Support Joe Drumm's Journey

Hello, my name is Paige Drumm, daughter of Joe Drumm, who is a wonderful father, husband, son, brother, uncle and so much more to so many people. As many of you may know, my father has gone through a lot in the past 6-8 months and his fight is far from over. To set the scene, dad had his first left hip surgery on October 5th, 2023 and things were going great and he had planned to go back to work on November 21st. However, on November 18th he developed a bad staph infection and had emergency surgery scheduled because the ball and socket in his hip was debrided. In this surgery, the doctor cut out the infected parts, and cleaned everything out, and after he was then placed on a 6-week, 24 hour IV antibiotic regimen. After this second surgery, he began therapy and things were looking good and then things took a turn for the worst when two bacterial infections showed within the incision and led to a complete revision surgery on April 12th. This third surgery was six hours long and dad had lost a lot of blood; now all hardware was removed and replaced with antibiotic infused cement spacers.

Fast forward to last Tuesday (April 16th), at 4 days post surgery the cement ball and socket dislocated, which resulted in a total hip dislocation and a fracture on his femur. Due to the severity of the revision surgery, the doctors are electing to not do surgery again to reset the hip (thus leaving it dislocated) for six weeks while the infections from the surgery heal. Currently, dad is completely immobile and he is 100% non-weight bearing and he will soon be going to rehabilitation at Willow Point Nursing home for the next six weeks. As long as the infection clears in the six week timeline, they will schedule a surgery to take out the cement antibiotics, reset the hip and place the final permanent hardware in his hip. After that surgery, he will have 8-12 weeks of physical therapy and recovery, all while hopefully staying healthy and developing no more infections.

The past week or so has been a rollercoaster of emotions for all of us, including dad who has to endure this excruciating pain for the next six weeks in rehab. This GoFundMe has been set up to help mom and dad out with the medical expenses they will have to pay out of pocket. The main one being medical transportation for dad (due to being 100% immobile) to and from his doctor appointments while in rehab. This timeline of events was not anticipated and it has put a big strain on my family, especially with dad being out of work for 6-months already and another 4-6 months more. While here, I would also like to say thank you to the village that has supported my family while I have been away at school, your love and kindness has not gone unnoticed and I am so so grateful for everyone in our lives who has been there for my family. We appreciate any donation and thank you all for your love and support!

Sincerely,

Paige, Bobbie and Joe