Hello, everyone. I’m here to ask that you give the gift of life and hope to our dear friend, Cindy Ward aka Astrid Thorvardsdottir. She urgently needs our help and every contribution will be a blessing.

After several years of declining health, Cindy received a diagnosis of Castleman’s Disease and POEMS syndrome. A specialist at Emory Hospital has a six-month medication treatment that he says should have her running at the end of treatment. And, of course, the medications are extremely expensive. The system and health-boosting drugs alone will be $3100 a month out-of-pocket after insurance pays its meager share. This is on top of the cost of the drugs to treat Castleman’s Disease and POEMS. The total monthly cost is estimated at $17K. Cindy needs our help to get this treatment started while the paperwork and approvals for grants and financial aid are being processed.

Over the past few years, Cindy has faced more challenges than are fair for one person to have to go through. As some of you know, she has had growing issues with numbness in her feet and legs. At first, doctors blamed this on her diabetes, believing it to be due to neuropathy. The usual treatments for neuropathy showed no results, so Cindy’s mobility continued to deteriorate.

All the while, Cindy was also dealing with chest pains. Doctors theorized it was due to changes in her esophagus from past surgeries to treat her autonomic disorder affecting her gastrointestinal tract. Further testing discovered a heart valve that was defective from birth. She underwent a procedure in early 2023 to correct the defect.

The puzzling symptoms continued, and in late spring/early summer of 2023, Cindy was tested for cancer. While in the hospital for a lymph node biopsy, her blood pressure dropped dangerously and Cindy coded. This resulted in an ICU stay of a month and a half, step-down care as an inpatient for two weeks, and a rehab facility for another two weeks before being sent home. She was put on oxygen and is using a walker.

Fall 2023 brought more testing, including a second bone marrow test, which finally confirmed that Cindy has Castleman’s Disease. This is a disorder that involves an overgrowth of cells in the body’s lymph nodes. This is also the probable cause of the neuropathy in her feet, legs, and now hands that has been plaguing Cindy for the past few years. Castleman’s Disease is treated like cancer with radiation and chemotherapy, along with anti-inflammatory meds. Cindy spent her 60th birthday in isolation to stay well enough to begin the radiation portion of her treatment.

Cindy spent much of December 2023 in the hospital. This visit was caused by a high level of carbon dioxide that caused her blood pressure to plummet and lead to confusion and a fall. She spent two weeks in ICU where they used medication to boost her blood pressure. To treat her high CO level, she was intubated and then required to use a bipap machine to maintain appropriate oxygen levels. Cindy spent Christmas Eve being moved from intermediate care to a standard hospital room and remained there until New Year’s Day.

In mid-January, Cindy had to move in with her niece, Rachel, near Atlanta. Cindy’s mobility had gotten so bad that she was no longer safe to remain living on her own. One of the bright sides of this move was the hope of finding a doctor who has experience in dealing with her complex diagnosis of Castleman’s Disease and POEMS syndrome. She has found a specialist at Emory who has had great success with treating the causes of these conditions and has restored mobility and improved the quality of life for others with the proposed drug therapy. Without this treatment, Cindy will likely be permanently in a wheelchair within the next six months. The lack of mobility will only complicate her other medical issues.

Please open your heart and contribute to help save Cindy’s life. Her kindness and generosity with her art have touched so many. She’s fed anyone who needed a meal and adopted so many people who had no place to be. Please help her now. Thank you for your support.