Molly Keith - medical bill relief
Donation protected
Molly Keith is my sister and if you know her, you know she's amazing in every way. Molly is in the hospital right now with some pretty major health challenges. She's determined to come out on top, but the road ahead is long for her. Please see below message (in her words) for an update on her condition. I will provide updates as often as possible. Please keep her and Paul in your prayers.
My name is Molly Keith, and I'm 5 months shy of my 40th birthday. I'm married to my best friend, Paul --- we've been together for 20 years. I'm born and raised in Minneapolis, MN, but we moved to Sioux Falls, SD in August 2020 for new adventures. I have very benign cases of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and have led a pretty boring "normal" life...... until now.
On Tuesday 10/13, I woke up with severe vertigo and limited use of both my legs -- I describe it like"baby deer" legs. I was so sick all day, and needed Paul's help to get from here to there. That evening, I tried to get to the bathroom on my own, and fell on the side of my left shin. Immediate swelling commenced, so I was hauled back to bed with ice packs and wound dressing. In the middle of the night, I had a few episodes where I was unresponsive to Paul -- I was sitting up, eyes open, but snoring and not responding to him talking to me, so he helped me to the bathroom and called an ambulance.
I arrived quickly at a great hospital in Sioux Falls. They took scans of everything. They discovered that I had a vertebral atrial dissection with a blood clot, and my MRI showed a "tiny stroke" in my medulla. The x-ray of my hugely bruised leg showed no fracture, so they started me on blood thinners right away.
It's been up and down for me in the hospital. My leg pain was so uncontrollable, in the beginning. The lack of progress with my leg changed our focus -- my leg was now the size of a small ham, and developed a few blisters. All sorts of tests and scans showed that I developed compartment syndrome in my left leg. The new #1 priority is this leg-- we need to get the pain under control, the swelling down. With the level of my compartment syndrome, ortho surgery is not an option for releasing some pressure, because my % is high that I'd lose the limb from the knee down. If something happens with my brain/stroke/clot, we will deal with it when it comes.... For now, I'm off the blood thinners, and it's the old school "ice and elevate" method. I get blood tests every morning -- my hemoglobin's had dropped briefly, so I've had 1 blood transfusion so far. I've moved rooms twice, and currently reside in the Rehab wing. PT and OT are a daily occurrence, just getting a routine going and working on balancing on my own at the edge of my bed before getting woozy. Once pain and swelling stabilize a bit more, we'll get the real party started with intense rehab each day.
I won't lie -- this is incredibly overwhelming and scary for me. I'm petrified of doing something wrong, causing my progress to reverse. I know that I could do everything right, and still lose this leg. It's really scary because I can't see an end to this road yet -- no one knows for sure because we're spinning so many plates at once. But I do know that I'm not ready to quit fighting for this leg. I'm trying to focus on 1 thing at a time.
This GoFundMe page is intended to be able to provide the same updates to everyone, since it's still hard for me to text and call everyone back. My sister, Jill, will help to provide updates to this page. We appreciate any support you feel you can provide: messages, emails, funny texts to make us laugh. Everything is appreciated more than you will ever know. Any money raised on this page will be used to help pay the bills that insurance doesn't cover.
Thanks for keeping Paul and me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love you all , ️
Molly
My name is Molly Keith, and I'm 5 months shy of my 40th birthday. I'm married to my best friend, Paul --- we've been together for 20 years. I'm born and raised in Minneapolis, MN, but we moved to Sioux Falls, SD in August 2020 for new adventures. I have very benign cases of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and have led a pretty boring "normal" life...... until now.
On Tuesday 10/13, I woke up with severe vertigo and limited use of both my legs -- I describe it like"baby deer" legs. I was so sick all day, and needed Paul's help to get from here to there. That evening, I tried to get to the bathroom on my own, and fell on the side of my left shin. Immediate swelling commenced, so I was hauled back to bed with ice packs and wound dressing. In the middle of the night, I had a few episodes where I was unresponsive to Paul -- I was sitting up, eyes open, but snoring and not responding to him talking to me, so he helped me to the bathroom and called an ambulance.
I arrived quickly at a great hospital in Sioux Falls. They took scans of everything. They discovered that I had a vertebral atrial dissection with a blood clot, and my MRI showed a "tiny stroke" in my medulla. The x-ray of my hugely bruised leg showed no fracture, so they started me on blood thinners right away.
It's been up and down for me in the hospital. My leg pain was so uncontrollable, in the beginning. The lack of progress with my leg changed our focus -- my leg was now the size of a small ham, and developed a few blisters. All sorts of tests and scans showed that I developed compartment syndrome in my left leg. The new #1 priority is this leg-- we need to get the pain under control, the swelling down. With the level of my compartment syndrome, ortho surgery is not an option for releasing some pressure, because my % is high that I'd lose the limb from the knee down. If something happens with my brain/stroke/clot, we will deal with it when it comes.... For now, I'm off the blood thinners, and it's the old school "ice and elevate" method. I get blood tests every morning -- my hemoglobin's had dropped briefly, so I've had 1 blood transfusion so far. I've moved rooms twice, and currently reside in the Rehab wing. PT and OT are a daily occurrence, just getting a routine going and working on balancing on my own at the edge of my bed before getting woozy. Once pain and swelling stabilize a bit more, we'll get the real party started with intense rehab each day.
I won't lie -- this is incredibly overwhelming and scary for me. I'm petrified of doing something wrong, causing my progress to reverse. I know that I could do everything right, and still lose this leg. It's really scary because I can't see an end to this road yet -- no one knows for sure because we're spinning so many plates at once. But I do know that I'm not ready to quit fighting for this leg. I'm trying to focus on 1 thing at a time.
This GoFundMe page is intended to be able to provide the same updates to everyone, since it's still hard for me to text and call everyone back. My sister, Jill, will help to provide updates to this page. We appreciate any support you feel you can provide: messages, emails, funny texts to make us laugh. Everything is appreciated more than you will ever know. Any money raised on this page will be used to help pay the bills that insurance doesn't cover.
Thanks for keeping Paul and me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love you all , ️
Molly
Organizer and beneficiary
Jill Paquette Stern
Organizer
Savage, MN
Molly Keith
Beneficiary