Medical Expense fund for Linda Auld

Hi, my name is Hannah. I am raising money for my grandma, Linda Auld. She is currently in the ICU at St. Francis being treated for a ruptured abscess and the sepsis that it caused. She has been in the hospital for over a week. She’s had 2 surgeries, an ultrasound, a CT scan, and countless other procedures (more details below, if you would like to know more). When all of this is said and done, she is going to have a huge pile of bills. My goal is to get her as much help as possible for that. After everything she’s been through, the last thing she needs is to be stressed about money.

If any of you have had the pleasure of knowing my grandma, you know that she is one of the kindest, sweetest, funniest, most loving, generous, and caring humans out there. She has been an inspiration to so many, myself included. And she does not deserve any of this. Help us help her, as she has helped so many others throughout her life.

If you donate here is how the money will be used:

• First and foremost, the majority of the funds will go toward Grandma’s medical expenses. She is going to have to pay for the initial doctor’s visit, the ER visit, the second office visit, the ultrasound, both surgeries, hospital fees, the CT scan, all lab work, all future medical care once she gets out of the hospital (she has a lot of recovery ahead of her), and the list goes on and on

• After that, any extra will go to my mom. She has been by grandma's side 24/7 and is losing pay from not being able to go to work. It will help pay for things like:

o Monthly bills

o Gas (we are all driving to and from the hospital a lot, sometimes multiple times a day)

o Food (my mom is having to buy all of her meals from the cafeteria at the hospital since there are no refrigerators for her to store food, that cost adds up quickly)

o Food/care for their 5 animals

o Any other expenses that come up

We understand that not everyone is able to donate money. If that is your case, we ask that you please share this. One share potentially reaches hundreds more people, and the more people that see this, the more likely we will be able to reach our goal. We appreciate anything you can do to help!!

Here's more detailed info about what got us here:

Around May 8th, she had (what she thought was) a cyst burst under her skin, on her left shoulder. This is a cyst that she has had for decades. On May 10th, she saw her primary care doctor and got some antibiotics and steroids prescribed to her. She began taking the meds and initially started feeling better.

However, on Mother's Day (May 14th), the shoulder began to smell "rotten". My mom, being a nurse, knew that was a very bad sign and took her to the ER that afternoon. But the ER dismissed her and told her she just needed to see a dermatologist. They did not look at it with any imaging and did not run any other tests. They just sent her on her way. My mom, knowing better, had her schedule an appointment with a surgeon that she trusts. She got a referral but was not able to get in to see the surgeon until Monday, May 22nd. The week in between going to the ER and seeing the surgeon, she felt very lethargic and slept most of the day. She would be able to complete a small task, such as feeding the dogs, then would immediately have to lay back down.

At her appointment (May 22nd), the doctor looked at her shoulder with an ultrasound and discovered that it had spread over the entire shoulder. After a short discussion, he agreed with my mom that they needed to do surgery ASAP. They got the surgery scheduled for Thursday, May 25th. Over those next few days, her health started deteriorating a lot and she started feeling much worse. Her shoulder was hurting really bad after the doctor pushed on it with the ultrasound and she had to stop taking her pain medicine since she was having surgery in a couple of days.

The morning of her surgery, she woke up and was septic. She was disoriented, she would go from hot to cold in an instant, her blood pressure was low, she was having trouble breathing, and she was in extreme pain. My mom got her to the hospital as soon as she could. Luckily, the doctor was able to get her in for her surgery early. After a few hours of waiting, we got the news that the surgery went well. However, it was not what they were expecting. Instead of a cyst, it was an abscess. And instead of just being on the top of her shoulder, the infection had spread all the way down to her left side. They had to make several incisions. One very long incision on the top of her shoulder and several smaller ones near the bottom of her shoulder and her side. And they had to "tunnel" from the larger incision to all of the smaller incisions to clear out the infection. After several more hours of waiting for a room to open up, we finally saw her. She was in very good spirits, and even said she was feeling much better already. A weight had literally been lifted off her shoulder. When we all left that night, she was doing well.

The next morning (Friday, May 26th), when my mom got to the hospital, she found out that Grandma had been given food that she is highly allergic to. And she was starting to have an anaphylactic reaction to eating the food (she is on a lot of medicine that is affecting her cognition, so she didn't realize it was something she's allergic to when she ate it). They were able to get it under control temporarily, but she did have a second re-bound attack later that day. Around the time of the second attack, we also found out that they gave her a second item that she is allergic to. She is not anaphylactic to that item, but it does cause her to get colitis (which she was recovering from right before all of this happened). This caused a whole whirlwind of other issues throughout the next few days, including us not being able to trust the nurses with her care. That same day she also had all of the dressings pulled out and had a WoundVac put in. That was a very traumatic and painful experience for her. But she got through it all like the trooper that she is. She was doing okay by the time we left.

