Libby's Road to Recovery

Hi! My name is Heidi Prime and I am about to do something for an extremely proud family and they may never speak to me again, but that's ok because Libby is my focus!   :)

Libby Johnson is a 14 year old girl who has been afflicted with both ITP (Idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura- a blood disorder in which the immune system destroys platelets necessary for normal blood clotting) and APS (which causes her blood to clot too much). Her body is at war with itself. Libby was diagnosed with these disorders 2 years ago and the last 2 years have been full of ups and downs, many specialty appointments and too many ER trips and hospital stays to count.  Currently, Libby has experienced a spontaneous clot that damaged the nerves in her left arm. The clot has thankfully been dissolved, but the  nerve damage left behind has severly limited her mobility and she is in imminent danger of losing use of this arm all together if they can't get it responding to treatment. It's been 3 months since this latest episode and now the specialists at Fletcher Allen have decided that they can't help her. :(  They have thankfully arranged for her to attend the inpatient occupational therapy program at Boston Children's Hospital and while this is very hopeful news, the trip is not without worry for this family. You see, we are being told that the program for someone with Libby's conditions is normally 3 to 6 MONTHS! "Inpatient" means Libby and Mom could potentially  be away from home, family, friends and work for  half a year! We have researched and even the most reasonable housing available for Chastity will cost $30 a day -  a cost of $5400 for a 6 month stay - just for Mom to be able to be there for Libby..... and  then there's the travel piece for the rest of the family.  They have a million little expenses in front of them and none are covered by insurance. We all have fingers crossed that Libby will be able to check in this week, so let the healing begin!!! She is the strongest and most resilient young lady I have ever had the privilege to know and her family deserves to be able to be there with her without worrying about how the mounting bills are going to get paid. No one can plan for things like this and It doesn't take much to make a difference. Thank you so much for caring about this beautiful child.