Support for Autumn Bonner

My name is Chandelle and my sister Autumn Bonner has had a very rough road medically over the past year and a half, most recently being diagnosed with Long COVID. She had spent many years building up a client base and then opened her own very successful PT business: Bonner Physical Therapy! Unfortunately, she is now unable to see patients or do most anything she used to enjoy. If you know Autumn, you know her and her husband Reed were often found hiking, skiing, doing yoga, rock climbing, gardening, taking longs walks and more. These days a short walk (or maybe two) is all Autumn can manage a day. Most of the day is spent with her feet elevated in compression socks and leggings to keep her heart rate down, and long naps. If she pushes herself too much, she gets very ill. I am creating this campaign to help Autumn and Reed with all the medical expenses and more they are encountering to get them through this tough time. Autumn did file a disability claim with her insurance company however thus far it was denied. She is going to fight it but you know how these insurance companies are :( They are down to only Reed's income and there are a number of therapies and other medical expenses (like the compression stockings) that insurance is not covering. Thank you for considering a donation of any amount to help during this difficult time. If you can't donate, Autumn would greatly appreciate you sending her healing thoughts, and also educating yourself about Long COVID. It's a disease growing in prevalence. You probably have a friend or family member who has it to some degree. The more awareness there is, the better chance that people with Long COVID can get helped right away, before it gets worse. Here are some links for review: Recovery page and Mayo Clinic.

If you are interested in additional details on her long journey: Autumn originally contracted COVID for the first time in July of 2022. After the initial bout was over, she entered into a long cycle of being ill to getting better and pushing herself to being ill again. Things escalated last summer which led to a hysterectomy in the fall to remove numerous fibroids causing kidney pain symptoms. Long COVID is now known to worsen pelvic health conditions in women, among many other impacts. She hoped the surgery would resolve most of her symptoms. Thankfully some issues did go away (the extreme flank pain, not being able to sleep at night, UTI symptoms, etc), however the headaches, nausea and extreme exhaustion remained. After attempting a light return to work in December, she wound up sick in bed for days. If she does too much, her hands tremor, she gets a fever and the headaches, nausea and exhaustion are much worse. I visited Autumn just over a week ago and it was so nice to sit with her. We did make it out to a restaurant and had two short slow walks, but that was all she could manage. She monitors her heart rate on her watch very closely as it is always elevated and any activity makes it elevate more. She watches a lot of TV and her cats keep her company. She did just see a doctor who specializes in Long COVID and they are working on her treatment. There is hope things could improve in six months to a year. I hope with every fiber of my being that is the case.