Laura's Quest to Recovery
Donation protected
Hello,
To all of you that do not know my sister Laura (Nienaber) McGowan or know of her condition, she has been on a very exhausting and stressful journey since she was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) on August 8th 2018 at the age of 40. The doctors are still uncertain as to what the underlying cause of the situation might be. With that being said, there still seems to be a very long journey yet to come before Laura can say she is back to normal health.
When Laura was diagnosed back in August with CHF her heart was only functioning at 20-25%. The doctors tried medication therapy having Laura on several different medications. A repeat echocardiogram was done in November which showed almost no improvement. It was disappointing to say the least that this time felt wasted. The new plan was to install a biventricular defibrillator (pacemaker/defibrillator combo) in the left side of the chest on Dec 6th. She noticed right away the device was helping and that she was feeling better. Unfortunately, on December 18th a wire came unattached from the heart and surgery was required to get that back in place. That surgery went well and was only a small road bump in the progress compared to what was to come.
Laura was admitted to the hospital From Dec 26th to Jan 8th with sepsis (staph infection) which became the big obstacle. On Dec 27th a blood clot was found in her left arm and had to be put on blood thinners. Then to make matters worse, on Dec 28th her heart went into atrial fibrillation and she ended up getting shocked 12 separate times over a 3-4-hour time period. It was at this point the device had to be removed due to the infection being on the device. She was finally sent home and discharged on January 8th 2019 with a life vest and a wound vac, with 6 weeks of IV antibiotics at home. With a 5 lbs. weight restriction it was very difficult for Laura to do much around the house especially trying to take care of Isiah in the evenings. She was completely drained from recovering from the infection and found even the simplest daily tasks difficult. This took a big toll on Laura and her family to say the least.
The infection did eventually go away and on March 7th Laura was excited to have a new device put in. It was placed on the right side this time due to the fact that a site can’t be reused after it has been considered contaminated. Then on march 19th Laura was admitted with atrial fibrillation yet once again. She was then discharged on the 21st, but went right back in to the ER on the 22nd with another staph infection. Several tests were taken and then on the 27th, this device also had to be removed. This was devastating to Laura and her family as her heart had improved to about 40-45% and knowing the healing process was prolonged once again. At this point Laura’s moral was at an all-time low knowing that her remaining treatment options were extremely limited.
On the 28th a lymph node was removed from her groin and had to be tested for cancer which fortunately did come back negative. She is currently doing another 6 weeks of IV antibiotics at home and seems to be better than the first time around. The doctors do believe there is an under-lying condition that has yet to be found or diagnosed which is not the most encouraging news. With local options being very limited she will be seeking treatment several hours away and will be having more tests done to hopefully figure out what the next step to take from here would be.
Laura’s husband Reuben has been doing his best to keep up with the housework and taking care of Laura and Isaiah but picking up extra shifts has not made this easy. Laura has only been able to work maybe a month since the beginning of Dec and could possibly lose her health insurance for not just herself but for Reuben and Isaiah as well. She has also used up all of her FMLA days for the entire calendar year of 2019. Isaiah only being 7 years old has really been missing his regular outings with mom. They have been doing their best to accommodate their financial needs but the medical bills haven’t stopped coming, along with some unexpected repairs this winter. Laura, Reuben, and Isaiah’s moral and spirits are positive but defiantly wearing thin with minimal progress being made.
I am setting up this page to make it convenient for those of you that would like to help out financially. If you would like to help in another way, they would appreciate gift cards for Hornbachers, Costco, Wal-Mart, or any other local establishment which could help with expenses or work load. We understand not everyone is able to help financially, but if you could at least share this page and maybe say a prayer for Laura and her family she would really greatly appreciate it. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this page.
Laura has set up a Caring Bridge page to keep you updated and has her side of story there as well.
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lauramcgowan
To all of you that do not know my sister Laura (Nienaber) McGowan or know of her condition, she has been on a very exhausting and stressful journey since she was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) on August 8th 2018 at the age of 40. The doctors are still uncertain as to what the underlying cause of the situation might be. With that being said, there still seems to be a very long journey yet to come before Laura can say she is back to normal health.
When Laura was diagnosed back in August with CHF her heart was only functioning at 20-25%. The doctors tried medication therapy having Laura on several different medications. A repeat echocardiogram was done in November which showed almost no improvement. It was disappointing to say the least that this time felt wasted. The new plan was to install a biventricular defibrillator (pacemaker/defibrillator combo) in the left side of the chest on Dec 6th. She noticed right away the device was helping and that she was feeling better. Unfortunately, on December 18th a wire came unattached from the heart and surgery was required to get that back in place. That surgery went well and was only a small road bump in the progress compared to what was to come.
Laura was admitted to the hospital From Dec 26th to Jan 8th with sepsis (staph infection) which became the big obstacle. On Dec 27th a blood clot was found in her left arm and had to be put on blood thinners. Then to make matters worse, on Dec 28th her heart went into atrial fibrillation and she ended up getting shocked 12 separate times over a 3-4-hour time period. It was at this point the device had to be removed due to the infection being on the device. She was finally sent home and discharged on January 8th 2019 with a life vest and a wound vac, with 6 weeks of IV antibiotics at home. With a 5 lbs. weight restriction it was very difficult for Laura to do much around the house especially trying to take care of Isiah in the evenings. She was completely drained from recovering from the infection and found even the simplest daily tasks difficult. This took a big toll on Laura and her family to say the least.
The infection did eventually go away and on March 7th Laura was excited to have a new device put in. It was placed on the right side this time due to the fact that a site can’t be reused after it has been considered contaminated. Then on march 19th Laura was admitted with atrial fibrillation yet once again. She was then discharged on the 21st, but went right back in to the ER on the 22nd with another staph infection. Several tests were taken and then on the 27th, this device also had to be removed. This was devastating to Laura and her family as her heart had improved to about 40-45% and knowing the healing process was prolonged once again. At this point Laura’s moral was at an all-time low knowing that her remaining treatment options were extremely limited.
On the 28th a lymph node was removed from her groin and had to be tested for cancer which fortunately did come back negative. She is currently doing another 6 weeks of IV antibiotics at home and seems to be better than the first time around. The doctors do believe there is an under-lying condition that has yet to be found or diagnosed which is not the most encouraging news. With local options being very limited she will be seeking treatment several hours away and will be having more tests done to hopefully figure out what the next step to take from here would be.
Laura’s husband Reuben has been doing his best to keep up with the housework and taking care of Laura and Isaiah but picking up extra shifts has not made this easy. Laura has only been able to work maybe a month since the beginning of Dec and could possibly lose her health insurance for not just herself but for Reuben and Isaiah as well. She has also used up all of her FMLA days for the entire calendar year of 2019. Isaiah only being 7 years old has really been missing his regular outings with mom. They have been doing their best to accommodate their financial needs but the medical bills haven’t stopped coming, along with some unexpected repairs this winter. Laura, Reuben, and Isaiah’s moral and spirits are positive but defiantly wearing thin with minimal progress being made.
I am setting up this page to make it convenient for those of you that would like to help out financially. If you would like to help in another way, they would appreciate gift cards for Hornbachers, Costco, Wal-Mart, or any other local establishment which could help with expenses or work load. We understand not everyone is able to help financially, but if you could at least share this page and maybe say a prayer for Laura and her family she would really greatly appreciate it. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this page.
Laura has set up a Caring Bridge page to keep you updated and has her side of story there as well.
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lauramcgowan
Fundraising team (2)
Stephen Luke Nienaber
Organizer
Moorhead, MN
Laura McGowan
Team member