Support Vessie's Medical Hardships

My name is Mike Strickland, and on behalf of my mother, Visitacion "Vessie" Strickland, as well as the entire Strickland family, I'd like to share my mother's story with the world in the hopes that there is someone out there who can help support her with her and my father's ongoing financial struggles due to her rapidly declining health over the years.

Vessie had always led a very active life.  Having a full-time job and providing for our family since I was born, my mother worked hard to support us alongside my father. On her off-time she did alterations, made clothing, various crafts, and anything else that she could to help us stay financially stable. In May 2010, she was laid-off from work, in part due to deteriorating eye sight. Over the course of the following 18 months, her sight continued to worsen. After numerous doctor visits, including appointments with several eye specialists, it was determined that she was unable to continue working due to her being considered legally blind. She was put on Disability in November 2011 and began receiving checks at less than half of what she had been making without medical coverage; the process of receiving monetary benefits took two years to begin.

Due to not having sufficient access to doctors or medications, her overall medical condition continued to get worse. She was hospitalized in January 2012 due to a sore which went septic. While in the hospital, we were told that it had nearly killed her prior to being admitted; she was placed in ICU for 10 days while they treated the ulceration. After being released, she was able to resume some of her activities, but had lost most of her energy. In late January 2013, she was admitted once again, this time with a Urinary Tract Infection and was placed in Intensive Care for a week. She was then placed in a regular hospital bed for an additional week prior to being released. When she was released, she was unable to walk on her own, was unable to sit up in a chair for more than five minutes at a time, and could not even get into or out of bed without being physically lifted. My dad was trying to take care of her through this time, however, he is also disabled with a history of severe back issues, heart attacks, and was on oxygen at the time.

Vessie was soon re-admitted to the hospital due to what she assumed were side effects of the medicine that she was taking before being diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. Once again, she was placed in ICU for a week and then a regular room for an additional four days prior to being released. She was home for approximately six weeks before her condition began to deteriorate even more. My mother began losing a great deal of weight, her appetite was negligent, and her memory and speech began to decline rapidly. Eventually, she was taken back to the hospital and placed in ICU because of her worsening condition. Finally, the physician who had been treating for quite some time called in a couple of specialists to look at her. A Neurologist and a Cardiologist diagnosed her with a blockage in her right Coronary Artery and a condition called Hydro Cephelus Regular; this is a condition in which the brain produces more fluid than the body can get rid of, thus causing pressure on the brain by squeezing it. Since at this point in time she still did not have the medical portion of her disability, the doctors naturally opted to not do the necessary surgery and instead prescribed very high cost medications without a generic option which came out of my parents’ already meager savings.

After spending two more weeks in the hospital, my mother was released. At this point, she had lost 40 pounds in a span of a few weeks and had dropped down to a total of 90 pounds. We had her home for about seven weeks before the Hydro-Cephelus began to manifest itself once again. My dad took her back to the hospital once more in mid-July. It was at this point that the Neurologist decided to go ahead with the surgery. It was successful, yet with still no health insurance, the costs continued to mount and my parents finally had gone through what savings they had and began to fall behind on some of their bills. My parents ended up having to refinance what at that time was an eight year old vehicle that was coming near to being paid off out of worry of having it repossessed and losing the only transportation they had. Finally in October 2013, her Medical benefits kicked in after a two-year wait, but at this point they had pawned off several of their assets, had taken out numerous loans, and were living from check to check, looking for any help they could get to get food on the table.

They then began to have operations on my mother to try to improve her eye sight. She had surgery to remove cataracts in each eye, but her vision did not improve a great deal due to swelling and seepage in both of her retinas, so she then had to begin treatments on each eye to improve her vision beginning in July 2014. Then the next shoe fell. Her kidney functions were beginning to drop seriously low, and around Thanksgiving the subject of dialysis was brought up. After meeting with a Nephrologist, it was decided to hold off on dialysis for the time being and they instead changed one of her blood pressure medications to one more protective of her kidney functions, which at this point had dropped down to 15%. Two days after this change she suffered a heart attack and nearly died. She was placed in ICU with an Endotrachael Tube in her throat and was kept sedated while trying to determine the seriousness of the heart attack. Never in my life had I ever thought that I would see the strongest woman I had ever known be connected to tubes just to survive. It broke my heart and the image still stays with me to this day.

One of the issues she was facing while admitted was the testing required necessitated a dye be entered into her blood stream to determine where the blockage was; the effect of the dye, however, is very bad on the kidneys, so the decision was made to have her begin dialysis, which began on December 17th, 2014. She ended up spending the Holiday Season in the hospital and had a triple bypass performed on January 2, 2015. After another week in the hospital, she was transferred to a Rehabilitation facility for three weeks prior to being released and sent home. By May 2015, my parents were getting close to paying off all of the loans they had taken out two years previously before they were informed by their apartment complex that their lease would not be renewed and that they needed to move. They were living near the University, and although their rent had been going up by $50 each of the previous four years, it still wasn't as high as the newer tenants were charged. My family couldn’t help but feel that the property’s management staff prefered turning the apartments over more often with students so that they could receive the higher rent that would be coming in. Regardless, the loans they had taken out and were being paid off ended up having to be renewed.

And that brings us up to the present. It has been determined that my mom is a candidate for a kidney transplant, but in addition to all the physical issues which may ensue, there are a great deal of financial dilemmas as well. For testing purposes, my parents will have to travel more than 300 miles round-trip on at least a monthly basis in a vehicle ten model years old. It’s currently logged at about 120k miles and is in a severe need of a brake job. With them owing seven thousand dollars on it, there is no possible way for them to trade it in and be able to afford the payments on a vehicle that would be even one or two years old. There are also the additional costs added in for travel, food, and lodging; this isn't even considering what their co-payments might be. Her current medical coverage only accounts for 80% of her medical expenses which we know are going to be very, very high. Due to their current financial situation, they have had to postpone doing this once, but she is 57 years old and the window for this opportunity will not remain open for a very long period of time. 

Between the years of doctors visits, scans, medications, loans, pawns, and other financial expenses, my parents' debts are nothing short of overwhelming.

Vessie comes from a family of 10 children, has a wide network of family including brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews, and has brought joy and blessings to many people throughout her life. She is dearly loved and deeply appreciated by so many people.

Our entire family thanks you for taking the time to read all of this and for any and all help you can provide.