jimmys wellness fund

About Jimmy Carbone’s ongoing 2 year  fight against a misdiagnosed 
spine Infection, paralysis,emergency spine surgeries, the complications from that , and His Ongoing Recovery. 

from Jimmy’s brother Christopher:
Overview notes:
Jimmy Carbone continues to need everyone's help.

Here is an article about Jimmy's recovery and physical therapy 
http://evgrieve.com/2019/02/jimmy-carbone-on-long-recovery-ahead.html 

Jimmy continues to need financial support. 

See UPDATE tab  for current notes...

Here is the overview GoFundMe page
for "Jimmy's Wellness Fund",
to help him cover ongoing expenses while he strives to recover.
Any help with donations and in sharing the word will make a difference for him.
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Background :
As many of you know, since the Fall 2017
Jimmy Carbone has been going through an arduous ordeal with his health:
Amongst other issues, Jimmy suffered through a full-blown knee infection that landed him in the hospital in October, and then over time it grew to be an intense, pervasive pain in all his joints,
with fatigue and weakness.
Along the way, he was forced to close his business “Jimmy’s 43” in the East Village.
His other work opportunities also suffered as he did not have the physical stamina to keep going. 

Jimmy put his best efforts into trying to figure out the possible causes, to deal with it all:
With his wife Pixie’s help, he began making strong lifestyle changes,
including purposeful and dedicated care with nutrition and overall wellness practices,
and that indeed helped his overall health.
(As part of that, Jimmy lost 40 pounds of weight!)
 With encouragement and support from friends, he got long-needed appointments with specialists including orthopedic physicians and eye-doctors (his vision has suffered as well).   

The GoFundMe page was originally created for Jimmy in November 2017,
to help get him some help while he visited specialists and sought additional treatment.
That helped him to bear some of the emotional and financial stresses of this ordeal.
Thank you to all who have been of support thus far, it has meant so much to Jimmy.

During that time, there were moments where he was hopeful for improvements.
Yet even with these lifestyle shifts and medical visits, he was concerned:
his fatigue and painful joint issues continued to plague him over time.
He experienced mysterious chills and pains and exhaustion,
while trying just to walk, to work, and in daily life. 
Yet Jimmy pushed on to try to get through it all.

His condition got so bad this June 2018,
after pushing himself to get through a catering job through intense pain,
that same night afterwards, his legs stopped functioning,
and he couldn’t even stand up, he had lost all strength and mobility in his legs:
he found himself essentially paralyzed from the waist down.

Jimmy was hauled to the Emergency room down 3 flights of stairs by 4 EMT’s. 

There at NYU Langone Hospital,
after myriad tests and an MRI on his spine,
infectious disease specialists there joined his team,
and they found an important part of the puzzle:
that Jimmy had been dealing with a serious MRRS Staph Infection. 
The Staph infection had gone directly into his spine. 
That Staph infection had been causing damage internally in his body and nervous system for months and unfortunately had been going undiagnosed.
It is now suspected to be related to the original knee infection
that occurred back in October 2017 or even longer than that.
Since then, the Staph had gone deep into his system, it was not caught,
and over those 9 months,
it had been slowly wreaking havoc on his body from the inside out.

So, the first goal was to stop the infection,
and to help restore the spinal cord and verterbrae that had been compromised.
To begin the process, he went through 2 emergency surgeries in June
 and then began undergoing ongoing intensive antibiotic treatment to treat the infection.
This was all done in the hopes of regenerating the nerve ­connections there in time,
to improve his chances of his lower spinal cord and body working,
for basic life skills such as standing and walking again someday.

Since the surgeries, Jimmy was moved from the ICU to an acute hospital rehab in New York:
(to the NYU Acute Care ­Rusk Rehabilitation hospital ­
on 2nd Avenue and 17th Street.)
Then in September 2018, was able to be moved from hospital
to at-home rehab treatment.

Update October 21, 2018 

As of October 21, 2018 Jimmy says:
“Past couple weeks I've had a chance to reflect on what has happened to me health-wise the past year. With doctor follow-ups: the neurosurgeon who operated 2 times on my spine, the infectious disease doctor who identified and treated my spine infection, and the rehab doctor who is managing my recovery… My spine infection went undiagnosed for quite a long time. It caused considerable spinal cord and vertebrae damage. The two surgeries putting in two 10-inch metal rods in my spine also created additional strain, and recovery from these kinds of spinal cord injuries is not completely understood.
It’s not over, I have a long road of recovery ahead.
I need your support more than ever, with mounting medical bills, cost of medications, food and shelter, debts. I can now walk with a walker, but will need much more outpatient therapy and time for the nerves in my feet and legs to fully recover, if ever......I don’t know if I will ever regain full mobility and range of motion with my back. The infection is still there in my spine, I will be taking antibiotics for many years to keep it at bay.”

