Please Help Kathy Hill Recover from Back Surgery

Hi, my name is Debbie and I’m fundraising for my sister, Kathy Hill.

Kathy is a single, self-employed, mother of 2 and grandmother of 5. She is a kind person who cares about her friends and family. She goes out of her way to be involved in helping others, is always getting people together by organizing family events and holiday get-togethers, and often volunteers at fundraiser and public events.

Kathy’s surgery is scheduled for August 30, 2021. Your contribution will enable her to stay current on her house payments, pay utility bills, and cover general expenses such as food and incidentals. Any money received over and above general living expenses will be put toward medication, hospital and doctor bills, which are expected to be over $30K out of pocket.

Kathy suffers from scoliosis and over the past 10 years, the pain in her back has become so unbearable she has been required to undergo multiple procedures. Two years ago, with the hope of finding relief from the pain, she had major surgery to have her lower back fused to repair several collapsed discs .

Unfortunately, this surgery wasn’t successful and the pain continues, making it a struggle to get through every work day.

Recent MRIs and CAT scans identified pseudoarthrosis at L5-S1 with halos around the screws and gas voids in the disc space around the previously installed cage. In addition, the two levels of discs above the previous fusion are misaligned and also show gas voids, indicating continued degeneration, which is causing the significant pain in the lower spine.

Consequently, Kathy will require another major surgery to extend the cage from L1 up to T10. To do this, pedicle screw instrumentation will be used for the posterior fusion. To attempt to get the interior to heal, an anterior approach will be performed to remove the old cage and then place a single interbody cage with graft material at L5-S1. The interbody cage will then be fixed into place with an anterior plate or interbody screws. Potential complications from the surgery include infection, blood loss, neurological injury, and failure of fusion.

The surgery will take most of a day and will require a minimum of 10 weeks to heal enough to return back to work. Not only will the surgery itself cause a financial hardship, but being self-employed and not working for 10 weeks will result in a significant income deficit.

Words cannot express the gratitude felt for any donation made - please know your donation to this cause is greatly appreciated!

Thank you so, so, much!!