For Aunty Tina
Donation protected
Hello.
My name is Kaipo, and I’m on here asking for your help.
In 2004, my mom, Tina Sotelo, was diagnosed with Systemic Sclerosis, or Scleroderma. This disease is a progressive and incidental condition in which your body produces collagen at a disproportionate rate causing systemic scar tissue formation.
Basically, her whole body is getting really stiff. Over time, the scar tissue takes over the body and, in consequence, ends up causing a laundry list of both functional and physiological complications. There is no cure for the disease and the typical prognosis is bleak: 55% survival rate at 10 years post-diagnosis.
My mom has been living with Scleroderma for 15 years. I say living because she does that so well.
Since I could walk my mother has been a living example of making the most with what we have. She started a preschool in the Philippines that is now a 12 grade high school. My parents moved to Guam in 1998 with virtually nothing to their name and were able to provide my brother, Kobe, and a full and enjoyable childhood.
Amongst our friends and even strangers, she was known as Aunty Tina.
Whenever we needed to fundraise to go off-island for sports teams, she would spearhead her own fundraising programs by wrapping lumpia, making banana bread, or selling her signature cookies just so we could go on these trips. She was always the loudest cheerer at our games and organized team events for school and club. She has led 3 different missions trips back to the Philippines, all happening after her scleroderma diagnosis. In 2013, she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer, beat it, then the next year led a typhoon relief trip to her hometown of Ivisan. She is the type of person that lives beyond and not just despite her condition.
Over the last few years, her disease has progressed very quickly. Her joints are stiff and her hands are cold. She is skinny and frail from her inability to breakdown food due to the disease.
Medications: Baskets full. Surgeries: too many. Nights spent in the hospital: countless. She is in a constant state of pain.
The lady that has done so much for the world around her is stuck in bed for virtually her entire day. She now requires 24/7 round about care, which is why we decided to transition her back to Ivisan Capiz in October of 2019 while my dad had to continue to work in Guam. The transition has been difficult to say the least, and with Kobe and I on the East Coast going to college and graduate school, our dad, Sammy, has been tracking back and forth from Guam to the PI. And travel expenses are not cheap to say the least. He has been working hard to make the necessary arrangements to be with mom while she goes through the toughest season of life yet.
Conditions have gotten dire and finances are thinning out.
My mom was recently admitted for pneumonia and had complications from it to include irregular heart palpitations and shortness of breathe due to scarring of her lungs that put her in the Hospital for 10 days that included a couple of nights in the ICU, causing my dad to take leave without pay to take care with her through this time which, you could assume, shortens our runway of funds in a significant way.
This is where Kobe, me, and my dad are asking for your help.
Needless to say my parent’s medical debt is well into the thousands of dollars and on top of that will need to find a way to help manage my moms condition. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated to help my family during this difficult time. Believe me, it breaks my heart and humbles me to be here telling you our story. But right now, the situation calls for humility in brokenness, and faith beyond understanding.
Would you consider helping us?
If so, please follow the link attached to our GoFundMe page entitled “For Aunty Tina”
We are immensely thankful for any amount donated or post shared. It means the world to know our family is being thought of and that people want to help. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your donations, shares, and prayers.
My mom says faith and family is all she has and all she needs.
We’re counting on her being right about these things.
She usually is.
My name is Kaipo, and I’m on here asking for your help.
In 2004, my mom, Tina Sotelo, was diagnosed with Systemic Sclerosis, or Scleroderma. This disease is a progressive and incidental condition in which your body produces collagen at a disproportionate rate causing systemic scar tissue formation.
Basically, her whole body is getting really stiff. Over time, the scar tissue takes over the body and, in consequence, ends up causing a laundry list of both functional and physiological complications. There is no cure for the disease and the typical prognosis is bleak: 55% survival rate at 10 years post-diagnosis.
My mom has been living with Scleroderma for 15 years. I say living because she does that so well.
Since I could walk my mother has been a living example of making the most with what we have. She started a preschool in the Philippines that is now a 12 grade high school. My parents moved to Guam in 1998 with virtually nothing to their name and were able to provide my brother, Kobe, and a full and enjoyable childhood.
Amongst our friends and even strangers, she was known as Aunty Tina.
Whenever we needed to fundraise to go off-island for sports teams, she would spearhead her own fundraising programs by wrapping lumpia, making banana bread, or selling her signature cookies just so we could go on these trips. She was always the loudest cheerer at our games and organized team events for school and club. She has led 3 different missions trips back to the Philippines, all happening after her scleroderma diagnosis. In 2013, she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer, beat it, then the next year led a typhoon relief trip to her hometown of Ivisan. She is the type of person that lives beyond and not just despite her condition.
Over the last few years, her disease has progressed very quickly. Her joints are stiff and her hands are cold. She is skinny and frail from her inability to breakdown food due to the disease.
Medications: Baskets full. Surgeries: too many. Nights spent in the hospital: countless. She is in a constant state of pain.
The lady that has done so much for the world around her is stuck in bed for virtually her entire day. She now requires 24/7 round about care, which is why we decided to transition her back to Ivisan Capiz in October of 2019 while my dad had to continue to work in Guam. The transition has been difficult to say the least, and with Kobe and I on the East Coast going to college and graduate school, our dad, Sammy, has been tracking back and forth from Guam to the PI. And travel expenses are not cheap to say the least. He has been working hard to make the necessary arrangements to be with mom while she goes through the toughest season of life yet.
Conditions have gotten dire and finances are thinning out.
My mom was recently admitted for pneumonia and had complications from it to include irregular heart palpitations and shortness of breathe due to scarring of her lungs that put her in the Hospital for 10 days that included a couple of nights in the ICU, causing my dad to take leave without pay to take care with her through this time which, you could assume, shortens our runway of funds in a significant way.
This is where Kobe, me, and my dad are asking for your help.
Needless to say my parent’s medical debt is well into the thousands of dollars and on top of that will need to find a way to help manage my moms condition. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated to help my family during this difficult time. Believe me, it breaks my heart and humbles me to be here telling you our story. But right now, the situation calls for humility in brokenness, and faith beyond understanding.
Would you consider helping us?
If so, please follow the link attached to our GoFundMe page entitled “For Aunty Tina”
We are immensely thankful for any amount donated or post shared. It means the world to know our family is being thought of and that people want to help. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your donations, shares, and prayers.
My mom says faith and family is all she has and all she needs.
We’re counting on her being right about these things.
She usually is.
Organizer
Kaipo Sotelo
Organizer
Charleston, SC