Support Candy's Recovery!

Hello everyone!

At this point, many of you have already heard the news about our dear CNDMOZ, but for those of you that haven’t... Candy was out in Portland, Oregon visiting her son Tim and his girlfriend Carolyn when she (to put it in her words): “had a fight with a hammock, and the hammock won.” She fell and sustained a spinal cord injury, and immediately lost sensation and mobility in her legs and arms. She was taken to the nearest hospital in Hood River, OR and was then transferred via helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, where she has been recovering for the past 3+ weeks.

She was diagnosed with a central cord injury, which is an incomplete spinal cord injury (in other words, there wasn’t a break, but more of a deep contusion to her C5-C7, along with vertebral fractures). To help relieve some of the pressure on her spinal cord, she had posterior laminoplasty surgery the following day and spent over a week recovering in the ICU (where she was of course the star of the floor, even getting serenaded by one of her nurses!). She was then transferred to the TRACU and on July 19 underwent another surgery for a disc replacement, in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure and kickstart her recovery.

At this point, Candy is able to move her arms and wrists, but not her fingers (although she is seeing some small improvements with her index finger after yesterday’s surgery!). She has sensations and involuntary movement in her lower body, but can’t move anything below her chest. She’s been working with a PT and an OT for the past few weeks to stretch, strengthen her upper extremities, and begin to lay the groundwork for the skills she’ll need going forward. She’s gotten set up in her yellow wheelchair—nicknamed “Sunshine” and Tim has been her expert “taxi driver.” The good news is that she is working HARD and keeping the most positive attitude!

The even better news is that Candy was accepted to the best spinal cord rehabilitation facility in the country—Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado. She will (finally) be leaving the hospital tomorrow to get flown to their rehab facility, where she'll begin a 90-day rehabilitation program. Craig Hospital prioritizes family-centered care, so Tim and Alex will be closely involved in her recovery and learning how to assist in her care. Candy will be working with a robust team of professionals (PT, OT, Psychologist, Nutritionist, Pharmacist, Urologist, etc.) to help meet her goals while she's there.

Life after Craig remains a little uncertain, but the short-term plan is for her to return back to Portland to live with Tim and Carolyn while she continues to recover. Given the nature of Candy’s injury (and really any type of spinal cord injury), there is no way of knowing what her recovery and healing process will look like, or what her “new normal” will be.

We have been so overwhelmed by the support we’ve received so far throughout all of this, and many of you have asked how you can help, so we wanted to start this GoFundMe to begin collecting donations to support Candy’s recovery and post-rehab life. Any amount you are able to contribute would be hugely valuable as we begin paying for her medical bills, transport costs, rehab stay, future home modifications and more. We know the financial climate is not the best for many, but any little amount counts and will help our favorite gal get back to living a full and messy life!

Also, please please pass the link on to any and everyone you know! We would love to make this a chain email / repost on Facebook type of fundraiser to help spread the word about her injury as well as how bright of a light Candy is and how crucial it will be to help her throughout her recovery so that she can continue to be her sunshiney self! We can’t thank you enough for your support.

Love, Candy, Tim, Carolyn and Alex