Kirk in 2017

on the beach in Cancun sporting his boots.

Being stubborn and in denial caused Kirk to let his Diabetes wreak havoc on his whole body before he decided to take his health seriously.

In 2014 he stepped on a staple on the jobsite. Because the neuropathy in his feet was so bad he didn't feel it and walked around on it for several days until it started to get infected. Because of the infection he felt something, saw the puncture and headed to get checked out. Once in the ER they checked his blood glucose level....it was 480. They rushed him back, checked his foot and the doctor started explaining how Kirk was going, I repeat.... GOING to lose his foot from this. The doctor said he would not remove it that day, he would clean the wound and we would make a plan from there. In surgery the doctor found the wound was not as dire as he had predicted. Karen had suspected this from the beginning but was believing what the doctors were saying, after all, they were doctors. Kirk and Karen were scared to ask questions, voice opinions and take control of Kirk's health care they were at the mercy of those doctors. Doctors that found it easier to remove the limb than to help fight to save it.

That was when Kirk and Karen decided to be involved in the healthcare plan from there on.

However, Kirk did not take it as serious as he should because he was having other thoughts. Thoughts that he did not share with Karen....

Let's jump to the first part of 2020...

Kirk:

I thought I was supposed to work myself to death. And I almost did. I thought the life insurance would take care of my family so I could keep working until the end. I would work in the ditches, climb ladders and continue working as best I could even when I got Charcot foot and started stomping holes in the bottoms of my feet. I would stop long enough to get the holes close to closed up and then I would get right back to it. I felt like that was what I was supposed to do for them, my health didn't matter. That was all me, they felt quite differently.

I continued this roller coaster all the way through to the point I was on my way out. I had been in bed for three months, hadn't eaten or gotten up in three days I didn't know that Karen had been praying all this time for me. She took care of me, fought for me and fought with me for me to try to fight for myself. But I was done, I was convinced I was on my way out. After all, wasn't this the way it was supposed to play out? Then one sleepless night I lay in bed watching a show on PBS about saving yourself. It helped me realize that I didn't have to give up, that I could turn this whole thing around and it was up to me to do it. Karen got up around 2:30 that morning to go to the bathroom... she found me standing up beside the bed.

Karen:

I had been denying what was happening right before my eyes. I kept praying that God would turn things around ... yet I called my son-in-law a couple of months earlier to get my daughter home because I didn't know how this was going to play out. I had to call him because I couldn't talk to her about it, I knew it. I still couldn't say the words, I just alluded to it. He caught on and got her home quickly. She spent good quality time with her dad and he perked up. Then she went home and in about a month and a half later I wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to find Kirk standing up beside his side of the bed. For the last three days I couldn't get him to drink any of his supplements, eat or even drink water ... nothing ... and he had lost control of his bodily functions. He got up only to sit in the chair beside the bed long enough for me to clean him up and change the bed linens. I had heard that dying people get a burst of energy at the end. So when I saw him standing there I thought this was it. I headed toward him, telling God that He had to help me here because I didn't know what was about to happen and wasn't sure I was ready for it. Then Kirk started walking to me. I kept asking if he was ok and he was silent but sobbing heavily. When we reached each other he grabbed me and held me tight, still silent. I kept asking if he was alright... finally I forcefully said "you have to tell me if you are ok or not" and he said yes he was ok.... so I relaxed a little and just held him. When he had a minute to catch his breath he finally said " I want to live Karen. I'm going to live" !!! So now I'M sobbing and holding him tight!! After a couple of minutes letting it sink in I pushed him back gently and said " It's about f____g time!!". We both laughed and cried and held each other. We spent the night holding each other and figuring out where to go from here.

Kirk:

Let me back up a little. From 2014, that first ER visit, to 2016 I continued to work hard and acted as if I was not in serious trouble health wise.

In 2016 my legs were extremely swollen and red when we visited our daughter and her boyfriend in Washington. She convinced me to go see a doctor about it when we got back to Texas.

When we returned I went to a vascular surgeon. He said my valves in my legs were not working properly and he would need to do surgery.

When Dr. Smith examined me in 2016 he determined I had Charcot foot on both feet but the right one had an ulcer that needed attention. He went on to explain to us that there are 3 ways to treat Charcot Foot. 1. Amputation 2. Surgery to shave the shards of bone at the bottom of the feet that are tearing through the flesh whenever you walk. 3. Full foot reconstruction surgery.

