McGinnis Family Updates: April 2015

How to Help

As you probably know, Karen is recovering from a double lung transplant. For a more detailed description of The McGinnis Family and everything they have been through, please see their story on the gofundme site, which is linked on the right of this page. If you would like to help, please see the list below of things that would really help them during this difficult time:

1. Thoughts and Prayers - This is most important to the family and they really appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers! Please leave a comment on the blog for Karen to read!

2. Food - On this site is a link for the food calendar. There are no allergies and the only food that is not a favorite for all of them (but some of them do like it) is seafood.

3. Other Gift Cards - If cooking is not your thing, they would always be happy to have gift cards. The gas costs are piling up as the kids drive back and forth to the hospital. Grocery store gift cards and gift cards to places like Walmart or Target for household items would also be very much appreciated.

4. Monetary Donations - the GoFundMe site is also linked on the side of this page. They have recently found out that insurance isn't covering Karen's last hospital visit, which is costing more than $17,000! Also, they will be eating a lot at the hospital over the next several weeks and that money can add up as well. --If you would like to donate something but can't get it to their house (or mail it), please let me know and I would be happy to pick it up and deliver it to the family! stacey.grote@huschblackwell.com

Please see below for updates on Karen's progress. Go Karen, Go!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Update from Mike 4/7

Karen's surgery went well. Dr. Hawkins, the surgeon, said her gall bladder definitely needed to come out. It was inflamed and filled with stones, but came out easy without any complications. He did say that there is an infection under one of her breasts that was oozing, so he's going to let the vascular people know about it. Im not sure why he couldn't address it, but I'm sure there must be some protocol for the situation. Ill get to see her after 90 minutes in recovery.... Then I'm going to get in my car that's broken and imagine that I'm going on vacation somewhere anywhere before I have to come back to reality. I thank the good Lord once again for giving the doctors and nurses the knowledge and skill to care of Karen. Thank you everyone for hanging in there for us for your thoughts and prayers. So I guess we'll wait for our next challenge.

Update from Mike 4/6

Well the surprises keep on coming. Tomorrow at an undetermined time Karen will be going under the bright lights of the OR to have her gall bladder taken out. They aren't 100% sure that it is the culprit of Karen's severe stomach pain, but due to past history, that is what they believe is causing the problems. The problem with transplant patients on all of the immunosuppressant meds is it's very tough to determine if that's the real problem or only problem. So they'll know for sure when they get in her belly. The good news is they believe her lungs can handle the surgery without any problem. Infection is something they do worry about since Karen is immunosuppressed. So if you have any more good thoughts left, please crank them up for tomorrow. Sorry this seems like a broken record. Thank you for all of your support