In early February, my wife of 11 years began to experience severe GI symptoms. She was taken to our at-the-time preferred hospital after collapsing and experiencing delirium, but after few answers she was discharged days later despite not feeling all that much better. A few days later her abdominal pain worsened and she was taken back to the hospital. Once again she was discharged days later despite not feeling much better. Two days later, she was completely delirious. This time the ambulance took her to a closer hospital instead of the one to which we had been going.

The news was dire: she was in septic shock, had a bowel perforation, and was near death. There was no way to know for sure if she would survive. Her chances were very low, but after several hours of surgery at LVHN Hospital, whom to this day I still can’t praise enough, her large intestine was removed, and they had to go in a few days later to see if more work needed to be done. Through this time, she was fully sedated, on a ventilator, and needed to remain so until they could see if she needed more bowel removed and could close her up. Eventually she was closed up and taken off sedation.

Unfortunately, three days later she had not woken up, and scans revealed she had had three strokes, two smaller ones in the occipital lobe and a medium sized one spanning the occipital lobe and the temporal lobe. They could not say what would happen. At the time they said she could make a full recovery eventually, but it was also possible she had already recovered to the extent she ever would.

I will mostly spare the details of long period before she was discharged from the hospital to rehab (and a few subsequent hospitalizations) and then finally to home, however slowly but surely, she started coming back to us. She went from only being able to wiggle her toes to as of today being able to sit upright in bed without pulling herself by her arms, being able to walk 20 steps with her walker, and being able to drive her wheelchair with her arms for hundreds of feet before tiring. She will require far more physical therapy to get her ability to walk back, but she is making new progress with every passing day. She is fierce and dedicated to making progress and getting her old life back. At the beginning she had severe cognitive deficits and had almost no short-term memory, but now if you spoke to her, you would not know she ever had an issue. She is back to herself, cognitively speaking. Her incision while mostly healed still requires care, and she has an ileostomy which requires a lot of supplies, for which there is a monthly coverage limit regardless of how much she goes through them.

Medicare only covers the first 20 days of rehabilitation. After that it only covers half for the next 80 days. She spent 101 days in rehab after her initial admission, that extra day due to a persistent infection that was not timely treated, for which she had to be rehospitalized briefly before coming home. Remaining balances for these rehab stays exceed $8000. Her combined hospital stays through five admittances across three hospitals and follow up visits have remaining balances of over $5200. Ambulance bills exceed $700. We are renting a ramp at $225/month for four months until owned at $900 max, a hospital bed which has copays of $30/month, and additional medical supplies which are $98/month, but as there is a limit we may end up paying out of pocket for whatever amount we need to purchase above the covered amount, however, as of right now home health hasn’t started and we wee required to get ut supplies through them per Medicare, so our first batch of supplies cost almost $500. Additional supplies such as chucks/bedding protection, adult diapers, regular bandages, assorted skin care products to prevent bedsores and diaper rash etc. are not covered. My understanding is that Medicare at least fully covers the in-home healthcare aside from the aforementioned supplies and medication, so that is probably the biggest relief out of all of this (once they eventually show up). The in-home healthcare will continue for as long as needed with skilled nursing, and as far as physical and occupational therapy for as long as she continues to make progress. And let me tell you she is DETERMINED to get better. She regularly pushes herself to her limit in physical therapy and shows regular improvement.

This GoFundMe is to help pay approximately one year of monthly uncovered supply expenses, copays for her nursing & therapy care as well as covered supplies and medications, and back copays for hospital and rehabilitation stays. In a year’s time, the hope is her ileostomy will be reversed and she will no longer require the supplies. Medicare unfortunately is not as helpful as those who might not have experience with it would imagine. If we don’t raise enough to cover everything, we will prioritize the ongoing monthly expenses over back copays in order to continue her care and allow her to continue making progress. Should we exceed our goal, we will use any excess funds raised to make safety improvements in the home such as fixing one of the broken steps out front which could be a safety concern once she no longer needs to use the ramp, and replacing our current toilet with a safer one that has a higher seat, as well as a safety bar to assist her in getting up.

Family have thankfully helped tremendously and we are able to keep what we are asking for down thanks to their incredible generosity in what they have already helped us with. Sadly the outstanding bills and ongoing expenses are too much, and so we are asking for help from as many people as we can, and hoping that even the smallest amounts from a larger number of people can help us through the rest of this.