Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support!
Michael has fought many medical challenges over the years. He was diagnosed with Heart Failure in 2016 and has had many complications that have come with living with a heart condition. He had a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted in 2018 to support his heart failure treatment and give him protection. It has helped give peace of mind, and allowed him to do more aggressive treatments.
He has also battled diabetes for years. In August he was diagnosed with Charcot Foot, which is a disease where neuropathy combines with redness and swelling and ultimately makes the bones of the foot soft and brittle. The result of this was that his foot collapsed and he has multiple fractures and dislocations in his foot. He's been non-weigh bearing unless he has on a specialized walking boot. This has made many things more challenging for him.
On Wednesday 12/1/21 he went into urgent care and they sent him by ambulance to the Emergency Room. There they found he had the blood infection sepsis and he was admitted. After just about every test you can think of over the course of Wednesday-Friday, it was determined that the infection had spread to his lungs and was on the pacemaker leads in his heart. Additionally there was irritation and a small pocket of pus in his brain. His lungs and brain were treated with IV antibiotics in the hospital and then via a PICC line from home for 6 weeks. His pacemaker/defibrillator had to be removed because antibiotics are not able to fully take care of an infected device. On Monday 12/6 they vacuumed out the infection on the leads, then on Tuesday 12/7 they will removed the device.
He fought hard and recovered from sepsis and his 10 day hospitalization. Since then he’s had a new defibrillator put in, and has worked hard to stay healthy, positive, and as mobile as possible with his foot. After careful consideration he has decided to move forward with below the knee amputation on 6/15/22 due to extreme chronic pain in his foot that cannot be cured.
We welcome and appreciate all of your positive thoughts, vibes, prayers, and virtual hugs!
We’ve also created a GoFundMe Site to support medical costs:
https://gofund.me/70d64b33 
