Medication and Treatment for Doña Marina
Donation protected
"Have you eaten yet?" That was a classic question you heard my mother ask anyone if you ever crossed paths with her. Doña Marina (like many people call her) has always been kind to others.
My mother was always full of energy, and she used that energy to work for her family and help others; everybody. For many years she organized groups of people to serve food to those who didn't have anything to eat. She also collected clothes for those who had nothing to wear. And in extreme cases, she was always there for the ones who were sick. She paid them visits; to people in the hospital she brought them hope, comfort, and prayers; along with medication if they couldn't afford it. I grew up watching her give, always give. Her calling is, was, to help others.
In the past ten years, things changed. She was left alone to take care of her own sick mother. That job required her to be dedicated full time to one person only. She fed her mother, changed her diapers, gave her mother showers, took her to the doctor, and gave her her medication. We noticed that my mother was not the same after my grandmother died. Mom was tired. She got sick.
One doctor diagnosed one thing and another doctor diagnosed another thing. Different doctors found different things going wrong, but nobody gave her a definite diagnose. Something was wrong, we just didn't know what.
In the last 4 years, her health has deteriorated significantly. She went to see a pulmonologist because she began feeling like she couldn't breathe. Very soon, her walks had to be interrupted by short breaks to catch some air before continuing walking. Beyond that, things got worse rapidly. Two years ago I went to visit her and she let me take her to see her pulmonologist. The doctor explained that her lungs were not producing enough oxygen, forcing her heart to work extra, and making her heart grow bigger. The diagnosis was given: My mother has Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Very soon, she began feeling more fatigued every day until one day she just couldn't get off the bed. She has been in this condition for several weeks, dealing with severe pain and gasping for air.
Because she cannot breathe, she has to have a bunk set up downstairs in her small front room. My father, who is also disabled, cannot lift her or get her up to the bedroom or even to the restroom any longer. We need to get her a cot/bed, and its cost is beyond our means. Even the old bed-pan he tried to help her with broke.
A doctor has visited her at home, one doctor out of the dozens we tried to contact, and he informed me she is in the last stage of her illness. My mother can no longer get out of bed. She has to be fed by others, have her diapers changed by others, and there she has to be, stuck in bed gasping for air. The doctors have said that she needs pain medications if only to ease her pain and suffering in these trying times. And if she wants to breathe, she needs oxygen assistance; and in Mexico, that is no cheap thing. Along with the COVID pandemic, among other things, oxygen is in very short supply; and so, the only way to get her the oxygen she needs is to get her a machine that extracts oxygen from the house's water supply. This 'oxygen extractor' device is costly however it is the only way my mother will be able to breathe.
We too here in the USA are poor. Covid has hit us hard in every way you all reading this know well, and it's all we can do to send a few dollars on the rare occasion we can. And my Mother's pain medications and her needed oxygen machine are far beyond the means of our family here. By several thousand dollars.
We need to provide: Cot, a new bedpan and diapers, pain medication, an oxygen machine, and ideally in-house help for both of my parents, and even food. **The oxygen machine alone costs a few thousand dollars.
I myself cannot travel to help them because I myself have Systemic Lupus and thanks to COVID and travel restrictions, I'm stuck with listening to my beloved mother gasp while trying to talk to me over the phone. My hands are tied. I know these accommodations will not cure her, but I would like for her to be the most comfortable possible at this point. She doesn't deserve to be in pain until she dies.
Please, if you can find it in your heart to help a great woman who dedicated her life to helping others, giving comfort to others in their time of greatest need, a true servant by every meaning of the title, please help us by donating what all you can. Every penny counts. And every prayer counts.
Whether or not you choose to donate and help us, God bless you and know that you all who read this are in our prayers.
My mother was always full of energy, and she used that energy to work for her family and help others; everybody. For many years she organized groups of people to serve food to those who didn't have anything to eat. She also collected clothes for those who had nothing to wear. And in extreme cases, she was always there for the ones who were sick. She paid them visits; to people in the hospital she brought them hope, comfort, and prayers; along with medication if they couldn't afford it. I grew up watching her give, always give. Her calling is, was, to help others.
In the past ten years, things changed. She was left alone to take care of her own sick mother. That job required her to be dedicated full time to one person only. She fed her mother, changed her diapers, gave her mother showers, took her to the doctor, and gave her her medication. We noticed that my mother was not the same after my grandmother died. Mom was tired. She got sick.
One doctor diagnosed one thing and another doctor diagnosed another thing. Different doctors found different things going wrong, but nobody gave her a definite diagnose. Something was wrong, we just didn't know what.
In the last 4 years, her health has deteriorated significantly. She went to see a pulmonologist because she began feeling like she couldn't breathe. Very soon, her walks had to be interrupted by short breaks to catch some air before continuing walking. Beyond that, things got worse rapidly. Two years ago I went to visit her and she let me take her to see her pulmonologist. The doctor explained that her lungs were not producing enough oxygen, forcing her heart to work extra, and making her heart grow bigger. The diagnosis was given: My mother has Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Very soon, she began feeling more fatigued every day until one day she just couldn't get off the bed. She has been in this condition for several weeks, dealing with severe pain and gasping for air.
Because she cannot breathe, she has to have a bunk set up downstairs in her small front room. My father, who is also disabled, cannot lift her or get her up to the bedroom or even to the restroom any longer. We need to get her a cot/bed, and its cost is beyond our means. Even the old bed-pan he tried to help her with broke.
A doctor has visited her at home, one doctor out of the dozens we tried to contact, and he informed me she is in the last stage of her illness. My mother can no longer get out of bed. She has to be fed by others, have her diapers changed by others, and there she has to be, stuck in bed gasping for air. The doctors have said that she needs pain medications if only to ease her pain and suffering in these trying times. And if she wants to breathe, she needs oxygen assistance; and in Mexico, that is no cheap thing. Along with the COVID pandemic, among other things, oxygen is in very short supply; and so, the only way to get her the oxygen she needs is to get her a machine that extracts oxygen from the house's water supply. This 'oxygen extractor' device is costly however it is the only way my mother will be able to breathe.
We too here in the USA are poor. Covid has hit us hard in every way you all reading this know well, and it's all we can do to send a few dollars on the rare occasion we can. And my Mother's pain medications and her needed oxygen machine are far beyond the means of our family here. By several thousand dollars.
We need to provide: Cot, a new bedpan and diapers, pain medication, an oxygen machine, and ideally in-house help for both of my parents, and even food. **The oxygen machine alone costs a few thousand dollars.
I myself cannot travel to help them because I myself have Systemic Lupus and thanks to COVID and travel restrictions, I'm stuck with listening to my beloved mother gasp while trying to talk to me over the phone. My hands are tied. I know these accommodations will not cure her, but I would like for her to be the most comfortable possible at this point. She doesn't deserve to be in pain until she dies.
Please, if you can find it in your heart to help a great woman who dedicated her life to helping others, giving comfort to others in their time of greatest need, a true servant by every meaning of the title, please help us by donating what all you can. Every penny counts. And every prayer counts.
Whether or not you choose to donate and help us, God bless you and know that you all who read this are in our prayers.
Organizer
Marina Torres Sarao
Organizer
Lincoln, NE