Penni Sadler Recovery

This is my mom Penni. She is mommy to me and my younger sister Shallin. She is nanna banana to our 3 little munchkins Tony, Aidan and Jaxson.

My mom is one of the best people that exists on this planet. I know you think I'm biased but I promise that even if I weren't her daughter I'd say this. She's an amazing friend, a caring daughter, a doting grandmother, a supportive mother, and a sweet sister. Mom has been a single mom for most of my life. It's a long story but I want to focus on her instead.

She was an EMT when I was young. For many years she dedicated her life to helping others and providing service to those in need with dignity, love, kindness, and respect. When she wasn't serving as emergency services she volunteered for dialysis patient transportation.

When she had three strokes that ended. She was devastated. She had to work so hard to get her life back. Things that used to be easy for her were no longer. Her strength, mobility, and memory suffered. She was relearning how to do things again. Years of work and effort paid off and she was more herself.

When she was well enough she started taking classes to become a paralegal. She wanted to start a new path that would still allow her to help those in need. She was focused on helping low-income families, immigrants, victims of domestic violence, and children or those not able to represent themselves.

Unfortunately she wasn't able to complete these classes because her health was beginning to decline and her financial situation couldn't sustain it. Due to her strokes and being deemed unable to work, she has been forced to live on a fixed income. She had her strokes at a young age, and despite working since she was a teenager, she didn't qualify for disability thanks to some changes in legislation that require a specific number of "credit years" in a certain timeframe. She thankfully does get SSI and with the help of my sister and I, she gets by. She never let her financial or medical situation stop her!

She went in to be diagnosed with MS and several other medical conditions that affect her mobility and strength. She still fights every day to live her life as joyfully and full of love as she can. As time went on we continued working towards her health goals and even with everything being thrown at her, she's making it!

She's been a wonderful mom and the best grandma. All of the kiddos adore her and call her nana banana! Even our friends and our kids' friends love her and treat her like family. She's never met a stranger.

She's a proud and stubborn woman who hates to ask for help or be a bother to anyone. She's a survivor of domestic violence and even worse abuse from people in her family from a young age. She's a wonderful friend and advocate for those in need and especially children. She is so sweet and kind-hearted. She helps anyone she can! She likes to keep little packs in her car filled with snacks, water, deodorant, and hand warmers so when she's around town she can give them to the homeless. She always buys a few extra items at the store to have on hand in case any of the neighborhood kids need or want anything. Her home is the house that all the kids around the neighborhood know they can go to if they need help or are in trouble. She has a habit of taking in any animal in need. If she has it and someone else needs it she cannot say no. She donates any extra money she can and always uses her food card to provide snacks and things to her grandkids' school even though we tell her not to. She wants to help and make the world a better place.

Over the past month, she's not been feeling great. Early in May, she was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and pneumonia. Unfortunately, it got worse and she couldn't breathe. On May 10th she had to be taken to the ER by ambulance. After a few days of oxygen and steroids, we thought that the worst was behind us. We were wrong. Saturday the 13th she was transferred to the ICU and was put on positive pressure ventilation. She didn't know who she was, where she was, or even who her daughters were. When asked what year it was she couldn't answer. We were terrified. The doctors at one point were discussing life support. We didn't know if Mom would come home. She wasn't able to eat anything and hadn't since around the 9th of May. She was dehydrated and her carbon dioxide was double the higher end of the scale that it should have been. She couldn't get her oxygen levels stabilized.

We've been in the ICU ever since but thankfully after days of steroids and the ventilator, she is improving. She has been able to eat a little. She's starting to be more aware and awake. She knows where she is, and knew my sister and me when we talked with her. We've been by her side ever since she was admitted on the 10th until they have to kick us out each night. The hospital she's in won't allow overnight visitors so I've been using my sick time at work and my husband has been making multiple trips a day to drop me off and pick me up.

Although she's still not out of the woods the doctors think she is improving and say if she continues on this path she could be moved out to the telemetry floor in a few days! Eventually, when she is discharged she will require home health and someone to be with her as she recovers. We're working to set up a hospital bed at home for her and have her stay with my sister for a few weeks. She will need to take a portable ventilation and oxygen machine home and attend occupational and physical therapy with pulmonologists.

With her fixed income I've been covering as much as I can of the increased cost and bills while she's in the hospital. Unfortunately, my credit cards are getting higher and I'm worried about the future cost of her care to help provide her the ability to get the equipment she needs and pay for services to help her when she's discharged to rehabilitate. I hate asking for help and not being able to provide everything she needs. Her health and well-being are more important than my pride and I'm making this to request assistance covering some of her needs. We will only use the money to cover costs related to her medical needs, transportation, equipment, and services. I understand that a lot of people are not in a great place financially so please don't feel bad if you can't contribute. Anything helps and we're more grateful that you know.