Support Julie in Her Path to Recovery

In July of this year, my mom (Julie Mendoza) began experiencing symptoms of severe anxiety (inducing body tremors) and depression. After three different visits to the emergency room in Emporia, she was transferred to Stormont Behavioral Health Center in Topeka, Kansas for 5 days. During her visit, she participated in group and individual therapy, and worked with a psychiatrist to try to find the right combination of medications. By the end of the stay, she felt as if she was making progress, albeit very slow. This began her long and arduous journey with mental illness, and all the added emotional and financial tolls that journey can take.

Over the next month, she would continue to experience severe symptoms of anxiety and depression; not only were the tremors continuing to affect her every day life, but she also began suffering from hot/cold flashes with a burning feeling in her chest. She was seeing two different therapists as well as a mental health nurse practitioner during this time. After another ER visit with no answers, my Dad took her to Prairie View Hospital in Newton, KS on September 11th.

Her stay at Prairie View was challenging in many ways – during her time there, they were renovating many of the patient areas, which meant that from early in the morning until evening time my mom was not able to visit her room. If she wanted to take a nap during the day, she had to do it in a chair in the community spaces or on a yoga mat on the hard floor. As you might imagine, this only exacerbated what she was already going through. She was discharged from the facility on the 18th of September with no relief or answers.

Two days later, my mom was back in the emergency room. Her symptoms had continued to worsen and the tremors were non-stop. The ER searched for a facility to send her to, with little luck right away – the first four facilities they reached out to didn't have any beds available. Finally, they were able to find a space for her at St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, where she checked in on the 21st.

While at St. Joseph, she continued to participate in therapy and saw a psychiatrist. At this point, she had been off and on so many different medications, but they were still attempting to find the right thing for her. As they cycled through different meds, she had varying reactions to them, many of which kept her up all night long. She didn't sleep well while at this facility and was still experiencing all of the same symptoms. Her will to fight and try to overcome what she was going through was (and still is) so inspiring to me. I was able to visit her several times while she was at St. Joe and I could tell that she was tired. By now, she had been trying to fight this for over two months.

On September 30th, despite continued symptoms of anxiety and depression, she was discharged from St. Joseph with a plan to begin a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). These programs are intensive, outpatient day programs for individuals experiencing serious mental illness. Services like therapy and psychiatry are provided while allowing patients to be at home in the evenings and on weekends. My mom's PHP program began at Cottonwood Springs in Olathe on Monday, October 2nd.

While attending the program at Cottonwood Springs, she stayed here in Kansas City with me and Travis. We felt grateful to be able to help out in some way. I would take her to the program at 9:00am and bring her back home at 3:00pm (with the help of some friends and family, for whom we are SO thankful). If you know my mom, you know that she always has a light to her. Always. She brings joy with her everywhere she goes. During the first few days of her PHP program, that light was not shining. It was hard to see her hurting so badly and in such emotional pain. When she'd come home, she would talk about how informative and wonderful the classes were, but emphasize how hard it was to participate because her body was shaking constantly and she couldn't concentrate on anything. On the Thursday of her first week, I received a call from the facility. My mom had chosen to check-in to their inpatient program because she still felt as if she had made no progress (and needed to feel safe and protected).

This began her last stay at an inpatient facility, up to this point. As in her previous hospital stays, the psychiatrist on staff began working to find a good combination of medication for her. After about two and a half weeks at this location, she was diagnosed with Treatment Resistant Depression. With this, they discharged her and set up an appointment with a psychiatrist in Topeka to explore alternative treatment options.

And that brings us to today. My mom's journey is far from over, and we can only hope that this new path will lead to relief and answers. With 5 ER visits, 38 days in inpatient care, 2 therapists, and numerous psychiatry visits, you can only imagine how much of a financial burden this has become for my parents. My mom is currently on FMLA, which does not provide her with any paycheck.

While mental illness is never anyone's fault, the person suffering is still held financially accountable, simply for seeking the right treatment and answers. If you're willing and able to make a monetary donation, anything at all will help alleviate this added stress for my mom and our family. Your continued love and support mean the world to us. Thank you.