Pulling Together for Nicki

Many of you may know my sister Nicki. She speaks so often and proudly of the people that she has worked with at Exxonmobil that even if we don’t know you personally we feel as if you are a part of our family too. Her coworkers brighten her days and enrich her life so much that being at Exxonmobil is a huge source of happiness and fulfillment for her.

Unfortunately, Nicki was recently told by doctors in Georgetown that she needs a significant heart surgery. Significant enough that it will need to be performed in Long Island instead of Georgetown and that it can’t wait much longer. The doctors tell us that triple-bypass patients have very stringent post-surgery recovery needs that her family in New York may struggle to meet. Her condition has also developed so quickly that it will be difficult to manage her travel and accommodations on such short notice in a way that is conducive to the healing process she needs to recover as completely as possible. Thankfully, Nicki’s daughter will be traveling with her to Long Island to be with her every day in the hospital and will stay in Long Island until she has recovered enough to travel back to all the people who will be missing her in Georgetown.

Nicki is strong, positive, and has so much energy that the rest of our family gets jealous. But we’re still worried about how the stress of how all of this will be paid for is going to impact her surgery preparedness and recovery.

Some rough internet research tells us that Nicki can expect to spend:

~$1,500 USD for 2x economy tickets from GEO to JFK for her and her daughter

~$2,500 USD for 2x business class tickets, per doctor’s requirement for return from JFK to GEO after recovery

~$20,000 USD for the predicted 90days of recovery from triple-bypass, in a hotel near the hospital

- our nearest family and friends who live in a house without stairs are over an hour away

~$6,000 USD for medicine at payer-negotiated cost

~$3,000 USD for 3x months of expenses to live out of the hotel, while also accounting for as much help from her New York based family as possible

And that is how we have arrived at the GoFundMe goal for Nicki’s travel and recovery of $33,000 USD.

Nicki would be terribly embarrassed if she knew that her family was doing this for her so we will hope for a bit of discretion as we share this with you. But we also love her too much not ask.

We know that this is an ambitious goal and we understand that life happens to everyone. Many who know Nicki are not in a position to contribute and we hope that nobody who reads this feels obligated to give. But in case you do feel led to donate you should know that it will be a tremendous blessing for Nicki and her family.

Thanks so much from all of us that love Nicki, in New York, Georgetown, and all over the world.