Help Vikki Fight to Get Her Life Back

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH A FEW OTHERS

Vikki was the strong one. Caring for people consumed her life, not always by choice—her diabetic aunt, her blind father, her mother's many surgeries, the list runs long.

Chronic illness took all that away. She lives in severe, chronic pain every day. It started 20 years ago—carpal tunnel, then chronic fatigue, add fibromyalgia, autoimmune neutropenia, and fluoroquinolone toxicity syndrome (permanent side-effects from Cipro). After nine bouts with pneumonia, we said sayonara to Michigan and moved to Florida. 

Vikki’s mom visited us a few months later and we quickly found she had a brain tumor. She became a Florida resident by default for medical travel restrictions. So she added caring for mom to her healing process—no surprise Vikki only got worse.

By summer 2020, she was bedridden as gastric reflux had eaten away most of her esophagus, and she developed double aspiration pneumonia. A month in the hospital, five ER visits, a PICC line with IV nutrition for three months, gastric surgery, and many prayers got her in pretty good shape by the start of 2021, for a few weeks anyway.

Valentine’s Day 2021, the ER doctor thanked us for the opportunity to save her life. Um, what? We thought she had pneumonia again. Rather, double severe pulmonary embolisms (PE) and three blood clots in her leg (DVT). Four specialists puzzled for an hour over her test results as there was no medical reason why she was alive. This was the fourth time in six months a doctor announced that Vikki has escaped death. One is a fluke, two a coincidence, three is a trend, but four—that is a miracle. 

Days later, her cousin Judy, her best friend and comfort, died suddenly. A week later, her mom fell and had to be moved to assisted-living. After two months of sorting everything from mom's downsizing, our landlords announced they were selling our house, and we now had to move. At the same time, rentals in Florida had gone up about 50% and became scarce.

We took a financial hit moving to Florida as I’m self-employed and had to rebuild my business from scratch in a new state. I took over caring for mom when Vikki couldn't. I’m now caregiver for two people, running a business, and struggling to keep up.

Again bed-ridden and recovering from rotator cuff surgery, Vikki cannot pack the house. In the middle of all this, mom took a bad turn and has recently moved to hospice.  

So we have two choices—give up, or fight to win. We’re choosing to win!

Vikki wants her life back. She lives in pain and can't get out of bed without help, but she’ll overcome. I’m under-slept and overworked, but I'll overcome. Vikki needs a place to heal where she can be who God made her—to care for those in need, who have no place to go, who need to be fed, heard, or loved. She can't do any of those things right now.

So that's why I'm asking for help. We need to move by the 2nd week of February. I want to pay movers to help us because we're overextended on energy and health and money. I’m a determined swimmer, but the waters have been high for a while now, and land still far away.

We don't particularly enjoy asking for help. So if you can't donate, believe me, I understand. But maybe you could pray for us, or we would be so grateful if you could pass this message to a few friends.

God Bless and thank you for your help!

Jim Pinard

FOR THE WIN 
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UPDATE:  WINTER HAVEN, FL – 02/01/22. Vikki’s mother, Helen Johnson, passed away after six days in hospice from rapidly accelerated dementia. She was 88 years old and spent her final years in chronic pain. A breast cancer survivor of over 35 years, Helen loved crafting and quilting. Vikki covered her with one of Helen’s handmade quilts, one of dozens that Helen made for nursing homes. Our deepest thanks to Merrill Gardens and Good Shepherd Hospice who made her last days as comfortable as possible.