Climbing For Carleen
My name is James McGuffey. I am a 41 year old father of six wonderful children and loving husband to my wife, Carleen. We currently live in a small, beautiful community north of Colorado Springs called Monument. We moved here three years ago to expand our business.This area begs you to be outdoors, my sons and I have enjoyed climbing mountains and exploring beautiful Colorado
. We absolutely love it here. During the first few months of being in Colorado, we were delighted to learn that we would be expecting our sixth child, a boy. We would now have five boys and one girl. Imagine our excitement! That excitement turned to worry once my wife had some test results come back indicating that she had contracted Hepatitis C. My wife had been living with this disease for over 22 years. There is about a 3-5% chance that a mom can pass this disease to her children through pregnancy or childbirth fortunately none of our 6 children have Hep-C. Carleen continued on with the pregnancy and on November 29, 2011 our sixth son, Kyle was born. Eight weeks after Kyle’s birth, Carleen's doctor recommended that she have a liver biopsy done. It was supposed to be a short outpatient procedure and we were curious to see the results after her having had Hepatitis C for so many years. Also, we would soon need to discuss treatment methods and things we could do to put this all behind us. So, we scheduled the procedure. The biopsy, normally a simple outpatient deal, turned into a nightmare. Carleen was in pain from the moment the doctor had finished. She was sent to the ER, then home, and finally back to the ER before it was discovered that the doctor had hit an artery while performing the biopsy. My wife was slowly bleeding to death. A surgeon was called to discuss our options with us, but the news was grim. We were informed that surgery to correct the issue would likely result in death. Of course, we were devastated. The doctors told us that they would do angioplasty to try and stop it. Carleen ended up spending several weeks in ICU before being released, only to discover within days that she was still bleeding internally. This was only the beginning. Her lung had collapsed, constant fevers, low blood counts and every breath was painful. To top it all off she had a baby that had to be weaned she couldn't care for and was on oxygen 100% of the time for 4 months after the biopsy. These events have been traumatizing to my wife and she has suffered tremendously. Each time we left the hospital, we had no way of knowing if the bleeding had stopped for sure. Also, Carleen’s condition and frequent medical needs severely hindered her ability to care for and bond with our newborn son. Out of sheer necessity, and love for my family, I had to step up and be Mr. This experience has been filled with pain, fear, and uncertainty for my family and I. Carleen has yet to have treatment due to all the complications that have occurred. However, with the new drugs and treatments coming out in the next few years we are looking forward to getting her healed! Stay tuned for our next big climb coming this June! Check out our website at www.climbingforcarleen.com
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