My 16 year old son, Lukas, underwent two emergency surgeries to remove his colon on 1/15 & 1/16. He is normally a strong, active boy that participates in Boy Scouts and even completed 75 Hard over the summer. He is currently still in the hospital. Unfortunately there have been some setbacks with his recovery due to needing multiple blood transfusions, breathing issues, extreme exhaustion due insomnia and fevers. 

*UPDATE 12/28:

 Lukas ended up having pneumonia in one lung, fluid around the other. He ended up needing a chest tube for a few days and lots of respiratory help. Once the tube was removed, he was feeling better and even walking longer and was fever free for a few days. There were also issues with his incision healing correctly. They ended up having to place a wound vac on it a few days ago to help drain fluid that was coming out of it and hopefully get it to heal quicker.  Unfortunately he started spiking fevers again. Which now has them searching for the cause. According to the surgeon, there were so many holes in his colon, his had multiple organs lodged into it, along with fecal matter spread all throughout his insides. They had actually performed two surgeries to help clean his insides out as much as possible. But they said it’s about impossible to get it all, which is most likely what has caused so many complications. The newest discovery is that he has some abscesses in his abdomen. He’ll have a procedure today to drain those, hopefully he will not need to keep a tube in for that. They also discovered fluid around his heart. We are still waiting for the echo results on that.

I am the sole provider for myself and my five boys. I am unable to work while he is still in the hospital and will also need to take time off once he’s home to support his recovery. I’ve been advised that although my job will be secured for up to 12 weeks, any additional time I need to take off after I’ve run out of PTO will be unpaid. Please consider donating to at least help with the stress of the financial liability illness has caused.