Notes on Jimmy Carbone's ongoing health crisis
from Jimmy’s brother Christopher: as of October 21, 2018
Jimmy still in pain and his mobility still very limited – and needs help and support.

Review: Jimmy had been in the hospital since June2018,
where they found spinal staph infection eating away at his spine, and did 2 emergency spine surgeries to save him. Since then he had been in and out of ICU and the Acute Rehabilitation wing of the hospital for recovery and rehab.
Jimmy has been at home for 4 weeks now, doing at-home rehab.
He has another 1 to 2 years of rehabilitation ahead.
He needs help financially getting back on his “feet” too.

Here’s what’s happening now
Jimmy’s feeling grateful to be home but it’s not easy
and doctors say that his recovery process will continue to take at least another 18 months to 2 years.
He will have limited mobility for the rest of his life, his career and job prospects must change.

Jimmy continues to need everyone’s help as he recovers and gains strength.
via the GoFundMe page for "Jimmy's Wellness Fund",
to help him cover ongoing expenses while he strives to recover.
Any help in sharing the word will make a difference for him.
https://www.gofundme.com/jimmywellnessfund )

---------------------------------------

So for now Jimmy is doing the Home-Rehab approach,
with visiting therapists to check on his surgery recovery and overall wellbeing…
and outside appointments with specialists to make sure he keeps making progress…

He’s also awaiting the opportunity to return to more intensive rehab workouts
and he’s hoping to be able to get into that NYU outpatient rehab system
for regular visits there each week starting in a couple weeks.

It will be many months ahead,
even years of ongoing Rehabilitation –
but now the vision is even more clear of the possibility…

In the metaphor of the “Marathon” that we’ve used in the past,
now he’s getting up past the major hills in the road,
and beginning to see a more clear path -

For all who also have shared positive messages and donated over these months:

THANK YOU for your generous and kind spirit,
it all helps so much to relieve the difficulties for Jimmy going through this.
He continues to need everyone’s help as he recovers and gains strength.
via the GoFundMe page
for "Jimmy's Wellness Fund",
to help him cover ongoing expenses while he strives to recover.
Any help in sharing the word will make a difference for him.
https://www.gofundme.com/jimmywellnessfund

——
Please continue to share this story and help.
Jimmy will need everyone’s support for a while.
Any help that you can give means so much right now.
https://www.gofundme.com/jimmywellnessfund

Thank you
Christopher Carbone on behalf of brother Jimmy Carbone

------------------------------

Follow the "updates" tab  for what's most current.

Jimmy's original out-reach story from November 2017,
before he knew that on top of everything else,
he was also dealing with a serious MRRS Staph Infection.  
Notes from that original, here below:

----------------------------------
from Jimmy's original posts:

Been dealing with a lot - I've also had a lot of business stress the past few years that has made it worse. My work has suffered and now I have a health crisis.

Early October 2017, i had a high fever for 2 days. the 3rd day, my knee started to swell up, i couldnt sleep nor walk. Next day i was in Beth Israel hospital for 2 days. i was on crutches for 2 weeks, fatigued for a month. 

back story on work stress.
march 2015, i was directly  adjacent to the east village gas explosion when it happened.  my business was closed for 3 weeks, i was stressed out of my mind, fought the city to reopen, dealt with 5 months of building renovations.
http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/04/brewmuda-triangle-back-in-business-after-east-village-explosion-closure/

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/03/updates-on-the-east-village-explosion-48-hours-later/

Since then , my health went downhill. while i struggled to re open then survive as a business...

2 years later, the business was forced to close .

this article best tells the story
http://gothamist.com/2017/08/28/rip_jimmys_no_43.php

2 months later, i was in the hospital, unable to walk. waking  every hour to go to the bathroom.
my knee still swells up and it's been hard to find answers - no one can figure out what is happening -  have not had a proper diagnosis yet regarding the knee injury.

i  need the money to cover living expenses while i get better, sort out a job or re open my business with a partner. but i will not get my health back without the funds to take the time to do this and to afford  proper medical treatment.

the funds are needed to cover upcoming months of living expenses, medical treatment, and debts that have been incurred the past months while i have been ill.

my situation is urgent.

i contribute regularly to my community, have supported many arts, school, theater, food start up groups,

now im asking for help, to get healthy .

 cheers,

jimmy carbone