On December 5th, 2021 in the evening my 12-year-old daughter, Lisa, had a stroke. Three weeks later she is still in the hospital, with the projected release date for her to go back home almost 3 weeks away, on Jan 14th. As of today, she has limited use of her muscles in the upper part of her left leg with very minimal use of any muscles below her left knee. She has yet to regain any control of her left arm. She is left-handed so there will be a huge adjustment period for Lisa as she learns to adapt and work on regaining some of her independence.

 

They say that the cause of her stroke was improperly formed veins in her brain, and on the MRI images the doctor pointed out several vessels in her right brain that were not in her left. I was told that treatments would be needed in the future to mitigate the future risk of stroke, but the specific treatment has not yet been determined as to what it would be.

 

I am starting this GoFundMe for a few reasons. The first is that her injury happened in December, meaning that my catastrophic cap for health insurance will reset halfway through her medical stay. I keep a bit of money saved away for this but not enough to take care of twice the annual catastrophic cap. I want to stay on top of paying the bills as I get them to not disrupt her appointments for physical therapy and follow-up appointments as doctors determine what caused her blood vessels to form improperly and pay for treatments needed to treat my sweet daughter. Also, I will be trying to make several modifications to our home in the next 3 weeks before Lisa comes home. The majority of the changes will be in our bathroom to make it easier for Lisa to maintain as much independence in the bathroom as she can while at home, which she has expressed is important to her. There will also be some modifications in her bedroom.

 

I am very grateful for anybody who is willing to help, but the final need we have is transportation for Lisa. I have a long drive to work every day so we recently downgraded our vehicle to a more fuel-efficient focus. The most recent advice I have been given by the doctors and physical therapists is that their goal is Lisa will be able to use a cane to maneuver short distances in the home, however, when shopping or at school will need to use a wheelchair as she will tire out easily. If the community is generous enough where everything is taken care of I hope to find a vehicle that can easily transport a wheelchair for Lisa. I can probably fit one into my Focus if that is all that is in it. This means that if the family goes shopping at the store we wouldn't be able to take Lisa. She already feels isolated and alone, and I fear leaving her at home when we do previously normal functions would make those feelings worse. Getting a safe, used minivan is the other thing I would like to get so that she can would not feel left out because of space limitations in our small compact car.

 

I want to end this by saying what we are grateful for. We are grateful Lisa is alive, as this is not always the case with a bleed in the brain. We are grateful that her speech and sense of humor are still very much intact. And we are thankful that she is able to get high-quality medical care. Thank you all for reading this, and God Bless whether you can help or not. If you cannot donate, please keep Lisa in your thoughts and prayers.