Show Darlene Love and Support When She Needs It the Most!

Darlene Shafer is one of my (Margo Malon) dearest friends in the whole world. I know that many of you classify her as one of your dearest friends too. She is a wonderful Mother, Sister and an awesome grandmother. She is strong, she’s funny, she’s smart, the list goes on and on, and that is why so many of us love her so much!! The Jame’s Taylor’s song, “You’ve Got a friend” comes to mind when I think of her, “You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I’ll come running”! Darlene is that kind of friend, the BEST kind of friend. Now our dear friend could use some help, I guarantee she would never ask for help for herself, so that is why I am asking for her.

Over the past 3 months, Darlene has had to be admitted to the ER 4 times for severe pain in her hands, she was discharged this past weekend from the hospital after a 5 day stay. I had just finished writing this yesterday, to learn that she was admitted to the ER yet once again for excruciating pain in her hands. ER visit # 5. I just learned this morning that she went from ER and has been admitted to the hospital again. (9/19/23)

The Symptoms started in July. Her hands, fingers and fingertips started tingling, peeling and becoming painful. She then noticed a change in color of her fingernails and fingertips. That’s when the Severe Pain began. The symptoms continued to progress, which led her to going to the ER. Comprehensive testing and multiple lab workups were

conducted by Vascular Surgery, Infectious disease, Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Dietary, (total of 9 attending physician’s and their residents are working on her case.)

Unfortunately, even with this large group of specialists, there has been no true diagnosis. They will continue an ongoing investigation to try to uncover the cause and do what they can to stop the progression. Necrosis has developed in the tissues of several fingers, so they will be monitoring this very closely to make sure that it does not worsen to the point that amputation would be necessary. In the meantime, Darlene continues to be in severe pain.

Darlene has incurred significant out-of-pocket expenses. The 4 ER visits were completely out of pocket due to a compromised/stolen credit card. While she was getting her card replaced, she had forgotten to change her automatic payment with her medical insurance company. When her payment wouldn’t go through on the compromised card, they dropped her insurance coverage, without a warning or a call.

She hadn’t missed a payment prior to this. She found out she had no coverage when she went to the ER. No insurance coverage when she needed it most. Darlene is single and currently unable to work as a Physician’s Assistant due to the inability to use her hands.

PLEASE SEND PRAYERS for Darlene, Pray for healing, pray for the severe pain to stop, pray for a true diagnosis so they can get a plan in place, and pray for her care team, that they will know the most cutting-edge, innovative treatments for Darlene.

We have created this Go Fund Me in hopes of helping offset the staggering out-of-pocket expenses incurred from her ER visits and hospital stay. Thank you so much for your donation consideration and your prayers for our DEAR FRIEND. If you have additional questions, please contact her daughter, Hannah Shafer at shaferraehannah @ Gmail . com (written this way to allow for GoFundMe to let it be on here!)