Team Frantina (Frances and Christina)

Tl,dr: send my friend money to help her and her mama, who's in the hospital. Venmo: @teamfrantina

Some of you may remember, a few years ago, I started a gofundme to help my friend and her mama, Frances. My friend just so happens to be Nick's aunt (and her mama is, of course, Nick's Nana).

Frances is one of the strongest people I know. When i did the gofundme years ago, it was because Frances was going through chemo and radiation. And now, she's back in the hospital due to complications from that radiation back in 2015. And they're in need of a little help again.

She's back in the hospital. She started out in a hospital in Mississippi but they transferred her to UAB (in Birmingham, AL) due to her need of more advanced care.

Christina is having her own health problems and is delaying her care to make this emergency trip from New York back to Mississippi (and now, Alabama). She's at the hospital 24/7 with her mama due to being several hours from "home" in Mississippi.

Frances is suffering from hemorrhagic radiation cystitis. She bled for at least a month before the doctors at UAB hospital were able to stop the bleeding.

They have warned that this is only a temporary fix and it will happen again. She received 11 units of blood during this past month. (Thank you to blood donors!)

They also found out that she is suffering from chronic kidney disease. Which is also complicating matters. Her little veins are shot from the chemo she received in 2015 during her stage 3b colorectal cancer battle.

Because she has been bedbpund and so sickly for over a month, she is going to need rehabilitation. The Spain Rehabilitation Center (which is connected to UAB hospital) has accepted her. She will continue to have access to the wonderful doctors, specialists and resources at UAB. And if anything takes a turn with her kidneys or the bleeding begins again, she will be right there in the building connected to the hospital, which is a huge plus.

She just had medicaid and humana and they only cover so much. Her copay for the first 3 days of rehab is $600 per day. They also have to buy toiletries, food, and other supplies as well as pay the bills back home and the accruing hospital bills..etc

So, they need help. I've talked Christina into getting a venmo. So, if you have a few bucks and would like to help my friend and her mama out, @teamfrantina is her venmo.

Money raised will go toward medical bills and the costs associated with Christina living in the hospital with her mom while she's in UAB, and the costs associated with being a support person during rehab and recovery.