Help Elissa get back on her feet
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Update 7-16-24:
I really wish this story was resolved, my friends, but I have to revive this fundraiser. Earlier this month I learned that I have chronic Lyme (and Bartonella, another tick borne illness, too). We think I've probably had it this whole time and it's been underneath all of my medical complications over the past year+. More will be revealed.
Anyhow, I have a whole new, expensive healing path in front of me. If you have the means to contribute to this next wave of my recovery, I would welcome your support. And if you're curious about how the story all began, you can watch the video or read on for what I posted a year ago.
Gratitude,
Elissa
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Dearest friends and family,
It is with great humility that I’m posting this GoFundMe page and this message. I’ve never experienced anything like what I’m going through right now, and I’ve never made an ask like this in my life. Yet I humbly admit that I can’t continue to navigate my current medical situation without support, and so I’d like to ask for yours.
At the end of May I boarded a plane to Austin, Texas to attend a work conference. I was excited to return to my online teaching work after taking a sabbatical, and expected this conference to be the perfect kick-off. However less than a day in, I was found unresponsive in a bathroom stall. The notes by the first responders who arrived said that I “appeared lifeless and had no pulse.” I was rushed to the hospital.
I don’t remember my first few days in the hospital, but my brother and father arrived within a day and a couple of my local close friends came too. I am told that I was repeatedly asking where I was and what was going on. The good news is that I was pretty quickly my goofy self… there’s hilarious footage of my profound excitement over getting a pudding cup on my food tray, and I wound up working diligently on a Carly Simon cover that I’m calling “Poke My Veins” (if you want to hear it, I need help recording the song and editing the footage!)
Anyhow, I received incredible care from many specialists at the hospital during the ten days I was there. We still don’t and may never know exactly what happened, but MRIs suggest that oxygen was cut off to my brain during what may have been a seizure and/or allergic reaction. I have had significant neurological challenges since the event, which are slowly getting better. The first month I was back home I was very disoriented and had my family staying with me, helping me remember to eat and take my medicine. I am just slowly being able to engage with electronics more in the past few weeks, and I still take multiple naps per day. It remains the case that I can’t drive and won’t be able to until at least December 1st, so I’ve needed to ask for a great deal of support from my close friends and neighbors where I now live in the Hudson Valley.
The long and the short of sharing all this is that my life has certainly not unfolded as I expected in the last few months. I was planning to return to work in June and wasn’t able to do so. In addition, I have been incurring some big medical expenses and additional living expenses I wasn’t anticipating. I am now able to slowly get back to rebuilding my business, but I don’t believe I’ll be at full capacity until the end of the year.
So, I am running this GoFundMe to help with my medical and living expenses during my ongoing recovery time. A bit about how my expenses break down:
- My medical expenses are going to be a minimum of $9000.
- In addition to the continuing Western medicine visits and tests, I’m seeking regular support from a Bio-Dynamic Cranial Sacral therapist, my Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor for acupuncture, and other holistic practitioners. A donation of $150 pays for a visit to any of these wonderful folks who are helping me so much.
- My transportation costs are much higher than usual given that I can’t drive. Though people have been so generous with helping me out, the reality is that I am regularly paying for Ubers/Lyfts to doctors visits etc, transportation to and from New York City, and a place to stay in the city while I batch my doctors visits. This is adding ~$1500/month to my regular expenses.
- The remaining goal is to account for my regular living expenses, which include my housing, food, and therapy (thank goodness!).
If you are able to give, I would gratefully receive your donations. And if you aren’t able to contribute money, sharing this link with your friends and family who might be inclined to support would mean so much to me as well.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for caring for and about me.
Much love,
Elissa
P.S. If there is another way you’d be inclined to make an offering - for instance in the form of goods or services - I would be grateful for that too. Please message me through this portal.
P.P.S. If generosity pours in and I exceed my goal, I will allocate any additional funds towards music production. My healing process is turning out to be an incredibly creative time for me - I’ve been writing a lot of music for myself to ground and calm my nervous system. It would be so joyful for me to have the financial resources to record that music and share it with you. (Watch the end of the video if you want to see an example of the songs I've been writing )