nothing made sense, we figured out my legs weren't actually preparing to shoot off into orbit. Instead, we found a bulged disk at my L4-L5 and a condition called Lumbosacral radiculoplexus neuropathy (LRPN) originally described in diabetic patients, except im not diabetic (it's actually like the only condition I don't suffer from or struggle with), which is clinically described as 'debilitating pain, weakness and atrophy most commonly affecting the proximal thigh muscles asymmetrically'. I cried every single day for almost two weeks, usually multiple times a day because it was so uncomfortable. The pain was horrendous but pain I can deal with. I literally have not had a single pain free moment since 2/7/23 so it's expected at this point but there was no way i could sit or lay to get relief nor was anything else working. I couldn't eat or sleep so my body just stopped working again. I worked so hard to gain back the little independence I had and then there I was not even able to roll myself to bathroom again much less anything else. I was completely reliant on Brenna AGAIN. That stay really took everything out of me & it almost broke me. Almost. Things slowly started improving and we had a treatment plan that thank the gods, could be done at home. Im currently getting weekly IV steroid infusions for the next 12 weeks and it's supposed to be a one-and-done round.

I took some time after that to just focus less on being strong and focus more on healing and truly it was what I needed because I was able to stay out of the hospital for a couple weeks up until last week. I was laying in bed, doom scrolling through TikTok when I started having some pretty intense chest pain which I initially wrote off as heartburn but then I was having shortness of breathe and I was tachycardic so ultimately decided to go to the ER. Usually I go to main, but for some reason I told Brenna i just felt like we should go to Wyandotte this time and you guys, I am so glad we did. First of all, my nurse (heyyyy Carolyn ❤️) was such a ray of light who made us feel so safe and validated when we truly were already scared because I was at a high risk for a pulmonary embolism and because we hadn't been back to Henry Ford Wyandotte since the day I was literally ✨unaliving✨ there.

Would you believe that 2 of the 3 doctors who saved my life in that room that day happened to be working?! Yes! Dr Hanna and Dr. Aregola (spelling might be wrong, I'm so sorry!). They told us how they checked my chart every single day and when they seen my name, they had to come talk to me. I let them know everything that's happened between then and now, how bad it got and how far I've come. Being back in that ER, in the room right around the corner from where I was initially brought was really triggering for us but being able to see the faces of these women who I now know thought about and talked about me & Brenna the way we did them was so healing and poor Carolyn just had to deal with all of that .

That's partially why I wanted to be sure not to leave anything out of this update and to even circle back to some missing details that I left out for the sake of length during my original update. Because it hasn't always been all smiles, positivity, hope and strength. There has been so much fear/uncertainty, defeat and hopelessness. Every day I have to make the conscious decision to be happy, to be strong and remind myself the only person who can decide what my life will be - what my story will be - is me. But I promise you, I am no more capable nor am I more qualified than YOU are as well. They told me I wouldn't be able to walk for a year and even then I'd only be able to with a walker. I used my walker twice and decided 'mmm no' and just started using a cane. I drove last week. Yesterday, I walked through a store for the first time. No wheelchair, no scooter, no cane. Just me and my lil cart.

You have no idea what you're capable of. You have no idea how much people believe in you, how much I believe in you. Whether you need to take baby steps or a giant leap, just keep moving forward and remember your timeline is your own.

My personal philosophy is, "I could be sad, I could even be angry but I still won't have no damn legs so I might as well be happy". Thank you for allowing me to share this wild ride with you. Please fasten your seatbelts & keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times because im nowhere near finished ❤️ Update (7/31): WOW. Im honestly struggling to find the words to adequately express my gratitude. I was so reluctant to make this, especially with how expensive it is for anyone to meet their basic needs. It felt insensitive & I felt I should just be grateful bc not only am I still here, I have a support system that I know from working the road is uncommon for people in my situation, how could I ask for more? But my family talked me into it and I truly thought I'd be lucky to get one donation & a few shares. As I type this, I've received 42 donations (totaling $2300) and 153 shares. You guys are amazing!

