Hello, dear friends and family—Alyx here with a little update on the GoFundMe progress and plans. (My apologies to those of you who might see this twice, as I just posted a similar update on the GoFundMe page itself.) I'm going to plan to do weekly updates on this here.
The fundraiser has been live for less than a week, and 165 donors have already helped us raise more than $17,000 toward Mom’s medical transport and continued rehabilitation costs. I don’t have adequate words to thank you all for your support—it means the world to me to see so many of our communities rallying together around Mom.
In addition to expressing our profound gratitude, I wanted to give some more details about how we intend to use these donations. The first significant thing we need to figure out funding for is transporting Mom back to Minnesota after she’s had her cranioplasty (replacing the bone flap in her skull). We’re actively working on getting quotes for this, but the outside figure we’ve gotten so far, which would give her maximum medical support on the journey, comes in at nearly $30,000. We might not end up needing that level of medical support, depending on how soon we can get her off the tracheostomy, but that’s basically our initial target, since insurance will not cover any of that particular transport.
Once we get Mom back to Minnesota, she will still have many months of therapies ahead of her. From what we’ve been able to understand so far, it sounds like insurance will cover a certain amount of therapy per day for a certain number of days, but my parents will need to pay any charges beyond that. Since we want to make sure we get Mom the best possible care that will help her to have the best possible outcomes, we’re anticipating the need for more support beyond what insurance will pay for those rehabilitative services. Additionally, my parents will likely need to find some accessible temporary housing while they figure out their longer-term living situation, which will, in part, be dependent upon how much movement Mom is able to get back through therapy.
Thank you so much for all of your kind thoughts, prayers, and donations as we navigate this as a family! Please continue to share Mom's story and her GoFundMe with your networks; we know we can get through this thanks to community support.