Valentine’s dance helping mom get back on her feet

This winter Laura Tong found out the hard way that she had diabetes.

In a matter of days a foot inflammation progressed rapidly enough to cost her the amputation of her left foot and tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses.

Tong, a Ridgetop resident, attends First Lutheran Church in Poulsbo and her congregation has rallied around her dedicating its ninth annual Valentine's Day Sweet Heart Dance to fund-raising for the Tong family.

Diabetes sneaks up

Sure, she had a habit of drinking a lot of water, a sign of the disease, but that stemmed from her teenage years. Tong and a friend joined Weight Watchers right after high school and got used to emptying several water bottles per day.

"I didn't have the traditional symptoms and it wasn't a flag for me," Tong said. "I never worried about myself."

Laura Tong and her husband David Tong work part time and lack medical insurance. So, when Laura succumbed to the flu in the fall, she toughened it out for a couple of weeks. Just as she had recovered, though, a foot infection caught up with her and a feverish few days followed. By the time she was admitted at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, "80 percent of the foot was gone, there was nothing really to salvage."

Doctors amputated her foot and followed up with a surgery to fit the stump for a prosthesis.

More than $60,000 in medical bills later — for the ambulance and Emergency Department visit, surgery and two weeks' hospital stay — the 35-year-old mother of two is looking at another $8,000 to $26,000 depending on the kind of prosthesis she acquires.

Working as a playground attendant and crossing guard for two-and-a-half hours every day at Emerald Heights Elementary School, where her two children — Hannah Ronning, 7, and Jakob Ronning, 9 — attend, Laura caught the flu.

After two weeks, she ventured back to work, but felt queasy on the way there and returned home.

Monday night, Oct. 23, she noticed a dark spot between the toes on her left foot. The lack of health insurance convinced Laura to believe it was not a serious problem.

"It just scared me to death what it would cost to go to the doctor," she recalled. "I'm a mom. Moms don't get sick, we take care of people."

However, by that Thursday, her body was weaker than her resolve.

She couldn't catch her breath and by 10 p.m. she was still arguing with David, refusing to go the doctor.

David called Laura's mother, who is a diabetic, to help convince her daughter of a hospital check-up. Laura told her mother the trouble was a foot infection.

"As soon as I said that, she said her heart sank," Laura said.

The number one thing with diabetics is to always check your feet and Laura knows that now.

"I am more sensitive to that than I've ever been," she says.

In the wee hours of Friday, Oct. 28, David had to carry his wife to the car. She doesn't remember anything — not the ER, not even the ambulance ride from Harrison Silverdale to the Bremerton campus.

Doctors did tell her afterwards that her blood sugar was so high her blood was turning into acid. The operation was postponed until the day after admission because surgeons were not sure she could recover from anesthesia.

Recovering for several weeks with the help of her parents, brother and his fiance, Laura was able to keep her children in their school routines.

David, working part-time at the post office in Poulsbo, helps keep Laura's spirits up.

"David loves to tease me, 'You're a foot shorter now,'" Laura says, smiling and pointing out she is 6 feet 1 inch tall.

Church support

Laura, a Boston native, and David, of Melbourne, Australia, met in Seattle more than three years ago. They fell in love with the area and soon moved to Central Kitsap.

The two were married at the First Lutheran Church in Poulsbo a little more than two years ago.

When church members learned of Laura's hospitalization, one of the elders, Lee Meister of Poulsbo, a 31-year member of the church, lent his support.

"I wanted to take are of Laura and Dave and their kids because I dearly love them," Meister said. "I really admire her for her tenacity and for her get-up-and-go and she hasn't let this thing slow her down much."

Meister wanted to organize a fundraiser for the Tongs.

Meanwhile, Jerry Deeter, another long-time church member and usher, had a similar idea.

Hearing about Laura's fate in the prayers in the earliest of three church services he attends, Deeter looked her up in the church directory when he did not recognize the name.

"She is one of the newer members that's been in the church for a couple of years," Deeter said. "She was a lady I'd talked to several times. It surprised me so much that it was her because she is so young."

Deeter, environmental health director at the Kitsap County Health District, has been a dance instructor for more than 25 years and is now in charge of the church's Valentine Dance fund-raising event. He called Laura a few weeks ago to let her know the church intends to dedicate the dance to helping with her medical bills.

"Between people from church and the staff at the school, people have been just great," Laura said, adding that a woman she knows through her Emerald Heights involvement is helping her look for a donated prosthesis.

"One thing keeping me going is getting the prosthesis and getting up on both feet again."

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