Support Kris and Rebecca

Most of you may not know that since December, their little family has had some pretty rough situations. They lost their very loved cat, Prankster, to kidney failure on December 26th, 2023. On January 22nd, They lost Rebecca’s soulmate Carin Terrier, Conan, after a long battle with several health issues. On March 12th, their Carin Terrier, Tonks, had surgery to remove her spleen after they discovered that she had a large mass. She went through surgery fine and was recovering, when things took a turn and she died in my Dana’s arms on the way back to the hospital on March 14th. Tonks was only 10. They also found out that Kris' soulmate lab, Axel, has a tumor in his liver the size of a dinner plate. His prognosis is guarded, the tumor is imopperable and they do not know how much time they will have left with him. Kris had been having some health problems since December and they were working with their primary care to get testing to try to figure out exactly what was going on. They thought it could be related to her autoimmune thyroid disease. Kris’s started having persistant headaches around March 17th that would not go away. Kris had other symptoms like not being able to stay awake during the day and sometimes her speech was affected. She was struggling to work or even get through the day sometimes. On March 30th, Kris fell out of bed and hit her head. This was so strange because nothing like this had ever happened. On March 31st, they went to the ER because her head started hurting and would not stop. While Kris and Rebecca were there, they did a CT on Kris’s skull. They were informed the CT was abnormal. There were some infarctions, but, it was not an emergency and Kris would need to see her primary care physician to schedule an MRI. Kris’s blood pressure was elevated but not so much that they wanted to keep her and said we should also discuss that with our primary care physician as well. On Wednesday April 3rd (The day after Kris' 42nd birthday), Kris and Rebecca went for an appointment with their primary care physician. Kris' blood pressure when they arrived was 210/170. They were sent to the ER immediately. After being in the ER from noon until almost 7pm, Kris was taken up to the ICU to start a cardiac drip as her blood pressure was now 278/178. They were told after an MRI that Kris had multiple strokes, both old and new, and their best guess was that is was from lack of oxygen to the brain from undiagnosed/untreated sleep apnea. Kris was obviously in hypertensive crisis which also caused an acute kidney injury. She spent 6 days in ICU and another day in hospital before they were able to bring her blood pressure down enough and she was released to go home. Kris has been in rehab to help her speech, memory and motor skills. She is unable to work. She can't drive and even some very routine day to day tasks are sometimes difficult. She is still recovering and most likely will be for a long time. Kris has shown tons of improvement since leaving the hospital, but she still has a long way to go. Insurance would not allow her to leave the hospital with a CPAP so she had to wait for a sleep study. Kris completed the sleep study, but they are still waiting for the study to be read so she can get the appropriate machine. Short term disability is still pending and they have been struggling to get information as to why it is still not approved as the claim was filed almost a month ago. Rebecca, Kris, and Dana would love to hear from you. Kris needs to talk with friends and family to keep her spirits up. Rebecca finds herself in a new role of Full Time Caregiver, while Kris continues to make progress in her recovery. While supporting Kris through this time Rebecca is still working part-time and maintaining their home. We all know there are times in Life when we all need a little more support. This is one of those times for them. If you would like to help, please reach out to them. If you are interested in providing a meal or helping with a grocery run, Kris does have a few dietary restrictions, she is now gluten free, low sodium, and less carbohydrates. Please keep them in your hearts while they navigate through this difficult time.