First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to read this. There are thousands of GoFundMe's, and hopefully this one reaches as many people as possible.
This is Cassandra Kardeke. She's my mother, a 25 year Department of Defense civilian worker, and caretaker for my grandparents in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Right now she needs your help as she fights one of the many horrible side effects of her Type 2 Diabetes.
First, a little background.
For the vast majority of my childhood, it was just my mother and I. My father fell out of the picture before I could form sentences, leaving it all up to her. Despite the many difficulties we faced together, she continuously supported and protected me; guiding me in every aspect of my life until I joined the military 9 years ago.
Six years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which we were told would be terminal. At the same time my grandfather was in Stage 4 Kidney Failure. With me off doing my duty with the United States Army, she knew what she had to do, and dropped everything, including a well-paying job and a decent house, to move to Las Vegas and support them as they overcame their respective illnesses. With the greatest amount of luck, my grandmother beat her cancer. With the same amount of luck, my grandfather stabilized from his kidney failure. However neither were able to take care of themselves as a result. My mother, who desperately wanted to continue working for the government, took it upon herself to take care of the house. She moved to Las Vegas, taking a lower-paying job with the United States Air Force, and settling in with my grandparents and disabled aunt. From then on, she has taken care of their needs, to include preparing meals, cleaning the home, and whatever else has come along.
Fast forward to Thanksgiving, 2016. I was living in El Paso, Texas, and my mother brought my aunt along to visit the family and see her three grandchildren. Upon the 10 hour drive home is when she first noticed something was... off. Without any warning, cars started 'running into one another, forming a sort of solid blur'. She was petrified, but managed to pull over and within a few hours, her vision started to get better, but not entirely. Though ill-advised, she continued to drive once she could see enough, and made it home. Shortly after, she went to her eye doctor who could clearly see something was wrong, but wasn't sure what it could be. The next day, she saw a specialist who took a look and found that she had diabetes in her eyes, but it looked minimal, like they had caught it just in time to be fixed. Before coming up with a treatment plan, she wanted to do some more tests to find what the best plan of action would be.
At this point, my mother was in Stage 1 Diabetic Retinopathy.
All the in-depth tests came back and showed such severe damage that she immediately went from Stage 1 to Stage 4 in the two days it took for the results to come in. At this point, all the doctor could do was try to prolong her sight as it was then, and treat the symptoms, which include severe headaches, swelling in her eyes, blurred vision, and lack of blood flow to the eye.
On the positive note, she has been responding very well to the treatments for the last 3 years. Originally, they told her she had about 2 years of clear sight left. However as time went on, the doctors continued to extend the amount of time she had left, and we thought that, so long as she continued to get treatments, she could continue to see and work and function as a normal adult who wears glasses or has slightly impaired vision. We even started to joke about how she would have to gradually increase the size of font on her computer in order to see what she needed to do.
Fast forward to December, 2019.
Following one of her treatments, she got a horrible infection in both of her eyes. This caused pressure to build up behind her eyes, which forced the doctors to perform emergency surgery on her left eye. She requires medication to prevent further infection, and kill the current one. This medicine increases the pressure in her eyes. Therefore, the doctors now have to give her 5 more medications to counteract the side effects of the infection medication.
In 2 weeks, she goes in to have the infection looked at. If it's gone, or at least gone enough, she will be able to get surgery done in the right eye. The doctors assure her that once the infection is gone and the pressures are under control that she will gain the eye sight she had before the surgery that caused the infection back in December. The time frame of which she may be able to see clearly enough to work is mid-April, 2020.
However right now, she has 20/200 in the left eye and 20/400 in the right. In case you aren't aware, this is what that looks like:
Needless to say, her job as a Technical Editor for the United States Air Force is on a temporary hold until she can see enough. This is where the problems have surfaced.
She has been unable to work since January 7th, 2020. She has used up every bit of paid time off taking my grandparents and disabled aunt to and from appointments. She is now 2 months behind in every bill she has, and there doesn't seem to be a reprieve coming until that hopeful mid-April timeline. Her work is doing everything they can to support her. They've volunteered to bring her and my family meals, transport her to and from appointments, and any other tasks she made need help with. They've even assured her that her position will not be filled until they are told that she can never come back due to her eye sight.
My mother, above all else, is a fighter and a worker. She could take the easy route and cash in her disability. She could stop working altogether, become a dependent under my roof, and live out the rest of her days. She doesn't want to do this. She wants to work for as long as her eyes will let her. I just want my mom to get better. I don't want her to hurt. I want her to be able to see her grandchildren grow.
Right now, I mostly just need her finances to not run her into the ground.
Currently, she owes $4,158, split among medical bills, credit card bills, car payments, and mechanical bills. By mid-April, she'll have had her car repossessed, her credit cards canceled, her credit destroyed, and she'll owe approximately $10,000. The credit is the biggest issue, believe it or not, as that will then kill her job, no matter how nice and understanding they are.
WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Any cent helps. Any ideas will be heard. Nothing is too little of support. I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this far, and providing any help you can muster. Do know that if we happen to surpass our goal, and receive enough to continue her support until she can get back to work, that the remaining extra funds will go to getting her prepared for the fateful day that she can truly no longer see.
Thank you,
Nicholaus A. Kardeke