HannahStrong
Donation protected
I am setting up this fund for one of my very best friends, Melanie, and her daughter Hannah.
Hannah has been suffering from an auto-immune disorder that has been progressing rapidly in the past 18 months. She was first diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when she was 7. After about a year of treatment, it went into remission, but then at 16 she began to have symptoms again. The symptoms started as enthesitis, and just in the past year and a half have developed into poly-articular arthritis, with fibromyagia and chronic fatigue syndrome. In plain language, this means that initially the ligaments in all of her joints were inflamed, making it painful to move nearly all parts of her body. The progression to arthritis is significantly worse, as the painful disease can now cause permanent damage in her joints.
Over the last year and a half, Hannah has been on 14 different medications, first oral medications, then injections and now is receiving infusions. Her family and doctor have been through multiple battles with insurance to try new medications, as nothing has helped substantially. She is about to begin a 15th medication infusion trial at Hershey Medical Center. These medications have cost up to $1200 per month. In addition, she has had a consultation with a chronic pain management clinic. Unfortunately, she was denied because she has not completed enough outpatient physical therapy – the insurance will not approve it until she has done PT/ aqua therapy for 5 days a week for several weeks. In looking into it, Melanie found it will cost $45 co-pay per session for the PT, and cannot cover this expense.
With all of Hannah’s appointments and needs, Melanie has had to take extensive time off work with lost wages. In a good month she typically misses 20 hours of work; in a bad month it could be 40 hours. She has been a single parent with 3 children (Hannah the youngest) for several years, and was just getting by prior. (Mel is currently with a significant other, but he is unable to contribute much financially.) Her family is out of state and does not help either. They are now behind in rent and at risk of being evicted at the end of the month. Unfortunately, when at court for the eviction, Melanie spoke to the judge about Hannah’s condition and the fact that she (and her son) just had necessary surgeries and cannot even physically do what is needed to move, but the judge’s response was “This hearing is about the money.” This is why I am reaching out to the community to try to help my friend. They are good, hard-working people, just caught n a perfect storm of health and financial problems right now.
As you can see, Hannah is a beautiful young girl. She had to do homeschooling for her last year and a half, but even with her illness she graduated early, with top honors. She hopes to go to college for forensic science. At the end of July, when she turns 18, all of the medical debt will begin to accumulate in her name. I am hoping with some friend, family and community help, we can establish a fund to minimize that debt and help her pay for the treatments she needs to improve.
Thank you so much! Any small contribution is greatly appreciated.
Hannah has been suffering from an auto-immune disorder that has been progressing rapidly in the past 18 months. She was first diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when she was 7. After about a year of treatment, it went into remission, but then at 16 she began to have symptoms again. The symptoms started as enthesitis, and just in the past year and a half have developed into poly-articular arthritis, with fibromyagia and chronic fatigue syndrome. In plain language, this means that initially the ligaments in all of her joints were inflamed, making it painful to move nearly all parts of her body. The progression to arthritis is significantly worse, as the painful disease can now cause permanent damage in her joints.
Over the last year and a half, Hannah has been on 14 different medications, first oral medications, then injections and now is receiving infusions. Her family and doctor have been through multiple battles with insurance to try new medications, as nothing has helped substantially. She is about to begin a 15th medication infusion trial at Hershey Medical Center. These medications have cost up to $1200 per month. In addition, she has had a consultation with a chronic pain management clinic. Unfortunately, she was denied because she has not completed enough outpatient physical therapy – the insurance will not approve it until she has done PT/ aqua therapy for 5 days a week for several weeks. In looking into it, Melanie found it will cost $45 co-pay per session for the PT, and cannot cover this expense.
With all of Hannah’s appointments and needs, Melanie has had to take extensive time off work with lost wages. In a good month she typically misses 20 hours of work; in a bad month it could be 40 hours. She has been a single parent with 3 children (Hannah the youngest) for several years, and was just getting by prior. (Mel is currently with a significant other, but he is unable to contribute much financially.) Her family is out of state and does not help either. They are now behind in rent and at risk of being evicted at the end of the month. Unfortunately, when at court for the eviction, Melanie spoke to the judge about Hannah’s condition and the fact that she (and her son) just had necessary surgeries and cannot even physically do what is needed to move, but the judge’s response was “This hearing is about the money.” This is why I am reaching out to the community to try to help my friend. They are good, hard-working people, just caught n a perfect storm of health and financial problems right now.
As you can see, Hannah is a beautiful young girl. She had to do homeschooling for her last year and a half, but even with her illness she graduated early, with top honors. She hopes to go to college for forensic science. At the end of July, when she turns 18, all of the medical debt will begin to accumulate in her name. I am hoping with some friend, family and community help, we can establish a fund to minimize that debt and help her pay for the treatments she needs to improve.
Thank you so much! Any small contribution is greatly appreciated.
Organizer and beneficiary
Erin Edwards
Organizer
New Cumberland, PA
Melanie Brewbaker
Beneficiary