<div>Hi Everyone! My name is Maya. I'm a 30-year-old NC native. At the end of last year, I found out that I had a stroke. In 2021, my life changed forever. Here is my stroke story, abbreviated, but still whole.
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<div>February 22, 2021, was a morning I will never forget. I was up early around 4 a.m. with the jitters as I had an interview for a job that would position me perfectly for graduate school later that day. A call came in from a physician that my grandmother was in the hospital in septic shock due to a severe case of elder abuse. My world stopped. From that day forward, I became her legal guardian and worked diligently to nurse her back to health. Little did I know, doctor's appointments, surgeries, extended stays in the hospital, cleaning out my family’s legacy home that had been destroyed, thousands of miles of travel, and much more were to follow over the next 3 years. As you can imagine, that was a heavy blow, but I pushed through.
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<div>I went to my interview, dried my tears, and my mother and I banded together to hit the ground running. Just the two of us. By August, we had gotten my grandmother stable, I started the new job at my alma mater, relocated cities, applied to, and started graduate school. Unfortunately, the storm I thought I was out of was only beginning. That November, we found out that my mother had acute kidney failure. Over the next year, she endured multiple rounds of aggressive treatments to reverse the damage. There was no improvement, and she landed in the hospital my entire Fall 2022 semester. Life changed yet again when she came home at the end of the year, and we now had to navigate the new journey of dialysis.
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<div>There are no other words to say besides, it was HARD. By the end of 2022, I was working full-time, in an MPH program full-time, and now a caregiver to the two women who raised and loved me. I made 300-mile round trips almost weekly for two years to care for them. At some points, I even worked a second job at night to make up for the financial loss of FMLA leave. I tried to take care of myself, but sometimes, as I understand now, the load may just be too heavy.
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<div>By December of 2022, my grandmother had gone from being bedridden in 2021 to being able to ambulate 15 ft, navigate her wheelchair alone, make bathroom transfers, shower with minimal assistance—the list goes on. I was so proud. While she improved, she was never the same. She was diagnosed with dementia and passed in January 2023. I was set to graduate that May, but her passing a month after I got my mom home on dialysis was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. There was no more pushing through. I was sad, exhausted, confused, and hurt. I completed my core courses that semester and made the decision to write my thesis at a later date.
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<div>Fast forward to 2024, I returned home to take 24-hour care of my mother. I was honestly afraid of losing her too. What I did not realize is that I was actually losing myself. At the end of last year, I was not feeling well, but I foolishly ignored it—a pattern I had established over the past few years taking care of everyone else. In December 2024, I finally took myself to the hospital. There it was determined that I had a mild silent stroke earlier that year. A stroke, at 30 years old. I couldn’t believe it at the time, but it all makes sense now. In 2023 and 2024, I had neglected to manage my anemia, which put a strain on my heart. In addition to the stress of the previous years, it was an easy recipe for severe illness.
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<div>While I wish I had taken the time to truly listen to my body and take action earlier, I am still proud of all that I have accomplished. Through it all, I maintain hope and excitement for a new purpose in the life that I am building. I've learned lessons in caregiving, long-term financial planning, navigating the healthcare system, holistic care, and healing through community over the past 4 years that I'm excited to share. I graduated in 2016 as a pre-med student with a BA in Sociology and Political Science. From 2017-2020, I completed post-baccalaureate work to attend medical school. The pandemic pushed me to an MPH program first, but medicine was still in my path. I see this experience as a true precursor to my eventual clinical medicine journey. A rose is still a rose, no matter when it blooms.
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<div><strong>I made this GoFundMe to pay for the medical bills I have now accumulated.</strong> I understand the country is financially on fire at the moment, but if you are able to give or share, I'd be most appreciative.
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<div>Warmly,
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<div>Maya
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