The next morning (Saturday, May 27th), she was feeling pretty good. She was able to get out of the bed and sit in the recliner for a couple of hours. She even felt good enough to joke around with the nurses. By the evening, though, her left side had started itching. She thought it was hives, caused by the allergic reaction she had the day before. My mom looked at it, and unfortunately, it appeared as though the infection had spread even further down her left side. We called the nurse and doctor in, and they agreed. They scheduled a CT scan for her, to get a closer look at what was going on. That night when I left (shortly before 10:00 pm) she was doing okay. She was just groggy from all of the medicine. Unfortunately, later that night things took a turn. She had a very realistic nightmare and woke up terrified. My mom called and I went back to the hospital. By the time I got there, she was doing better but was still a little confused. I stayed for a couple of hours. They took her to get the CT while I was there. She started to fall asleep shortly after she got back to the room, so I went back home.

Early the next morning (Sunday, May 28th), the doctor came back to the room and said they need to do more surgery. The CT scan showed that the infection had in fact gone further down her side, and there was a pocket of air in her side. So they took her to pre-op and sent my mom to the surgery waiting room. By the time I got there, the surgery was done, and a room had just opened up in the ICU. They ended up having to make another incision on her left side and had to take out some muscle that died from the infection. But they feel like they got all of the infection out this time. When she was brought to the room, she was still very groggy from the anesthesia and was in a lot of pain. The nurse got her a pain pill and she fell asleep shortly after. For the most part, she slept the rest of the day. I had to leave around 8:00 because the ICU doesn’t allow visitors after that. She was still asleep when I left.

The next day (Monday, May 29th) was relatively quiet. She slept for most of the day. Waking up occasionally to take medicine, go to the bathroom, or get a small amount of food or water. At this point, she had become pretty delirious. She struggled most at night. She had several vivid nightmares and unfortunately was not able to differentiate them from reality. And she often woke up not knowing where she was. She was also very weak because she had not been able to eat or drink very much since she got to the hospital. She would occasionally try to speak but ended up just mumbling because she was so weak.

On Tuesday, May 30th, she was still in a lot of pain and was still really groggy, so they changed some of her meds in the hope that it would help. She slept a little better the night before and was a little more oriented when she woke up. She was also in better spirits. Early that afternoon, they removed the WoundVac. Luckily, this time they gave her a short-term memory blocker, so she hopefully won’t remember it. The tissue in the wound looked healthy, which is a good sign. They are going to wait to put it back on to give her a break. They also decided to put a picc line in, so she won’t be poked as much. After all that she went back to sleep.

Wednesday, May 31st, Grandma FINALLY slept through the night with no nightmares. She was more oriented, and in less pain when she woke up. It seems like the change in medicine helped. Things are finally starting to look up for the first time since all of this started. We are still cautious, as we’ve had a lot of false hope, but this time it’s very promising.

To say the least, this has been an emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausting experience for all of us (my mom, especially). My mom has been there 24/7, "sleeping" in those awful hospital recliners (She’s not actually getting much sleep). She has had to advocate for Grandma over and over again. She has missed almost 2 weeks of work and will likely have to miss more. She had to spend her birthday in a surgery waiting room, while her mom was in surgery for the second time. And worst of all, she’s had to watch her mom go through all of this.

My sister, my boyfriend, and I have been there as often as we can. But we all are trying to juggle work and taking care of our normal daily tasks, on top of helping take care of my mom and grandma's 5 animals, going to the store to get them things they need, and any other tasks we can help with. So none of us are able to be there as much as we would like to be.

We have all lost a lot of sleep. We’re all forced to sit in uncomfortable chairs for hours at a time (and we all have back problems, of course). We’re all eating at weird times and food with little to no nutrition. It has been a huge roller coaster ride of ups and downs. And we can’t wait for this horrible time of our lives to end. All we want is for Grandma to be back to her silly, chipper, healthy self as soon as possible.

We will continue to update this as things change, so feel free to check back in from time to time to see how things are going. Thank you so much for taking to time to read her story! We appreciate all of the help, support, and well wishes from each and every one of you!