Roxanne needs our help

My friend Roxanne Gaines needs help.  She has been diagnosed with the fatal lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that causes scarring in the lungs.  Tissue deep in the lungs become thick, stiff and scarred. The scarring is called fibrosis.  As the lung tissue is replaced with scars, the sufferer is no longer able to breathe -she says it feels like drowning by inches.  Roxanne’s disease has progressed so rapidly that now she has only 15% lung capacity.  While she has been suffering major shortness of breath and excessive coughing for the past few years from having pneumonia in April 2015, her prognosis appeared to be manageable till the last few months and she has since made a rapid downward slide.   She can no longer work, walk for more than a few feet, speak more than a few sentences, or take care of basic needs like cleaning, cooking, or laundry.  Due to numbness in her right arm, she can’t even type or do simple things like make her bed or put dishes away.  She can’t make it up the stairs to her apartment without resting for several minutes after two or three stairs, so is becoming housebound. 

Roxanne was laid off from her long-term job as a legal assistant in 2013 and has since been unable to find permanent work, largely due to her health issues, and has become a ubiquitous and consistent temporary employee.  However, as she can no longer interview, many of these opportunities are now closed to her.  An added issue is her frequent job movement while attempting to manage her health, has curbed her abilities to make new and lasting friendships and increased her isolation.

Since she can’t work, she now has no income, and cannot pay her rent, ordinary bills, buy groceries, or pay for any home care as she becomes less and less able to take care of herself.   She is on oxygen 24 hours a day and has to have an oxygen concentrator with her at all times.  This makes leaving her home increasingly difficult and is becoming impossible.  She has only basic medical coverage through MediCal. 

With money and transportation, she could seek additional medical treatment, find a new apartment without stairs, and get some home health care. She is not seeking major intervention in the way of transplant or stem cell treatments, but would like options for medication programs, clinical trials, or palliative care.  As it is, she has no income and no one to drive her to appointments, and now can no longer manage the stairs in her building.

Roxanne (aka Rocky Gaines) has been a singer/songwriter for many years, entertaining many with her folk guitar and clear soprano.  [http://www.rockygaines.com/home/]  She has 2 previously recorded albums of original material that she would like to release, but no longer has the means to do so, and is rapidly running out of the energy to complete the process at all.  She would like to make her music available as her remaining project.

She’d like to rejoin her family in San Antonio, Texas but has no way of traveling there or getting health care and home care once she gets there.  She has a sister, who is overstretched with obligations who would now need to come to Los Angeles, finish up Roxanne’s affairs here, and take her to Texas.  But, Roxanne may no longer be able to travel, so her hope is that her family be able to visit her here.

Please help my dear friend.  She is suffering and there is so little her family and friends can do to help.  Every little bit of help will go a long way toward easing her remaining days.  Please keep her in your prayers.  If you could share this with everyone you know, we will thank you in our prayers as well.