A Gift of Health

Many of you know and love my amazing aunt, Elizabeth Klein.
This year is her 50th birthday, even though she doesn't look a day over 35!
What some of you may not know is that between all of the smiles and jokes, adventures with family, drinks with friends and laughs with strangers, Liz also battles some medical demons.
With her birthday coming up (it's Sept. 8th yall, write it down) I am reaching out to the massive amount of people that I know have been touched by Liz's light to help give back to her.

I have never known a Liz that wasn't sick, but I have also never known a Liz that gave up easily. Her whole life she has battled chronic diseases. To add to those, she is currently loosing the battle to Intractable Spine Pain and Degenerative Nerve Damage. Most people don't even know what that means. I'll be honest and say that I've done my share of Googling in attempt to understand and sympathize. What this looks like for Liz on a daily basis is nerve pain the extends her full body and radiates all day and all night, often keeping her up at odd hours in unbearable and intolerable pain. These diseases also leave her homebound a large percentage of the time, resulting in the inability to work. And, of course, because of the cogs in the system doesn't qualify for Disability. This last piece shocks everyone, family and doctors alike, but even after meetings with lawyers it seems this is unchangeable.

With medical bills that never end, insurance battles that never see the dawn, and of course, illness that shackles a beautiful and loving woman to her bed, it can all be too much for just one person to bear.
Today, jokingly, she said to me ,"I'm just trying to make it past the half century mark!" But to be completely honest, that's not enough for me. This is an unbelievable human who I refuse to loose to illness and lack of funds! And I say it's time for everyone to reach out and fuel her cutiebooty into 2216 with our love and support!

Because of her inability to work, Liz is constantly concerned about being able to pay for things like rent, utilities, and daily expenses. This is, of course, in addition to the immense pain she must already experience daily. 
Unfortunately there is no cure, or as many doctors have said no "magic wand" to wave. All they can is give her pain medication and treatments to make things more bearable.
To make matters worse, one of the treatments that gave her any relief at all has now been deemed "not covered" by her insurance putting her even further in the whole. She won't give me a real number for the wake of debt that her medical bills have created, but I'm sure that $25,000 is at least the ball park.
There are many more treatments that Liz would want to try, but again, the insurance won't cover it. So she is often stuck with just the pain killers, which, don't kill the pain. 

My hope is for this to be a gift for her 50th birthday, something I know she would never ask for, but truly needs.
Although $50,000 would only begin to put a dent in the bills and support Liz needs, I decided to set that goal in honor of her 50th birthday :-)

Any and all donations are greatly appreciated and will go directly towards medical bills and getting our beloved Lee-Lee back on her feet.

Please share!

A few people have mentioned having issues figuring out to get their  donations to go through. If there is any trouble or confusion please contact me at [email redacted]
Thank you!