Medical equipment and care for my incredible mom

My mom Carol Huseman has spent her entire life taking care of others. Now it’s time for us to take care of her.

During the summer of 2019, less than a year after retiring (and after spending an extended period putting her life on hold to be my full-time carer during an acute flare up of my disability), she experienced a sudden, extreme decline of her health.

Her life has been a painful nightmare ever since. 

This sharp decline was the result of radiation therapy she received in June 2019 for benign brain tumors: culminating in a rush to the emergency room a few days after Christmas 2019, as her mobility had deteriorated to the point that she could not even hold her head up by herself anymore. 

To correct this, she had to undergo brain surgery to place a shunt in her head in order to relieve the hydrocephalus caused by the radiation therapy (which was believed to be the reason behind her loss of mobility).

However, despite this frightening surgery and 4 months of concentrated physical therapy in rehabilitation facilities, she did not improve as we and her doctors had hoped.

Then in June 2020, she was dealt another series of crushing blows. We had to rush her to the emergency room again - this time because she had developed a pulmonary embolism in her lungs and DVT in her legs (both are forms of blood clots). 

And whilst undergoing treatment and diagnostic tests for these blood clots at the hospital, her doctors discovered a mass in her colon.

So on August 17th 2020, she had to undergo yet another surgery to remove that mass, and is now back in a rehabilitation center recovering and receiving physical therapy.

It’s been nonstop horror for her for over a year now. And in a reversal of roles, I have become her full-time carer while also trying to manage my own disability. This (along with COVID) has all delayed my ability to return to work as I had hoped, and so we are on an even more limited income.

Her 70th birthday is tomorrow (September 11th 2020), and when she comes home from her latest stay in the care facility we will need to continue to equip and carry out adjustments to the house to make life manageable for her as she continues to heal.

This will be expensive as you can imagine. The most urgent equipment she needs is a ‘stair glide‘ so she can access all floors of her home. Right now she is limited to the 2nd floor (where the bathroom and her bedroom is).

It will be $3400 to purchase and install one on the main stairs, and another $3400 to equip the basement stairs in order to leave the house when she’s ready to.

So for her 70th birthday (which she will spend alone in the care facility due to COVID visitor restrictions), and for all the years she’s taken care of her loved ones - as well so many others who have simply crossed her path - I’m asking that we all chip in to get this medical equipment she needs.

If we exceed the cost of the stair glides with this fundraiser, then those funds will be used for the many other necessary home modifications and aspects of her care: including installing a bathroom on the 1st floor, hand bars, ramps, medications, etc... 

Please circulate this among family, friends, colleagues, your religious community, and anywhere else you think would help.

My mother is the most loving and generous person I’ve ever known. I want to bring whatever light we can to her during this terribly painful and scary time of her life. 

Thank you ❤️