Help Cindy get a portable oxygen unit

Hi, this is Cindy.

 

A lot of you reading this know Cindy. Probably because you were directed to this page, but also if you've just been to New Orleans in the past 15 years or so. She's a fixture in the French Quarter, like brightly colored grain alcohol and Touchdown Jesus.

 

She's a tour guide, a witch, and a true friend to everyone (unless you suck). She's had a hell of a life and has accomplished great things. She's an amazing woman. Granted, I might be biased; I'm her son.

 

The uncomfortable truth is that Cindy could really use some help right now. There's a story, and the short version of it is that she needs to be able to have oxygen with her wherever she goes, but despite her using a walker, insurance won't cover a portable unit, taking away her ability to be independent. And if you know her, I'm sure you know just how stubbornly independent my mother is.

 

The longer version is this.

 

Cindy's been having some health problems lately. She caught the bad COVID at the very start of the pandemic. She got through that like a champ, but there's been a pretty consistent stream of complications since.

 

The most significant complication was an inner ear problem that struck just a little over a year ago. It left her mostly deaf in one ear and with a persistent vertigo that has her using a walker when she goes out. While there has been a lot improvement there, there have also been a lot of setbacks and there's still a ways to go.

 

Most were small setbacks. Some were health issues. Some were issues keeping up with physical therapy due to things like, well, hurricanes. Oh, and she had a stroke. Which would have been a much bigger deal, except she had it while, no joke, already in the middle of getting an MRI. So in the one instance of genuine good luck amongst this, the stroke was caught as fast as literally possible and treatment was smooth.

Things got bad in May.

 

Cindy spent most of the month in the hospital. After going in for something unrelated, the doctors discovered the oxygen levels in her blood were dangerously low, and they had to put her on crazy high levels of oxygen 24/7. The levels of oxygen you can't get at home. Anytime they tried giving her less than "you could legally qualify as a bomb" levels of oxygen, her levels would dip back down. Her doctors described it as her lungs were shunning her blood. As in, when her blood went to her lungs, her lungs wouldn't oxygenate it. And none of those doctors were able to figure out what the hell was wrong.

 

She was eventually moved from the hospital to a longer term facility for reasons we found questionable at best. After a few days of... We'll call it less-than-adequate care, we decided it was time to go home. We had oxygen at home, just not hospital amounts of oxygen. We weren't really sure what to expect, but after a few days of terrible care that caused her to backslide in several regards, it was definitely the right move.

 

What we didn't expect was rapid, completely inexplicable improvement. I was obsessively monitoring her oxygen, and within a couple days, it was suddenly back at the levels the doctors wanted it to be at to release her to begin with. And it's remained that way since. From the beginning of the oxygen problems on, NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE. But we're not about to complain about things getting better.

 

That's the story, and the good news. This is where it gets trickier and this GoFundMe comes into play.

 

Cindy is still on oxygen. Even when she's not actively using it, she's actively monitoring her levels and needs to have it on her and available. While she's doing great (considering), this is how it's going to be for the foreseeable future.

 

She's also still on the walker for the foreseeable future. Despite this, her insurance will only pay for her to have a home unit and oxygen tanks. This type of setup here:

 

These oxygen tanks are technically "portable," but not in situations like this. As I mentioned, Cindy still needs to use a walker, and looking at that setup, I'm sure you're starting to see what the problem is.

 

Pictured: not Cindy, despite what her insurance company seems to think.

 

Bonus fun facts about the oxygen tanks: she can only get two of them a week, and they won't deliver them same day, Fridays, or weekends. She can only call about them Monday through Thursday.

 

What all this means is that Cindy, my fiercely independent mother, is very much tethered home unless someone comes over to assist her and bring her somewhere, even to places only a few blocks away. What she really needs is a truly portable unit, one of those backpack type ones that she can toss on and only have to worry about the walker and her own physical well-being.

 

Unfortunately, as mentioned, her insurance isn't budging on the issue, and these things aren't cheap. Between the pandemic and her health issues, she's had to put tour guiding on an indefinite hiatus, which tightens things up more.

She's found a good deal on an unused, open-box unit. It's medical grade by prescription only and FAA approved for travel. It's everything she needs to regain her independence, and even get her on track to return to things she loves, like tour guiding and cosplaying Joe Cocker.

No, really.

Breaking down the numbers, she has needs to raise about $2,600 to cover the full cost of the unit . Money raised beyond that will go to offsetting GoFundMe's cut and the out-of-pocket expenses this whole ordeal has already accumulated.

 

Thank you to everyone who helps out, either with donations or shares. With your help, we can get Cindy back to her wonderful life.

 

PS, I found a video of her Joe Cocker bit on Facebook, and believe you me I am 100% posting it here if we make the goal.