And immediately said that reconstruction surgery was off the table and started preparing us for amputation.

He called Karen to the hallway to prepare her that my health was too poor for me to survive any surgery. Karen told him we were NOT going to amputate my feet, we were going to find a way to save them and wanted to know if he was on board with that. He was.

In the beginning, whenever he debrided the wound there would be no blood... none. Karen was concerned about that so she started massaging my legs and feet daily to stimulate circulation and using essential oils like Melaleuca, Frankincense, Helichrysum etc... She would doctor my feet every morning and evening for two years using all she could find to try to heal the wounds.

Yet, I was still working every day...not staying off of them and not caring what it was going in my body. And by this time I had been diagnosed with Diabetes and was taking 48 units of insulin a day. So for the next two years I ended up with open wounds on both feet and in 2 orthopedic boots. I still kept working.

Then.... in 2018 we became founders in a cbd company that offered natural supplements as well. I started drinking the supplements and was able to stop drinking monsters and diet coke. I also started taking the cbd, not feeling anything but Karen gave it to me every morning and evening. In about 90 days I noticed my blood sugar numbers dropping. That allowed me to reduce my insulin amounts as well. I started taking the oil in April of 2018 and was completely off of insulin by December 2019. Keeping blood sugar levels low was a big help in letting my body heal those wounds on my feet.

Talk about crazy timing...two weeks after we started using those products a friend of mine gave me a case of Redox Signaling Molecules. He told me to drink it morning and night. Karen and I both started drinking it but we stopped drinking it when it was recommended to soak my feet in it. Dr. Smith wasn't too keen on me soaking my feet but we wanted to give it a try because everything that we were doing wasn't quite getting it done.

I ended up getting an infection, I then had a few and ended up at the infectious disease doctor three times. The first two times at the infectious disease doctor he wanted to put in a pic line and give me IV antibiotics or admit me into the hospital. I would not agree to either so he prescribed 3 serious oral antibiotics. So serious that the pharmacist called Karen to the window to make sure this was intentional. It was.

I was able to keep working but it was getting harder to hide the fact that this was all taking a toll on me.

Diabetes wreaks havoc on one's body and it is hard on the kidneys, adding to the mix the triple antibiotic concoction I start having trouble with my kidneys.... so I went to see a Kidney doctor that Dr. Smith recommended, Dr. Horatano. He was concerned about my kidneys but worked with us to not start dialysis right away. We were scared of the unknown, as most people are.

This was just the prelude to an event that turned my life around. I decided to live... but I took it to the very end. That was one thing Karen pointed out that night, she said we had a long row to hoe but together we could do it. When we went to see Dr. Horatano the week before Thanksgiving 2020 things were pretty bad, I nearly passed out leaving his office. He said he WAS admitting me to start dialysis but was giving me a choice to start before or after Thanksgiving. I chose after, the longer the better...right? He took blood and said he would allow us to wait until after Thanksgiving as long as the numbers were not too bad. We didn't make it. He got the bloodwork results back, called us and told us to go that day to the hospital. It was dire. duh... but I didn't want to go.

Something I feel I should share here, is that we had not had any insurance this whole time. We own our own small business and haven't had insurance in years. We were paying out of pocket from the start. I want to say, too, that Dr. Smith and Dr. Horatano took great care of us and worked extremely well with us on the cost. Big Blessings. We also have had some great friends help us out financially during this hard, hard time in our life. We could not have made it through without this help... we humbly thank you, you know who you are. Bigger Blessings.

We didn't know this but when someone starts dialysis they are assigned a case worker to get you set up into the Medicare program. The hospital staff at Methodist in Richardson did a wonderful job getting us enrolled and set up with a local dialysis center.

I have been on dialysis since November 2020 and it has helped save my life.

I went back to see Dr. Smith after we got in a routine with dialysis and he was thrilled to see the wounds on my feet had closed up. I finally had gotten off them when I got so bad and Karen had continued to take care of them because she would not give up on me turning it around. Dr. Smith was thrilled! He was happy to see me looking better as well. We had gone to see him so we could get scheduled to do the shaving of the bone surgery. We had discussed it several times over the years as my health started improving and my feet were getting better. As a matter of fact, they started bleeding, what Karen calls, beautiful red blood because my circulation had improved so much. Now that we had insurance, we were ready to go the next step. He told us he was going to refer us to Dr. Wukich at UT Southwestern and was going to recommend full foot reconstruction!! Karen and I both couldn't believe what we had just heard!! Karen said "we thought full reconstruction was off the table...." the doctor said " it was, but Look at him! He is healthy enough to survive it!"

