Assistance With Expenses For The Ciccone Family

As Amy's brother never once did I think I would ever setup a "gofundme" for my sister or her family. But here we are. While it's difficult to give all the details, it is only at the request of those that have reached out to the family, that I am sharing their story.

During the early morning hours of Saturday September 23rd, Amy was rushed to the hospital via ambulance with an assortment of concerns including chest pains, shortness of breath, flank pain, headache, and more. Upon arrival, the doctors discovered that she was suffering from anemia, and was gasping for air. After intubation, she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Advent Health New Smyrna Beach where she was on life support for a week. Fighting for her life, not knowing what her future may hold and if that day was the day she would get to meet Jesus and be reunited with our Dad.

This past Saturday September 30th, we left the hospital with a glimmer of hope as her body chemistry began stabilizing, her pneumonia showed signs of improvement, and we were able to have just a few moments of grace where she was aware enough to be able to understand what could have been our final words with her.

In these past few days, Amy has persevered and fought hard to stay with us! After undergoing a tracheotomy and a procedure to place a PEG feeding tube, she is in a much better place than she was just a week ago, but still requiring breathing assistance in the ICU. She is now able to communicate with us, although she is still unable to talk. We have been playing the world's worst game of charades for the past few days! We are able to see her smile, make her laugh a little and ultimately just be there with her. Although her condition is improving, she's not out of the woods just yet, and will likely have a long road ahead of her.

With her paid leave running out this week, there will be quite a few expenses that her family will face in the upcoming weeks and months. Being the provider for her family, Amy's job is protected via FMLA through mid December, but this will be considered an unpaid leave of absence.

So many people have reached out asking how they could help and have offered financial assistance, we thought it would be prudent to consolidate and share a gofund me option. If you feel inspired to make a contribution, please do so. If you feel inspired to share her story you're more than welcome to. These next few months will be an uncertain future for her along with Joey and Vickey. Any funds raised will be allocated for family expenses during these upcoming weeks.

UPDATE: Saturday 10/7/23 - I wanted to make a quick update. Amy continues to show improvement and is now only partially on a ventilator at night while sleeping. During the day she is alert, and pain free! If all goes well, we could be looking at discharge to an inpatient rehabilitation facility or long term acute care facility next week! She keeps fighting! A special thank you to everyone who has contributed! I am working through the donations to send personalized message, but I don't think I can reach out to the anonymous donors. THANK YOU!

UPDATE: Friday 10/13/23 - Amy has made great progress! This week she was transferred to a Long Term Care Facility which is on the 11th floor of the Ormond Beach Advent Health hospital off of I-95! Over the past few days she has worked hard on her physical therapy evaluation and has been getting out of the bed and into a chair in the room. She has a great view and is excited to be looking at all the happenings and the world outside! While she is still working on being able to text and use her cell phone, she is communicating via written notes and her face lights up when she gets to see visitors! Please reach out to me directly, for visitation information and I'm happy to provide it.

UPDATE: Friday 10/27/23 - Time for a long Overdue Update! On Tuesday the 17th, Amy was transferred back to Advent Health in Ormond for emergent surgery due to complications with her PEG tube. It was a long night, but she tolerated the surgery well, and landed back in the ICU. This past Sunday, she was moved to a step down unit (regular hospital room) and is now awaiting some planning to determine her next steps. We're not sure if she will be heading back to the Long Term Care Facility on the 8th floor, or another location. She has made some great progress in terms of eating and drinking on her own, and she finally got her chocolate pudding! Amy is more communicative now, and talking when her treach tube is capped. She can also read text messages but responses may still be pretty short. She is open for visitation, but please reach out so we can advise where she is in case she gets transferred. Thank you for your continued support and prayers! We knew this would be a long road to recovery, and we're hunkering down in for the long haul!

UPDATE: Friday 11/2/23 - She's back in an LTAC! Amy continues to show improvement and yesterday was transferred from Advent Health's step down unit back to Select Medical. It's in the same building, just a different floor if you would like to visit. As she made the transfer, Amy will now be concentrating on getting her strength back with the ultimate goal of being discharged to the Brooks Impatient Rehab facility in Daytona. She continues to enjoy the little things that we tend to look over like drinking water and eating solid foods. In good spirits, she's looking forward to having the treach tube removed in the near future. Thank you again for all your support and well wishes!