I was so discouraged after hearing how much just my thumb would cost. No one was expecting that number. But on that same day, we measured and casted for my left hand prosthetic - I opted for a basic hook as it's the cheapest and most functional. My immediate goal with my upper extremities, is re-learning how to do my makeup again. If you know me, you know it's something I've always loved doing. My niece is finally homecoming/high school dance age and we had JUST confirmed it as 'our' thing before I got sick. I remember one of the few nights I was in the hospital by myself and we were just waiting to amputate my dominant/makeup hand that I would find a way to continue to be that person for her and for me.

I was hoping I'd have my thumb by fall but that was when we thought it would be half price. But when I found myself discouraged, I told myself whether I learn how to do it with my hook hand or I learn how to do it with my right without a thumb, I'm going to practice my a$$ off and I know I can do it! So if things continue to go the way they have been, I should be able to have my left hand prosthetic home with me in the next 2-3 weeks. Please continue scaring (donating if you can).

If you're not following any of my socials where I post updates/videos of my progress. Facebook & TikTok have the most current content but I'll leave the link to all of them here:

https://MySlink.app/lingtaughtyou

Update (7/26): we just got the actual cost of my thumb prosthetic and it's actually closer to $15K which is insane & 3x more than what my leg was. So, I updated the gofundme - I'm not expecting to raise that much but anything will help.

We know it's an everything crisis for everyone right now so anything is appreciated. Medical insurance has covered most of the hospital bills & cost of the prosthetic leg. We still have to get the prosthetic hand (which we're choosing the most basic option) and the prosthetic thumb (which insurance companies don't cover). Prior to losing all of my limbs, I was an EMT & I worked rescue for almost my entire career. I was working up until the day I was hospitalized. I applied for disability in April and as of today (7/26), there's still an estimated 5 more months until they make a decision.

My family has covered most of my bills and needs & have spent hundreds on equipment I needed to give me as much independence a quadruple amputee can get & so that I could come home. The accessibility accessories you need add up when dealing with one amputation, much less four. My prosthetic technician said my thumb prosthetic alone is $5k on the low end but could be much higher. I have to undergo at least two more surgeries (a hysterectomy to prevent another pelvic infection which started all of this and surgery on my remaining hand to give more function).

We're asking anyone who can, to please donate. If you can't, we understand and all we ask is to share this fundraiser.

"I said once I got out of the hospital and thoroughly went through my chart that I'd tell my story & post this video. But every time I've typed it out, it just didn't feel right until today. But here goes:

On Feb. 7th, I got off work around 2am and started feeling cramping in my lower abdomen, it was pretty severe but I've always had random severe cramping fairly often with my IUD (which I've had for 8 yrs & was actually do to come out in may). I assumed it was the normal cramping Ive always had with it. I got home, took some meds and laid on my heating pad. Nothing was working & it felt like it was getting worse but I thought I was just being dramatic so I still wasn't alarmed and decided to try & sleep it off. I said to myself if it got worse, I'd go to the ER.

