Liza's Get Out of Lockdown Pool
Donation protected
WHAT IF COVID-19 LASTED 9 YEARS?
Through the recent pandemic, many of us have had a taste of being trapped in doors. The isolation. The boredom. Trying to find things to do to stay sane – the sour dough challenge, dressing up to put out the rubbish, the blinding lights dance. As restrictions start to lift, we can all breath a sigh of relief as we start to get out and about again. But what if the restrictions didn’t lift? What if they lasted not a couple of months but nine years?
Following an minor accident that injured her back, my daughter, Liza, has been stuck indoors for nine years now, bedridden. To leave the house, she has to be carried out on a stretcher. She can’t stand or sit for more than a few minutes. A single parent, her daughter was just five years old when Liza’s accident happened. Almost all of that time, she has been stuck in bed, in constant pain and trying to raise a child. She’s had multiple operations and tried almost every form of therapy, mostly to no lasting benefit. Today, she is being cared for by me, her 71 year old mother, and her14 year old daughter.
Liza’s best hope is to have a device called a neuromodulator surgically inserted in her back. The neuromodulator sends out electrical impulses that suppress the pain. If the pain can be reduced, she can use physiotherapy and pain management techniques to strengthen herself and regain some of her mobility. But after nine years in a bed, she is too weak to undergo the procedure. Her condition will continue to deteriorate unless we can do something to help.
The best way for her to get strong enough to have the pain-suppressing device is hydrotherapy – exercising in water, so the water can bear most of her weight and she can gradually get her muscle tone back. But getting to the local pool when you can’t stand or sit for more than a few minutes is incredibly hard.
We are trying to raise funds to build a small hydrotherapy pool in her garden. With a hydrotherapy pool nearby, she could exercise every day and slowly get strong enough to have the neuromodulator. Then she might be able to do more for herself, and hopefully get out and about again. She hates to be a burden on her daughter, my granddaughter, who is starting her GCSEs soon, and wants to be fit enough to go back to tutoring young children.
Nine years is too long for anyone to be stuck indoors.
Through the recent pandemic, many of us have had a taste of being trapped in doors. The isolation. The boredom. Trying to find things to do to stay sane – the sour dough challenge, dressing up to put out the rubbish, the blinding lights dance. As restrictions start to lift, we can all breath a sigh of relief as we start to get out and about again. But what if the restrictions didn’t lift? What if they lasted not a couple of months but nine years?
Following an minor accident that injured her back, my daughter, Liza, has been stuck indoors for nine years now, bedridden. To leave the house, she has to be carried out on a stretcher. She can’t stand or sit for more than a few minutes. A single parent, her daughter was just five years old when Liza’s accident happened. Almost all of that time, she has been stuck in bed, in constant pain and trying to raise a child. She’s had multiple operations and tried almost every form of therapy, mostly to no lasting benefit. Today, she is being cared for by me, her 71 year old mother, and her14 year old daughter.
Liza’s best hope is to have a device called a neuromodulator surgically inserted in her back. The neuromodulator sends out electrical impulses that suppress the pain. If the pain can be reduced, she can use physiotherapy and pain management techniques to strengthen herself and regain some of her mobility. But after nine years in a bed, she is too weak to undergo the procedure. Her condition will continue to deteriorate unless we can do something to help.
The best way for her to get strong enough to have the pain-suppressing device is hydrotherapy – exercising in water, so the water can bear most of her weight and she can gradually get her muscle tone back. But getting to the local pool when you can’t stand or sit for more than a few minutes is incredibly hard.
We are trying to raise funds to build a small hydrotherapy pool in her garden. With a hydrotherapy pool nearby, she could exercise every day and slowly get strong enough to have the neuromodulator. Then she might be able to do more for herself, and hopefully get out and about again. She hates to be a burden on her daughter, my granddaughter, who is starting her GCSEs soon, and wants to be fit enough to go back to tutoring young children.
Nine years is too long for anyone to be stuck indoors.
Organizer
Elaine King
Organizer
