It's
It's been
It's been a challenging, scary, eye-opening and nearly tragic few
weeks for a member of our WTOL
11 Family. You usually see
her on the air weekend nights
delivering the latest in local
sports,
sports, but you've likely noticed her absence lately. A surprising
health
complication has Kristi Kopanis
side
lined.
side lined.
lined.
lined. Amanda Fay met with her to see
how she's doing.. and learned she'll
be
back in the line up soon. For
those
who are squeamish, We do want to
warn you.. you may find some
of
of the
of the images you're about to see, a bit graphic.
"And I just thought, 'ok, I'll
power through it.'"
Thursday--June 10th... Kristi
says
says
she
she woke
she woke up to lower back and hip pain... and swelling in her
leg... but she
went to work that day.
"I went to St. John's baseball
practice.. " But after that, she couldn't power through any longer... she
couldn't ignore what was
happening in her body. Her leg
continued to swell.
"I started to lose feeling. And
it went
cold and numb. And I looked and
my leg
was blue, purplish. They are
very, two
different-looking legs. " So she
went
went to
went to urgent care... a medical professional took one look and told her to go to
the
E.R.
the E.R.
the E.R. "When they said, 'we'll call and
let them know
you're on your way,' I knew I
was in for
some long days ahead." But
nothing could prepare Kristi for
the news she was about to
receive.
She learned she had blood clots
in
her legs, maybe not too
surprising
given the swelling and color,
but what
was causing the blood clots is
truly
shocking.
truly shocking. "I remember the ER doctor
walking in at
Flower after my CAT Scan and his
demeanor had completely
changed."
BUTTO
changed." BUTTO <"And he goes, 'I need to show
you
something.' And there's this
white
mass."
white mass." But WHAT IS THAT?? Something out
of a t.v. medical drama.
"'it's a 27 pound cyst. It's 15
by nine inches.'
And I was like, 'what?!'" And
that of course meant surgery...
First to remove the cyst, which
Kristi
meant surgery... First to remove
the
the
cyst,
cyst, which Kristi would find out was benign and growing out of her
ovary... and then to remove
several
large blood clots from her leg.
"The cyst was sitting on my
iliac and IVC
vein, which are two main
arteries that
send blood down into your legs.
"
Kristi says everything happened
so fast she didn't have
time to think... until after her
surgeries.
And that's when the weight of
just
happened to her, really set in.
crying, "It was a really tough
week. it was a really tough
week. I never thought my first
surgery
surgery would be an emergency surgery. I never thought any of this would
happen. I'm
so lucky to be alive. I look at
those pictures
those pictures
and
and just
and just think about what could have happened."
have happened."
happened."
Ten
Ten months ago, Kristi started a journey to improve her health, losing
60 pounds. She believes if she
hadn't have lost the weight...
the mass
that she never noticed... may
have continued to go undetected.
"If I wouldn't have lost the
weight, I would
have never thought, 'why is this
stubborn
belly fat not going away.?'"
She's now less than ten pounds
away from her goal of losing 100
pounds. But first-- she has to
recover.
Doctors say it'll be a few weeks
before
she can start driving and moving
around more. She's already
antsy to get back to work...
especially with the Marathon
Classic
just a corner.
"I know if I'm sitting here
while the
marathon classic is going on...
I will be
clawing to get out of this
house. "
In the meantime, Kristi thanks
her
family, sports community and
viewers for their support... and
also
also the
also the hospital staff at Flower and Toledo Hospitals that worked to save
her
life.
her life.
her life. "From the ICU nurses to the
surgeons...
everybody. They are incredible.
They do not
get enough credit for what they
do. "
do. "
Kristi
Kristi learned her cyst was the largest her surgeon has ever removed.
She jokingly said she didn't
mean to
overachieve. During surgery
she
lost her right ovary and
fallopian tube
fallopian tube
to
to the
to the cyst, but her doctors are optimistic it won't affect her ability to
have children. She has had a
couple complications post
surgery, but she's in great
spirits.
We can't wait to have her back
here
in the studio and we wish her
continued recovery. For
WTOL 11, I'm Amanda Fay.
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