Help Cathy Recover from Stroke

Hi everyone,

This isn't the post we wanted or expected to be posting.

On Thursday night right after hosting trivia, Cathy suffered multiple strokes in her cerebellum and was rushed to the emergency room. The team there immediately jumped into action to break up the clots in her brain, balance her fluids and temperature, and save her life and we are forever grateful to them. While healing from the initial impact, Cathy was unable to open her eyes or move her head for her 48 hours at Calvert Memorial and she was suffering from debilitating, throbbing and searing headaches and vertigo. This was a sign that the brain was swelling, which, untreated, is a lethal situation.

They transported her to the GW University Hospital ICU to drill into her skull to relieve fluid, pressure, and pain. She has successfully had the back of her skull plate removed and although she is doing much better, she will need to undergo months of rehabilitation in order to return to her regular self. Fortunately she appears to have maintained much of her physical and cognitive abilities, though eyesight and balance may take longer to recover.

They're currently monitoring to understand the cause of a stroke in such a young, healthy, and vibrant person and continue to run tests and scans. Along the way they found that she has a small hole between the chambers of her heart that shouldn't be there and will need to do surgery to repair that problem. There are likely other things they will discover that will need attention along the way.

She hopes to return to her students as soon as possible but we are unsure when that will be. Even when she does, she will need help driving as she regains eyesight and undergoes regular physical therapy. When she was ordered by her doctor to stop work at Calvert County Public Schools while she was being harrassed two years ago, she had to use up all of her leave and now has little or no leave left and will likely need to take leave without pay with St. Mary's County Public Schools while she recovers.

Many people have asked how they can help and, now that Cathy is out of the acute stages and the more urgent peril, I can shift my attention to this. A band of family and close friends have been taking care of our immediate needs, helping to get the kids food, transport them to events, and make sure the house is in good shape (thank you so much to everyone that has pitched in!) Rather than sending food or flowers or balloons, making contributions of any size to this cause would be a very real way people can help her focus on her recovery. I had no idea what number to set as the goal, but Gofundme makes you choose a starting amount so I did my best. Edit: they said they hope everything is back to normal in 6 to 12 months, but it's not clear when she'll be able to drive so this may be more leave than we originally realized - I increased the goal to match this news.

Thank you for considering, and please share this to anyone that you think may want to contribute.