The next morning I woke up & the cramping was worsening by the hour. I was guarding (fetal position holding abdomen as if to protect from pain), my abdomen was distended with rebound tenderness - all things as an EMT I know are so I decided to go to the ER. The doctor at the first hospital was so dismissive, condescending and rude. They did what most male doctors almost always do when a woman has a complaint, they were blowing me off. I tested positive for Covid and even though I was showing no covid symptoms, they were treating me as if that was the answer and I should just accept that and go. At that point I was sobbing from the pain barely able to stand or walk and I had to beg for tests to be done while being in a secondary waiting room in a hard chair. I told them I was an EMT and I know something is wrong and while I understand I have Covid, that didn't explain my abdominal pain or any of my signs/symptoms for that matter, my vitals were completely in the tank and none of those things were being addressed and I understand everything they're telling me, better than the average patient would, but it's not an adequate explanation. After 9 hours they finally did a CT which came back normal and again they were pushing me to accept this and leave, when I asked for additional testing, the doctor said "fine. But it's going to be several more hours". I waited for 13 hours total and laid on my coat on the floor bc I could not tolerate sitting in a chair any more, the only thing that helped A LITTLE was being in the fetal position. They gave me toradol and one bag of fluids and did not check on me ONE time until ANOTHER PATIENT (an older woman who had been there much longer than I was) said "there's no reason she should be in that much pain in a hospital. You don't see her, help her!" I didn't want to ask for pain medication because I didn't want to give them anymore reason to write me off. I wanted answers! I decided to leave at that point, even though I knew I'd be considered leaving AMA in my chart bc if I was going to be in that much pain, AND disregarded then I'd rather be at home and I would go to another hospital in the morning & I won't say what they said when I told them I was leaving. I went home and passed out quicker than my first day at basic. Idk if it was from pain or if I actually just fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up in the fetal position and my entire body felt like glass, like if I moved an inch, my bones would shatter. It was so excruciating, I will never forget that feeling. I was in so much pain and struggling to breathe, I couldn't even roll over to grab my phone to call for help. Luckily my brother was there & my family was able to get an ambulance there. My sister got there right when the ambulance did and she said I looked like the little Voldemort in DH2 Thanks to years of rescue service myself, when they got my vitals in the ambulance, I knew I was unaliving. Funny thing is, the tech treating me was actually my old EMT Instructor (shout out bill). Once I got to the ER, picture what you've seen in TV/movies. I was too unstable for testing or the OR and the doctors and nurses were fighting to stabilize me and arguing back and forth on where they should be taking me. I actually stopped one of the nurses and asked if they could just knock me out while they figured that out eventually they took me to CT & when they did that, some of them were comforting the residents telling them they did all they could (cue the mental "oooh b*tch you are di3ing). In CT they found 1.5 liters of pus in my abdomen and they rushed me to surgery. That was the last thing I remembered after waking up over a week later but we'll get to that. They cleaned out my abdomen and removed my IUD. Shout out everyone who kept me alive @ Henry Ford Wyandotte even though literally NO ONE thought they could ❤️

The initial impression is that my IUD had a bacteria that grew likely over a year that caused a pelvic infection but because I was used to abdominal pain, I didn't realize there was a problem. I went septic within 24 hours and was rushed to Henry ford main for escalation of care.

All of my organs failed and in an effort to keep my organs alive they give you medicine to take all the blood from the rest of your body to your vital organs and you're supposed to regain blood flow once you're stable, that's when they discovered I had blood clots and a clotting disorder stopping the blood from going back to my limbs. I was in a coma from the point of my initial surgery for around 13 days. They weren't sure if I'd wake up or what state I'd be in if I did. I was also under Covid precautions so they wouldn't let my family in except for my sister 1 hour a day, where she would call up A Steag & rap dreams & nightmares to try and wake me up. My sister also tried all of the things I hate, putting her finger in my ear, slapped the shit out of me and poked and tried to annoy me awake anyways, in that time All of my limbs went necrotic and as you'll see in the video were so swollen. When I woke up, I couldn't talk, I couldn't move. The atrophy had taken all of my muscle strength, I couldn't even turn my head. I was also still on a vent and I was so gotdamn thirsty we used a laminated letter board Amanda a dry erase marker to communicate (badly might I add), and I kept asking for water but no one would give me anything & they wouldn't tell me I couldn't have it either, just pretended I didn't ask so I wouldn't get upset. Not being able to talk was THE WORST. My ventilator piece had fallen down and was hurting my lip so bad and I kept trying to use my tongue to fix or my one working finger and they thought it was me trying to pull my vent out and kept threatening me with restraints bc I couldn't tell them AS SOON AS I COULD TALK AGAIN, I was like this is exactly where you guys had me fucked up at my sister felt so bad lol.

