Carol's Stroke Recovery

I have been very hesitant to do this for several reasons: my mom is very private, doesn’t like asking for help, and often find herself to be a burden and wouldn’t want to burden anyone with even sharing her story let alone asking for financial help. I am doing it now that I have a more thorough understanding of what my moms recovery process is going to look like and that the reality of her getting back to work may take more time than she can actually manage financially.

 

What happened:

I said goodnight to my mom right before I went to bed 1:30am on June 11th. At 2:20am I received a call from my mom's boyfriend explaining that she just left in an ambulance and that he thought she had had a stroke. Shock, terror, and panic washed over me. It had only been two weeks prior that we lost my grandmother to a stroke (her third). My husband and I immediately began packing the kids and I to travel to Pennsylvania from North Carolina to be with her. I received several phone call from the emergency department/physicians that night as I packed to head north, none of them were positive. Both the attending physician as well as the neurologist explained that physical and cognitive recovery were not likely; she would likely be both physically and cognitively disabled. The second call was the emergency room doctor explaining that she was not capable of making her own medical decision and asked for her directive. She was then transported to the ICU. Her diagnosis was a hemmoragic stroke due to extremely high blood pressure.

 

My mom is an LPN at a nursing home, she loves her job, she loves patient care, and she is good at it. She has a gift and anyone that has had the privilege of working with her or being cared for by her can attest to this. She has also been the full time caretaker of my grandmother and grandfather up until my grandmothers passing. To say that she was managing a lot is an understatement. She was managing too much; between daily visits to my grandparents house both before and after work and the extent to the care required by both my grandparents it is no wonder why her blood pressure sky rocketed the way it did. My grandmother's care requirements were round the clock 1:1 care which required my mom going part time in order to be with my grandparents as much as she possibly could while still maintaining her finances. Unfortunately, because she was part time, she was not eligible for short term disability.

 

While she has already come so far in her recovery, to which is nothing short of the grace of God, she does have a long way to go to live independently and get back to work; which is all she wants. Her goal is to get back to her nursing position as quickly as possible. This will require her to inpatient stay at the rehab and then intensive in home as well as outpatient therapy for at least 6 months.

 

As of right now she will have to come live with me for at least three months until she has made the cognitive recovery to live indecently safely.

 

Again, she was a part time employee which made her ineligible for short term disability or long term disability through work and long term social security disability is quite a lengthy process and is uncertain. Our hope is to raise just enough to get her by with the few bills that she  has and the expenses that will be accrued over the next few months (ie. gas & food) until she is either able to go back to work and or able to qualify for some assistance. We are hoping to be able to maintain all of her bills during the several months that she will be focusing on her cognitive recovery while saying with me in NC. Again, our goal is to get her recovered as quickly as possible to get her back to independent living so maintaining her apartment/bills for a smooth transition back home is critical.

 

I would also like to say this: your prayers have been of more value than any amount of money we could raise through this gofundme. Our prayers have been heard and answered. She has already improved so much and we will forever be in awe of the help we have received, the prayers, and the way in which God has answered faithfully. Wether it be financial help or prayers we appreciate all of the help that we have gotten thus far and any help that we will get moving forward.

 

❤️