https://gofund.me/71c20413#HelpGailWalkAgain
GO FUND ME FOR NELLIE GAIL FAUCONNIER
Gail is currently bed and wheelchair-bound. She is unable to walk because her left leg will not bend any more than about 33 degrees. It was not always this way. With your help of any amount, it will not be this way forever!
Summary of the Situation:
From February 2016 until the present, Gail has experienced a series of illnesses, accidents, and traumas to her body along with the ravages of three serious, chronic diseases.
No suitable treatment nor access to appropriate, comprehensive healthcare was possible near her home on the isolated, under-served prairie and farmlands of central Illinois.
At great financial expense, Gail traveled many hours on several occasions to four different surrounding states to meet with medical specialists with no possibility of a complete team in one location. And so, in August of 2019, she traveled 700 miles to Durham, North Carolina, the home of Duke University medical centers, to get proper, quality medical treatment.
If forced to return to her home out in the middle of nowhere in central Illinois, Gail would more than likely be placed in a nursing home with no hope of ever again living an active and independent life, except through divine intervention. Returning to Illinois would be a death sentence! She must be able to stay in Durham to receive medical care until she is up walking and driving again.
She is working hard with the help of her doctors and pastors to get back on her feet so that she may continue doing what she loves most: serving and taking care of people in need. When she is up walking and driving again, she plans on going into the mission field to minister to impoverished adults and children as well as the disabled in under-developed parts of the world or America.
At this time, the cost of treatment and personal care she requires has grown beyond her means and now there is a lot of debt. Gail is actively looking for a paying job that she can do from home to pay for rent and all other bills.
Gail is asking friends, family, and others to please consider making a regular monthly donation to help her keep the expenses and debts at bay. As America emerges from the COVID crisis, she and her doctors are working hard to get her progress back on track. Your donation will give her the power to move ahead and pay it forward as she has done in the past.
Please re-share/re-post this on all social media.
THANK YOU!!!
Backstory:
In 2016, Gail developed scar adhesions around her intestines, complications of a hysterectomy that nearly killed her. Consequently, she was hospitalized with three bowel obstructions and nasogastric tubes within a three-month period. She became dangerously underweight. Severe nausea and abdominal pain made it difficult to eat much for over two years.
In March of 2017, doctors diagnosed Gail with hereditary hemochromatosis (a genetic iron overload disorder). Because of this, she must endure therapeutic phlebotomies monthly to bi-monthly to rid her blood of the dangerous iron overload.
In late 2017, her doctors also diagnosed her with osteoporosis that probably stemmed from the combination of rapid, extreme weight loss, prolonged low weight, and the effects of hereditary hemochromatosis throughout her life. The hereditary hemochromatosis, osteoporosis, and lack of standing and walking since October 2018 have made Gail’s bones brittle and easy to fracture.
In addition, several accidental orthopedic injuries to her feet, knees, posterior, and hands have not healed properly. Gail experienced quite a bit of pain related to the injuries and pursued treatment in central Illinois. Unfortunately, proper treatment was not timely. The injuries to her feet and knees were very slow to heal and without proper medical care, they did not heal correctly.
In 2018, doctors diagnosed Gail with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a serious disease of the central nervous system as well as a pain disorder. People with CRPS can rarely have surgery because of the possibility of spreading the disease or making it worse. There is no cure for this disease, but with treatment by her Duke medical team, it can be managed in a way that supports a more independent life.
She and her doctors and physical therapists have made some progress, but COVID-19 caused significant delays to her pain treatments and occupational physical therapy, and prevented her from being able to have a therapeutic phlebotomy to treat the hemochromatosis for over a year.
Treatment for her complex conditions requires a lot of time and care by a team of advanced specialists using emerging new techniques. All of this is expensive. Add in delays due to COVID and the debts became staggering. Health insurance does not cover the full-time Personal Care Assistant that Gail currently requires, nor short-term apartment rent and utilities, nor payments and gas for the 2003 rusting bucket of bolts Chevrolet retrofit handicap van. Gail financed the van with a loan. She uses it to get to and from her medical appointments. It is expensive to fuel and maintain, costing up to $100 per tank depending on gas prices. One of its brake lines developed a leak last year and was replaced. It was a costly repair that was not in the budget.
What would you do if most of your take-home pay became consumed by medical bills and related expenses? Even if you made a good salary, the tremendous strain on your budget would make it impossible to live without going into debt. You might face bankruptcy. Even with good insurance and a solid middle-class salary, uncovered medical bills and all the surrounding expenses would be financially devastating.
This is how it is now for Gail. So far, she has been able to avoid bankruptcy with the help of some generous friends, but the financial aid of those friends is depleted and there is not enough money to keep paying for Gail’s uncovered expenses such as rent, utilities, and paying down the medical debt. Her financial and health situations are dire. There is no comprehensive, high-quality care in the isolated farming lands of central Illinois. It is critical that she be able to stay in Durham and receive excellent medical care until she is up walking and driving again.
CONCLUSION:
Gail is asking friends, family, and others to consider making a regular monthly donation to help her keep the expenses and debts at bay while she stays close to comprehensive, high-quality care at Duke medical centers. Your donation of any amount will give her the power to move ahead and pay it forward as she has done in the past.
Please re-share/re-post this on all social media.
Thank you!!
