I’m raising funds for my little sister, Cortney Abel, who became seriously ill after returning from a vacation in early May. Since then, her GERD complications have become severe, and she has not been able to keep food down for weeks. She has been dealing with constant vomiting, very little sleep, trouble eating, and ongoing weight loss. As of last week, she was losing a pound a day when she was admitted to the hospital the first time. After returning from the hospital, she was trying to manage her hydration and food supplies so she was using money out of pocket to go to the IV clinics. This has wiped out all of her finances. She recently changed her insurance and she has the highest deductibles with Kaiser. She changed to the lowest tier insurance thinking she could finally get back on track financially after covering testing last year, but now the out-of-pocket deductibles and medical costs have become overwhelming. She used every last dollar she had on IV clinics just to get by and try to avoid even more expensive ER visits.

On top of how sick she has been, Cortney has still been trying to care for my stepdad, who is quadriplegic in a wheelchair, and his mother, who is bedbound. She is the at home caretaker. While she is in the hospital, no one is home to take care of my family. This illness has made even basic things incredibly hard, and at one point she felt so ill that she could not drive herself to the hospital and had to take an Uber.

Her next major step is a procedure in November. The deductible for corrective surgery is $10,000. She is currently running up hospital bills each visit. She has used all of her out-of-pocket money towards the IV clinics. She had to Uber 30 minutes to the hospital today. There’s no telling how many more ER visits she will have to keep her stabilized.

Currently, Cortney is in the hospital and they are doing an EKG every four hours and giving her glucose tests. They are only keeping her until she is able to hold down a liquid diet. Then they are releasing her. This is not a long-term answer to her recovery. Her recovery is going to be a long and tremendously hard process while maintaining at home care for the family. They have found that she has a thicker stomach lining more tests are needed to understand the depth of her disease.

If you’re able to give or share this fundraiser, it would mean so much to Cortney and to all of us who love her. Your support will help ease the financial pressure and let her focus on getting through this and finding answers.