Hi, I'm Heather and I'm asking for your financial support as I struggle to get my life back together after a stroke I suffered in January. On 1/23/2024, two of my colleagues became concerned when I missed work without notice two days in a row, so they came looking for me and found me lying unconcious on the floor of my apartment.

I spent 5 weeks in the hospital, between ICU, medical/surgical units, and rehab. I am grateful to all of my care teams at Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Milwaukee and Ozaukee campuses, especially the team at Sacred Heart Rehab Hospital at Ozaukee campus.

I'm incredibly grateful to the friends who visited or supported me from a distance via text or phone while I was in-patient, those who helped manage my home space and brought me things while I was in the hospital, and to the folks at work who contributed to a financial gift that has paid for bills and groceries in the last two weeks.

My recovery is going pretty well, all things considered. The stroke was in the right hemisphere of my brain, so I have left-side weakness in my limbs Very fortunately, I have no cognitive or communication deficiencies from the stroke. Also fortunately, I'm right handed, so I still have use of my dominant-side limbs and hand. I'm also walking quite well with a cane and have been cleared from needing any further physical therapy. Occupational therapy to improve the fine motor control in my left hand continues.

But I'm still in a financial crisis. I am on indefinite unpaid leave from work. I likely will be unable to return to work for at least another month or two. There's a wonderful program at my employer that I qualify for that allows my fellow employees to donate some of their own paid leave to me so that I can be paid while I'm out of work with serious illness. My fingers are crossed that folks will donate time, but that's a waiting game and there are the inevitable bureaucratic steps to grind through, so I have no idea when I'll start seeing any of that income or how much or how much or how steady it may be. Meanwhile, I have no more sick leave to draw on and my workplace HR manager is advising my manager on how best to dole out my existing pots of vacation and comp time to ensure that paychecks from which health insurance employee premiums are deducted can cover those deductions so I don't lose insurance coverage in the midst of my health crisis.

Anyway, my checking account is sitting at -$56.08, and I need to raise at least $1200 by Tuesday 3/25 to pay rent and buy groceries next week. My last two paychecks have been roughly $420 and $4, and I expect to receive something similarly paltry on 3/28 and beyond until that donor leave program kicks in.

All money I raise here or elsewhere will go toward my living and medical expenses while recovering: rent, bills, groceries, transportation to/from appointments, healthcare and prescription co-pays not otherwise covered, assistive aids for household or grooming/ needs (like zipper pulls or one-handed hair-styling devices or grippy doodads so I can open jars and bottles without full use of my left hand).

I'm putting an initial goal of $3000 on this fundraiser because bills continue piling up and I'm unclear on when other potential income resources will be able to kick in. I would very much like to be able to regain full mobility and return to work, but it's going to be some months before that's possible. I feel that returning to my regular life in two or three or four months means maintaining that life as much as possible during recovery. My doctors tell me that a patient's stroke recovery progress should be assessed three to six months after the event occurred to get a good read on where recovery stands at that point and see what a new baseline of functionality may be for the patient. Additional improvement can stil occur beyond six months, but -- enh, generally speaking, what you see by six months is a pretty good indicator of how far back you're gonna get. (Obviously, that's me paraphrasing and interpreting from my conversations with several medical professionals, not quoting directly from any one individual.) So, my three- to six-month post-stroke window will be from late April to late July. I need to get there in order to figure out my medium- and long-term future plans.

Will you please help me get there?