Help Jeff Hiebert through this difficult time

Hey everyone, my name is Taylor and I am Jeff's daughter. As many of you already know Jeff has had quite the last year and a half and it's looking like it wont be coming to an end any time soon... At the beginning of 2022 he started having some health concerns with his hands/arms/shoulders/neck cause numbness, and loss of feeling throughout. At the time he thought he might've had a pinched nerve causing his discomfort, so he tried chiropractic work that did not help. His dr there told Jeff he thought it was something else and would be a good idea to get checked out with his PCP. At the same time as this was occurring Jeff also was having severe hip pain that pushed him to see a dr to see about a hip replacement and anything to help relieve his discomfort and pain. Everyone that knows my Dad knows he's got an insane pain tolerance and is stubborn as hell, so for him to come to this decision (mostly) on his own was saying something...

Several Xrays and MRI's later it was determined there was a lot more going on internally than originally thought. It was found his spinal cord was almost completely compressed at his c3 & c4 and that was the cause of the loss of feeling, numbness and coordination problems in his arms. It was determined that he needed to have a surgery to hopefully prevent the compression from getting worse. No guarantees the feeling in the arms shoulders or hands would return to normal or get better, but they hoped it would in time. Predictions on time frame wise was roughly at least a year before the doctors thought the nerves would start healing for the feeling to come back. Also during all the imaging they took a look at his hip that Jeff needed checked out. It was determined nothing was broken, but that the bone in the hip and socket was not healthy and definitely needed replaced. A total hip replacement due to severe arthritis and other small things. Despite how bad his hip was the doctors stressed that his spinal cord compression was more urgent and needed to be fixed BEFORE they began the process for his hip.

During all this Jeff was still going to work everyday. As time went on, his hip got worse, making it harder for him to walk and tolerate the pain he was in. In march of 2022 jeff was unable to use his hands enough for his job so he set up his fmla and came home to get ready for his medical journey he was getting ready to start. Jeff received his short term disability during his fmla time but Unfortunately his first surgery was unable to be scheduled until after his FMLA period ended, so his employer had to terminate Jeff because he was not going to be able to return to work at the end of his 12 week fmla due to the surgery not being performed in that time frame. His employment ending caused a slight speed bump with his medical treatments but we kept going.

The surgery to fix his compressed spinal cord was performed at the end of July. In between March and July everything got worse... The loss of feeling was also now causing the loss of sensation such as hot or cold temps. His coordination was off, his gripping was terrible. He could not even hardly hold his own silverware, I actually fully prepared his meals for him and had to cut his food up for him. Jeff couldn't tell how much pressure he was using in his hands.. Sometimes he'd use too much pressure, for instance when eating a sandwich or something you'd eat with your hands, his hands would go through the food, tearing it apart. Other times not enough grip or pressure and he would drop things, they'd slip out of his hands. He couldn't raise his arms above his head or shoulders, making it hard for simple everyday tasks. Washing his hard, brushing his hard, cleaning his ears, etc... It was a rough few months for Dad. As you can imagine this caused some frustrations and mixed emotions for my dad. Thankfully Julys surgery date comes along and goes smoothly! Now begins the recovery for that. During this time though Jeff's hip began getting worse and worse. Causing extreme pain and difficulty walking/standing/moving/breathing. Any movement caused his hip to make grinding and popping noises.... If you were close to him to hear, it sounded like bone snapping. And this was coming from him almost constantly.

Jeff got cleared from his first surgery to go ahead with his hip surgery. Unfortunately the original hip surgeon could no longer perform the hip replacement because Jeff's hip bone and joint and socket were too damaged and he needed a different specialist. Due to his hip being so bad during the wait time, his hip moved out of socket, basically dislocated and stayed up in this new position until his surgery... This caused his hamstring muscle to contract and shrink. Jeff was unable to walk for roughly 2 to 3 months before the surgery. His leg was just like a flamingos leg. The end of Sept 2022 Jeff finally got to have his appt with the hip surgeon. After looking at the imaging for jeff the surgeon wanted to do the surgery as soon as possible. They ended up having a cancellation that day and asked if jeff could be surgery ready in 10 days. Despite a few setbacks he was able to have the surgery right away. The joint and socket had to both be built up quite a bit to complete the surgery, but they were able to get it done. After surgery began more problems for jeff though. Due to how much the muscle in that leg had shrunk and contracted, he now couldn't get his leg close to straight. Making recovery and physical therapy extremely difficult. Jeff was sent to a rehab hospital for 10 days to try and get any progress on his leg. A lot of physical therapy later he was released to go home & out patient physical therapy.

We are now into almost july of 2023 and jeff is still going to physical therapy. His leg is still unable to straighten all the way out. Several medications later to try and help and He is just now able to walk assisted, and he still has a long way to go. In a week Jeff has to have another procedure to hopefully relax the muscle the rest of the way to hopefully allow him to be able to walk again. The dr that is going to perform that had some other concerns and ordered another MRI of Jeff's spine and the results of that were not good. The rest of Dads spine/spinal cord are not the way they should be. Bone spurs, bulging discs, narrowing spinal cord and spine and multiple other things- we are still waiting for the appt to discuss and go over all the options with the neurologist due to these results.

Both surgeons that have worked on him, the surgeon that couldn't work on him, his drs and his physical therapists have all stated that Jeffs case is the worst they have all experienced, seen, worked on. They've all never seen/worked with someone that bad.

Due to all of this, the drs have said they do not know when or if jeff will be able to return to work. Jeff currently has no income other than what my husband, my mom and her fiance have been able to do to keep his bills, expenses covered for him. Jeff doesn't qualify for any assistance other than a food card right now, but he has started the disability process with his attorney.

We are asking for any help for my dad for this in between time of waiting on his disability to go through and be approved. Absolutely anything would be beyond appreciated and would help beyond measure. My dad is a man that never asks for help, so this is a hard thing for him to have to ask. He's always been the one to help anyone he could, the one everyone could come to for help and be helped with no judgement or questions asked. He's always been the provider and care taker and now the roles have reversed and he needs the help.

Any donations will go directly to my father for bills, medicine, appts, basics, etc. Thank you to anyone who made it this far to the end and thank you to anyone who can help. Thank you thank you!