We went to see Dr. Wukich. He is a world renowned Charcot foot expert and said that my feet are some of the worst, if not the worst case he has seen. Yet, he was ready for the challenge and had high expectations for me. We scheduled the surgery for April 4, 2022.

Surgery went well. Really well. They put 3 screws and a plate in my foot with a cadaver bone graph. Initially they anticipated it would be about a 3-3.5 hour surgery....It was almost a 7 hour surgery....It took him 4 hours to clean up the foot to get it ready to accept the actual reconstruction. Yet, he did it and it was good.

They put me in a cast and we went back in one week. It looked great! They put me back in a cast and wanted to see me in two weeks. We went back two weeks later and opened the cast to a nasty mess of infection. He admitted me the next day into the hospital to do another surgery to clean out the infection.

Then at about 9:30 that night they started my IV drip of antibiotics, Vancomiacin. When the IV started I felt weird, said to Karen something wasn't right... my lips started burning.... it was getting bad fast. By the time she was able to get a nurse in the room I was already stopping breathing. Within seconds I was flat lining and the fast response team was filling my room and Karen walked to the corner of the door, dropped to her knees and started praying. I remember them working on me and sticking something down my throat. Then I heard Karen say she loved me and was here and to fight, I didn't realize they were taking me down the hall to ICU when I heard her, I just remember hearing her voice.

They started giving me instruction to get my heart rate down and breathing up to be able to remove it. Karen stayed by my side the whole time, coaching me on the progress to the desired numbers. The nurse came in about 20 minutes shy of the hour they said it would take... she went to get the doctor, they removed the 20' tube out of my throat... that's what it felt like anyway...without any problem. The doctor said he needed to hear me speak.. so I said "May Day! May Day!" It gave them all a chuckle and let Karen know that I was ok.

The doctors and nurses all said that they had not ever had anyone come off the ventilator as quickly going through what I had just gone through. They were impressed and interested as to why.

I got moved to a room where I was treated like a king. Karen stayed by my side the whole time. She was on top of the treatment and medications so much so that the nurses even let her participate in the wound vac replacement where she was able to use our redox gel to help with healing, she even kept putting the gel on my toes and above the bandage in between the changes.

During all of this dying thing my fistula got blocked. So I had to have a procedure to unclog it. This is a story in itself. I will be happy to share it with you if you want to know... just ask me about it if you request to talk with us.

I did get out of the hospital after 2 weeks and went to a rehab facility for the next two weeks.

I went to the wound care doctor that first week and he removed the wound vac. He was amazed that I was able to get the wound vac removed in just 3 and a half weeks. He suggested we do a placental skin graph. When they did the skin graph he said to expect it to take 2-3 months. In 5 weeks the doctors said that the wound was 80% healed and at 7 weeks it was completely healed so he released me from wound care that day.

I am still on a journey to better health and a better life. By the time I had reconstruction surgery on my left foot I had been drinking 16 ounces of the redox molecules daily to boost the healing power in my body. It was similar to the first surgery but did not take as long. After talking with the surgeon, he found this surgery to be much easier because the healing that had begun already in that foot. The surgery was at 10:00am Saturday, Dec 31, 2022 and I was released Sunday, Jan 1, 2023 at noon. Not only did I have a good supply of the redox molecules in my system helping me, I was also using a supplement that allowed me to do that thing they always want you to do before they will release you from the hospital... I was able to go twice!! NEVER before has that not be an issue for me after surgery.

When we went back for the 1 week checkup the doctor was so giddy about the condition of my foot the nurses kept coming in to see what Dr. Wukich was so ecstatic about. We have had rave reviews with every check up so far. Such rave reviews that our surgeon, primary care physician, kidney doctor and various nurses are all looking into the redox.

I have been through alot and have tried to help it make me stronger. I am on that long road that Karen was talking about. I can't say it has been easy, but I can say that it is worth it. I think this experience is an important step to me being able to help other people too scared to live the life they chose and don't know how to change it. I am not sure how many chances we really get. That's why I want to help all that I can learn how to make the best out of where they are and help them get to where they want to be.