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Pat's Fight Against ALS

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Our mom Pat is one in a million and those who have been lucky enough to meet her know it. She exemplifies what it means to be kind-hearted, strong, selfless and compassionate. And her smile and warmth will brighten any room.

She has always been the undeniable backbone of our family and has been my dad’s best friend and true partner throughout many difficult illness bearing years. After an amazing 46 year career as a flight attendant for United, she retired in excellent health three years ago, ready to explore her new found freedom. Unfortunately 2016 and 2017 brought many health challenges for our dad and just as we were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, mom started to feel some changes in her body.

While mom was nursing dad back to health last summer, she began to experience some small anomalies with her health. She told us her left leg felt heavy and she had taken a few spills. By November her speech had started to slur a bit and her balance became unsteady.

In January of this year, after extensive neurological testing, our resilient mother was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). This came as a huge shock to us all and as you can imagine this devastating news has been extremely hard to process.

During the last few months our family has been privately navigating this road together and working to ensure my mom is receiving the very best support & healthcare available.

ALS infiltrates each person at a different speed and with a different intensity. In the past 4 months this disease has progressed quickly for our mom. While it is a surprise to no one, she can be heard on a daily basis telling us what she is grateful for. Grateful for her arms and hands still moving, and her legs helping to support her. She continues to see the positive, even though she faces so many obstacles.

She recently had a chest port installed to receive an infusion medication called Radicava which helps to slow down the progression of the disease. She receives this medication 17 days each month through an IV.  She is currently using a walker but recently received a motorized wheelchair which will allow her to move around the house with a little more ease. Although mom is still eating all of her meals orally, last week, she had a procedure to insert a feeding tube which will help her consume some additional calories and to maintain her weight.  

As a family, our #1 priority is to ensure she is comfortable and feels our overflowing love and support.

Due to the recent changes in her mobility, we need to make significant changes to my parent’s home to make it safe and accessible. Our primary goals are to widen doorways, remodel the bathroom with a roll-in shower and add a ramp to the exterior of the house. Our next goal is to purchase a wheelchair accessible van so that mom can continue to get to her doctor’s appointments and enjoy the great outdoors!

We created this GoFundMe as an outlet for those who know and love our mom and are looking for a way to contribute and help us reach our ultimate goal of keeping her at home.

Our mom will continue to fight ALS and we will continue to fight for her!

We appreciate our friends and family who have carried us thus far. We are incredibly grateful and humbled by the amount of love and support we have received over the last few months. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

 
Any letters of support or kind words can be sent to:

Pat Burchfield
7660 S. Kit Carson Dr.
Centennial, CO 80122



To learn more about ALS please click here :
http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html


 
We will update this posting with developments to ensure any and all who wish to be informed have a place to go.


With Love,
Tom, Jenni, Lisa Burchfield & Cathy Buell

(Please do not feel obligated to donate.)
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Donations 

  • Aaron Eairleywine
    • $50 
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Lisa Burchfield
Organizer
Littleton, CO
Patricia Burchfield
Beneficiary

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