Support Gaylene's Journey to Recovery

Asking out of humility for my mom, Gaylene, or as some of you might know her, Gigi Turner, who has had several hard years recently. As a lot of us know, 2020 was a tough year because of the pandemic. During that year, we lost my Dad, Joe Turner Jr, and then at the end of the year had to close down the Karate Studio our family had run in the community for 20 years. We were thankful for all the words of encouragement and support going forward. During the next couple of years, my mom helped with her mom who was getting up there in age and needed to move into an assisted living home.

When she returned back to Texas, she was hit with a debilitating autoimmune disorder that paralyzed her from the waist down. This sent her on multiple trips and stays in the hospital trying to figure out what was going on! She was unable to control the use of her legs and feet and for a brief time, her bladder. Being just in her early 60’s, she was very depressed about not knowing what or why this was going on. Many falls later, and in January 2023, the doctors finally diagnosed her with C.I.D.P, which is Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.  We watched her lose her appetite and over the course of the next year, 100 lbs. We are thankful for all the prayers and help from friends and neighbors over that time. Both her neurologist and her primary care Dr. agree she is growing in strength and determination which is a positive outcome. Consequently, she has been unable to work for these last few years and it has become more of a burden than we anticipated. Her mind tells her she is ready to go back to work but her body still has more healing to go.

It's frustrating for my mom because she is normally the person to reach out the helping hand and she is unable to do that now.

Someone suggested that we put a GoFundMe page out there to try to get her back on track with meeting rising living expenses until she is able to get back to working again.

So if you know my mom, and would like to help her out at this time, any amount would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much.

 

Josh Van Dolah