Anywho, like I said my left extremities were so swollen & my hand and feet hurt so bad and nothing helped. During my coma, they did a surgery to remove a blood cut in my left upper arm and it caused me to lose feeling from my bicep area to my wrist, which they said feeling might come back might not (it hasn't lol). And I COULDNT WAIT to get that hand chopped off just to have some relief from the pain. It was also SO heavy, like 2 bricks on a twig lol. I kept telling all the staff that too. My right hand, the necrosis moved the fastest, my thumb was shriveled up it looked like a roasted chili pepper. The only finger I had that semi moved was my right pinky finger. My legs were necrotic, black & blistered all over (they don't know what caused the blisters still & while it looks SO MUCH BETTER NOW, it looked siiiick then). My feet just throbbed and they made me wear these hot ass, huge ass pillow boots and foot covers). My feet looked like jeepers creepers' when he was pretending to be that scarecrow. I was looking forward to my amputations even though the doctors were still telling me I might not need it with time (I think they thought I needed to hear that). The plan was to wait as long as we could to see what would heal on its own and what would naturally fall off. I was also on dialysis for a while bc like I said, all of my organs failed. I couldn't eat anything and lost a little over 35 lbs. I was put on blood thinners for the schlew of clots I still had which caused a GI bleed, cue emergency surgery again. A large portion of my small intestine was removed. I was forcing myself to move around as much as I could and finallllly started getting my strength back. I spent most of my time watching svu, talking my sh!t & making jokes and looooots of naps.

Mid-march, one of my surgeons came in doing her rounds & she was knelt down next to my feet & I could see on her face that she was trying to think of how to tell me it was time to amputate. Like I said, Im true to this not new to this so I already knew the amputations were inevitable so I just said "it's okay, I know. Im ready" with a smile on my face & the sigh of relief she let out was palpable. We moved pretty quickly after that & my attitude stayed positive bc really, I knew I'd be right back being me & I was so excited to just have some relief from the state of my limbs. So march 27th, what I have left is what healed, what didn't was amputated - below the left knee, my left hand (they purposely saved all my tattoos ❤️) and a little less than half of my right foot (I call it my little foot now & can use toddler shoes on it ). Two weeks later, we amputated my right thumb, down to the first knuckle of my index finger & the tip of my middle finger. Believe it or not, my fingers were the most painful as far as the healing process. Luckily I already had the worlds strongest pinky bc I couldn't actually use any of the amputated parts when I had them. I did my PT when they asked even though I dreaded itt but I told myself, I'd never say to anything they asked me to do no matter how hard, or how painful. After all, I had furbabies I was ready to get home to!

I remember waking up that first day, not being able to turn my head, everyone tried to make sure I didn't see what I looked like (it was as bad as I felt ), the nurses braided my comatose hairs & kept it in protective styles for me the entire stay. Then sitting up for the first time & how excruciating it was, my lungs feeling like they would collapse and it taking all of my energy just to do something so basic with the help of TWO people to the first time standing with assistance just for a few seconds, sobbing bc of how painful it was, to practicing nonstop in the hospital bed and showing everyone I could sit up on my own the first time and then being able to stand & stable enough to wheeled outside and feel the sun on my skin for the first time in months. I was at Henry Ford Main from Feb - April, in rehab in the least amount of time possible and getting home April 28th!!!

In the time I've been home, I've been in and out of the hospital for GI issues and cysts and abscesses on my ovaries and fallopian tubes (I'm getting a hysterectomy) and right before my birthday my healthy, thick waist length hair randomly fell out of my head. I was holding it in clumps in my hand and it was the only time I cried during all of this (like I really can't have shit around here!!). So basically every single complication that could have happened, happened.

But let me tell you, NO ONE thought I was going to survive. I had an 88% mortality rate. Any one of the 52!! diagnosis should have k!lled me but instead, I'm thriving. I've always accomplished everything I ever wanted to accomplish and this was going to be no different. I still have hard days, I'm human. But I'm here with a testimony & the best support system you can imagine. I want to use all of the time I have to inspire & make a difference which is why I've been so transparent about my story. I'm going to leave my mark on this world before im done with it & that's for damn sure.

Trust the journey & rest your soul.

Sincerely,

B.

Special shout out to all of my doctors, surgeons nurses, aids, administrators, housekeepers and the rest of the staff at Henry Ford Wyandotte & Henry Ford Main that made me telling my story possible. I truly believe, had I of been anywhere else, I wouldn't be alive today. But especially to the ICU that knew the odds were against me, braided my hair and cried with my family & celebrated every bit of progress with us. To Susan & Mike, who advocated for me when I couldn't and held my hand and let me talk their ears off & for laughing at all my jokes!"

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