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WAYNE, N.J. — Almost six months after having her index finger removed, Wayne resident Karen Kwiecinski is coming to terms with the word “amputation.”
The New Milford native went to the hospital in November 2014 for inexplicable and debilitating pains all over her body.
She went back almost 90 times between then and September 2015 for pericarditis, necroses in her fingertips, amputations, vein grafts, a trial chemotherapy treatment and more.
“It’s been very tough emotionally because in retrospect, I’m realizing I’m not physically capable of doing a lot of the things I used to,” Kwiecinski told Daily Voice on Thursday while preparing Christmas Eve dinner.
“I can’t waitress or bartend until I get mobility back in my fingers. Even with a prosthetic I won’t have feeling —that’s something I’ll have to get used to.”
Doctors at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood coined her condition "Kwiecinski Syndrome," because she seemed to have been the only one to have it.
More than $9,000 had been raised as of Friday morning on a GoFundMe page that was established in August help Kwiecinski get by day-to-day.
Until she's is granted the disability she filed for in May, paying off the "more than 20" medical bills Kwiecinski receives each month will be difficult if not impossible, she said.
“I realize that it could be worse and I don’t want to say 2016 can’t be worse," said Kwiecinski, who has been seeing an occupational therapist to increase circulation and heal her finger.
“It’s still kind of surreal to me," Kwiecinski said. "Each day is better and I’m looking forward to what the future will hold.”
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