As many of you already know the story our mom was in a car accident in July of this year. During the course of examination it was discovered she had a brain tumor on her brain stem. While hearing someone has a brain tumor is shocking enough it was even more shocking to hear that it was on her brain stem affecting her walking, swallowing, hearing, and other "unexplained" ailments that were never connected. It was a slow growing tumor that she was likely born with ( a clump of cells didn't quite end up where it should have during her time in the womb) which is non-cancerous but unlike a "normal" tumor that grows and expands like a balloon this one is like toothpaste oozing through her brain and attaching to nerves and arteries. We were referred to a Doctor in Bloomington that explained it would likely be a long surgery but she would only be in the hospital 4-7 days and as long as the surgery went as expected she should have about 6-8 weeks recovery time. Well here we are a month later and there has been so much more to the story. She ended up in ICU for close to 3 weeks, another week inpatient and on 9/26 she was finally transferred to Shirley Ryan where she has begun her therapies that include OT, PT, and Speech. We are now learning that it's likely several major nerves were damaged and she is learning to walk again. She is unable to eat and remains on a feeding tube and may not recover her ability to swallow. It's already been a long road for her but she has a longer road ahead of her.

She's not going to be able to go back to her independent living any time soon, if ever, and will be working on her recovery at Melissa's. But with that recovery comes expenses that we aren't sure how to cover. We will need to make our homes (and eventually, hopefully her apt) wheelchair accessible. We will need to convert a lower level room into a bedroom, showers handicap accessible. She will also be traveling into Dekalb 4 days a week for therapy after she is released from inpatient therapy. She likely won't be able to return to work and will have expenses beyond what social security and medicare will cover.

Any amount is appreciated and will go to making moms "new normal" as normal as possible. None of us have a crystal ball to see what the future holds but we want mom's future to be the best that it can be.