Please Help Janet - Our family in need

Hi our names are Jennifer & Melissa, we are fundraising for Janet Redman who is in need of in-home healthcare services.

It is with great despair that I find myself reaching out for help. A few months ago my mother had a stroke which left her left side paralyzed. She has spent the last few months in and out of hospitals and rehab facilities slowly recovering until her Medicare benefits were exhausted. Thanks to family she was also able to spend some time in a nursing home where she received exceptional care and therapy and has been steadily regaining her mobility. When once again time was up, and with limited options, we brought her home where she is quite happy actually and thriving but the expense of the in-home health care aid has exhausted our savings and credit cards. Unknown to us even though we have a referral and prescription for an in-home aid through Medicare there are no providers that accept Medicare for this service in her city, San Antonio. I'm told by multiple providers it's because Medicare only reimburses a provider $9/hr for that service which does not cover the cost so they wont provide it to anyone using Medicare. If you want this service it's as a cash paying customer only. We've learned a lot about this industry and the realities of Medicare.

I have reached out to all available resources, with no luck, including the VA since she served in the USAF in the early 60's (Vietnam War era) but because she did not serve in active combat, only as a stateside medical room technician, she does not qualify for any medical benefits. She became "involuntarily separated" from the service after a couple of years with an Honorable discharge when she got married and shortly thereafter became pregnant because at that time it was against the rules, pregnant women were not allowed to serve. So no VA benefits exist. I've applied for Medicaid which would cover the whole boat in exchange for her house if she qualified, but she makes $200/mo over the limit to qualify, so no Medicaid either. I have had no luck finding help from any agency or provider, only as a cash-paying customer which to my dismay costs more than I (a college-educated individual) earn, but in all fairness, from what I have seen, they do well deserve! It takes a special person to care for our elderly and disabled and we are quite lucky to have found the person we have.

I don't like asking for help and I definitely don't like publicizing my drama but I concluded that I needed to have more faith in people and a little in modern technology. I've seen the power of social media work for the good and help so many around the world, so I'm putting my faith in this social media outlet and as always in God.

We believe our best course of action considering the circumstances is to keep my mom in her house and provide the in-home care she needs and wants. We are trying to raise enough money to cover her 10-hour a day, in-home aid. We and her OT & PT therapists believe that at her current rate of recovery and her fierce determination, significant recovery will be achieved within the year. In this amount of time she will be able to once again stand, pivot, walk and better care for herself without an in-home aid. She will always have us at her side to provide the care we can because as she showed us, family is family and we care for each other no matter what, just as she cared for us, her aging parents and her siblings; besides, she's our mom and we love her dearly. Any help is appreciated. Please spread the word. Thank you.