Help Melissa Move To Get the Help She Needs

Hi, I'm Tracy Koppel and I'm fundraising for Melissa Weidner because she's a wonderful, warm, creative person who's had more than her fair share of trouble. Her current living situation is untenable. She moved to Topeka, Kansas, because she was promised supportive living and good neurology care. Instead, she found HUD housing filled with meth addicts and neurologists who refused to see her. She needs our help getting out of there and getting back to Illinois. Peoria has affordable houses and proper neurology services for her and more stroke rehab facility options. She would benefit from continuing her current therapies in Topeka until then, but needs help paying for it, as well as help paying off the medical debt accrued from recent transient ischemic attacks. It is medically recommended she resume neurology stroke care as soon as possible. By moving to Illinois, she could easily resume seeing her original stroke care team in Chicago or start a new team through OSF Saint Fransis Medical Center in Peoria, one of the very best stroke care centers in the Midwest.

Why Does Melissa Need Help?

Melissa is currently living in a shockingly run city (Topeka) in Kansas, adding unnecessary interference and stress to her recovery. She’s discovered affordable two-bedroom houses in a much-better-run cities in Illinois, and closer her homeland of Chicago. Moving back to Illinois should improve her recovery odds and her quality of life. Her prognosis after her strokes and seizures is only less than 10% chance of full recovery and she faces an increased risk of death and more neurological complications through April 30, 2032. She will continue to have a general indefinite increased risk of strokes, seizures, blood clots, hemiplegia contractures (weak and paralyzed muscles becoming permanently stuck and paralyzed). Her estimated lifespan is 1-9 years with the amount of traumatic brain injury already incurred.

Better living, getting back on track with vital medical care and further neurology care with rehab can extend her lifespan and increase her odds of a full recovery. She currently still has vision loss/visual field cuts in right eye and paralyzed muscles in left side neck, shoulder, arm, hand, fingers, leg, and ankle.

She needs at least $11,000 to cover moving her possessions across states, paying off her current medical bills and furniture bills, for additional stroke rehab, and for her emotional support pet, Sweet Pea, and pet supplies.

Here’s the breakdown:

- IL 2-bedroom house down payment with FHA loan = $6,000

- Moving expenses for apartment to IL house = $2000

- ESA dog Boarding/doggy day care for moving = $500

- New home supplies (home goods like kitchen table with chairs, office desk, computer, groceries, etc.) =$1,000

- Stroke Recovery/Paralysis tools and medical home supplies like new Dycem, new anti-slip Shower mat or new shower chair if needed, new less adaptive dishes = $300

- Further stroke rehab = $1,000

- Medical bills to pay off in Topeka = $1,000

- Emotional Support pet house supplies = $500

- Grand total = $11,800

(The GoFundMe goal says 18,387 because I added 11,800 to what we raised to get her to Topeka.)

If we all pitch in what we can, we can get Melissa and Sweet Pea safely out of Topeka and back to Illinois where she can thrive by resuming seeing all her doctors, family, and friends!