Help Deana C., who has helped so many!
Donation protected
For over 25 years, Deana Choczynski spent countless hours and days welcoming neighborhood children into her home and swimming pool while teaching them about the beautiful virtues that lie latent within them. This was her purpose in life, her service to humanity. She was such an active proponent of the Virtues Project that she even accompanied the founder of Virtues Project International, Linda Kavelin-Popov, to Chicago to film a segment of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
All of that has now stopped.
For the past few years, Deana has been battling Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a terrible illness that stops life in its tracks. Her case has increased in severity throughout 2019 and 2020.
From the CDC: "ME/CFS may get worse after any activity, whether it’s physical or mental. This symptom is known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). Other symptoms can include problems with sleep, thinking and concentrating, pain, and dizziness."
In Deana's case, she also experiences orthostatic intolerance (the inability to be upright for any length of time) and severe flu-like symptoms.
Due to her condition, Deana is confined to her bed -- which is in the dining room of the home she shares with her husband, Ray -- nearly 100% of the time. In her own words: "I have been stripped down [bare], completely raw like never before. I have had everything taken away from me. My livelihood, my income, my self-worth, my independence, and most of all my ability to help others."
In January 2020, she wrote: "I want to give an update on my condition and what is currently happening with me.
"I have been home bound and for the most part bed-bound for more than a year now. For the majority of the past year. I have not been able to care for myself at all. Ray and Elisha have become my caregivers; they help me with bathing, they wash my hair and shave my legs because I am unable; I don't have enough energy. And when I do minimal things it causes me to become very ill for days, weeks or months. Sometimes it becomes so severe it is hard for me to just turn over in bed. The scarier thing is [when] my breathing becomes labored, shortness of breath or just hard to breathe. And it becomes hard to swallow even my own saliva. So that can feel scary."
That was 10 months ago.
Deana has been very reticent to ask for help because she recognizes she has much that others don't. So, I am doing it for her. Because SHE NEEDS IT.
Deana wrote this today, Oct. 19, 2020, at my request, because she has a procedure scheduled for Friday, and it may not happen unless she can raise the necessary funds:
"I AM REACHING OUT AND ASKING FOR HELP.
"This is truly hard for me to do because I know there are so many people that are in worse shape than I am and that have less resources. I have been considering asking for help for more than a year now. So here I am the time has come, I have to acknowledge and accept that I cannot do this alone. I need help. My needs felt enormous, too big, I didn't know where to start or how to ask for help. So I will start here with today.
"Today has been an extremely difficult day.
"I have put a lot of hope into a procedure that I'm supposed to have done at Brigham's Women's and Children's Hospital in Boston Massachusetts this week. When this appointment was set up, after a year long wait, I was told that they would have a team of people working with my insurance company to insure that I would not end up with a substantial bill and not to worry about the cost. However, it seems that something fell through the cracks somewhere and the hospital has now contacted me, just days before the procedure, to tell me my insurance will not cover it and it will be $15,000 out of pocket."
Friends, if you've thought about supporting Deana before but haven't, now is your chance.
Please note: If the insurance ends up paying for a portion of the procedure, any excess funds will be used to help pay for a home healthcare aide and make household modifications to assist in Deana's care and quality of life.
All of that has now stopped.
For the past few years, Deana has been battling Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a terrible illness that stops life in its tracks. Her case has increased in severity throughout 2019 and 2020.
From the CDC: "ME/CFS may get worse after any activity, whether it’s physical or mental. This symptom is known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). Other symptoms can include problems with sleep, thinking and concentrating, pain, and dizziness."
In Deana's case, she also experiences orthostatic intolerance (the inability to be upright for any length of time) and severe flu-like symptoms.
Due to her condition, Deana is confined to her bed -- which is in the dining room of the home she shares with her husband, Ray -- nearly 100% of the time. In her own words: "I have been stripped down [bare], completely raw like never before. I have had everything taken away from me. My livelihood, my income, my self-worth, my independence, and most of all my ability to help others."
In January 2020, she wrote: "I want to give an update on my condition and what is currently happening with me.
"I have been home bound and for the most part bed-bound for more than a year now. For the majority of the past year. I have not been able to care for myself at all. Ray and Elisha have become my caregivers; they help me with bathing, they wash my hair and shave my legs because I am unable; I don't have enough energy. And when I do minimal things it causes me to become very ill for days, weeks or months. Sometimes it becomes so severe it is hard for me to just turn over in bed. The scarier thing is [when] my breathing becomes labored, shortness of breath or just hard to breathe. And it becomes hard to swallow even my own saliva. So that can feel scary."
That was 10 months ago.
Deana has been very reticent to ask for help because she recognizes she has much that others don't. So, I am doing it for her. Because SHE NEEDS IT.
Deana wrote this today, Oct. 19, 2020, at my request, because she has a procedure scheduled for Friday, and it may not happen unless she can raise the necessary funds:
"I AM REACHING OUT AND ASKING FOR HELP.
"This is truly hard for me to do because I know there are so many people that are in worse shape than I am and that have less resources. I have been considering asking for help for more than a year now. So here I am the time has come, I have to acknowledge and accept that I cannot do this alone. I need help. My needs felt enormous, too big, I didn't know where to start or how to ask for help. So I will start here with today.
"Today has been an extremely difficult day.
"I have put a lot of hope into a procedure that I'm supposed to have done at Brigham's Women's and Children's Hospital in Boston Massachusetts this week. When this appointment was set up, after a year long wait, I was told that they would have a team of people working with my insurance company to insure that I would not end up with a substantial bill and not to worry about the cost. However, it seems that something fell through the cracks somewhere and the hospital has now contacted me, just days before the procedure, to tell me my insurance will not cover it and it will be $15,000 out of pocket."
Friends, if you've thought about supporting Deana before but haven't, now is your chance.
Please note: If the insurance ends up paying for a portion of the procedure, any excess funds will be used to help pay for a home healthcare aide and make household modifications to assist in Deana's care and quality of life.
Organizer and beneficiary
Roya Bauman
Organizer
Buffalo, NY
Deana Choczynski
Beneficiary