wake_rider
New member
Hey Toyota community. Two Wednesdays ago my mother suffered a massive heart attack and was lifeflighted from back in my hometown (where my parents still live) to Oklahoma City to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital. Since then, things have been a whirlwind.
That night, my mother was seemingly doing better, and sent me and all my siblings home around 6:00am Thursday morning, telling us she was doing better and advising us to get some sleep. That was the last time I spoke with her. She crashed just two hours later, and had flatlined twice while they continued to shock her to try and get her heart back pumping. Thankfully they were able to get her back started, but for almost a week, we were being told by the Cardiac Surgeons that her chances to live were most likely less than 10%.
We didn't believe that, and apparently neither did she.
Just this past Tuesday night, they tried turning off one of her four life support machines (this spectactular pneumatic balloon that they inserted through her femoral artery up into her heart, that quickly inflates and deflates in a pumping pattern and simulates/stimulates her heart to continue moving), and to the Doctor's amazement, her heart was beating on its own and moving enough blood. They began the process of weening her off of that maching that night, and had the balloon completely removed by Wednesday morning.
Next are all the blood pressure medication drips that keep her blood pressure up. She was on maximum dosage of 5 different drips, but those eventually shut down organs, so they are attempting to reduce those as well. As of tonight, she is down to JUST ONE, and at a half-dosage! That's incredible. She even is beginning to open her eyes a bit and come out of her medically induced coma. Things are looking better, and we expect her to eventually come out of the hospital on her own power! Just four days ago they were telling us that we might have to make the call to pull life support, and now she's beginning to wake up. We're ecstatic, to say the least!
As they had her in the Heart-catheter procedure to get an inner look at her heart, they said that this heart attack is completely without signs of cause. She has zero plaque in her arteries, no signs of heart disease, but a collasped artery and it has torn and detached itself from the heart. As of today, they're saying that the artery is naturally re-attaching itself and they don't believe that open-heart surgery is needed at this time. It's unreal.
My mom has always been a healthy eater, pretty active, and has always been the type of person to give everything we owned to help out friends, family, and even complete strangers. I hated that she did this when I was growing up, but I cannot be more proud of her character now that I'm an adult.
However, now she and my dad are the ones needing help. ICU costs are unreal, and the cost of life support and cardiac diagnostics are even more unbelievable. My father works for Phillips 66 in Ponca City and has very good insurance, but he has had to take leave from work during this entire event. The doctors believe she will remain in ICU for AT LEAST the next two weeks as well, putting her in there an entire month.
There are things that insurance just refuses to cover, unfortunately, some of these are medical expenses, some are living expenses. As such, all of us kids are giving every extra penny we make right now to cover the additional costs, but the bills are racking up. As such, we have set up a "Go Fund Me" account to try and recover a bit of the expense that is going to rack up during my mother's recovery process. During that time, she cannot work, and my dad will certainly have to take a leave of absense from work in order to continue caring for her. So we're just trying to help soften the blow.
If you can, PLEASE give even just a little. Anything is appreciated, and even for just the cost of a meal at McDonalds or a trip to Starbucks, or even the cost of putting a can of injector cleaner into your tank, a few dollars here and there will help tremendously. If quite a few people can give just a little, the burden will be distributed amongst many and will help my family immensely.
If you cannot donate, I completely understand. We would all appreciate just your warm thoughts, prayers, blessings dances, or whatever method of positivity you ascribe to. Anything at this time helps.
Here is the link to the Go Fund Me page for my mother.
Again, thank each and every one of you for taking your time and offering any help or good will that you can!
Stuemky Rally Fund by TommyandNikki Larson - GoFundMe
That night, my mother was seemingly doing better, and sent me and all my siblings home around 6:00am Thursday morning, telling us she was doing better and advising us to get some sleep. That was the last time I spoke with her. She crashed just two hours later, and had flatlined twice while they continued to shock her to try and get her heart back pumping. Thankfully they were able to get her back started, but for almost a week, we were being told by the Cardiac Surgeons that her chances to live were most likely less than 10%.
We didn't believe that, and apparently neither did she.
Just this past Tuesday night, they tried turning off one of her four life support machines (this spectactular pneumatic balloon that they inserted through her femoral artery up into her heart, that quickly inflates and deflates in a pumping pattern and simulates/stimulates her heart to continue moving), and to the Doctor's amazement, her heart was beating on its own and moving enough blood. They began the process of weening her off of that maching that night, and had the balloon completely removed by Wednesday morning.
Next are all the blood pressure medication drips that keep her blood pressure up. She was on maximum dosage of 5 different drips, but those eventually shut down organs, so they are attempting to reduce those as well. As of tonight, she is down to JUST ONE, and at a half-dosage! That's incredible. She even is beginning to open her eyes a bit and come out of her medically induced coma. Things are looking better, and we expect her to eventually come out of the hospital on her own power! Just four days ago they were telling us that we might have to make the call to pull life support, and now she's beginning to wake up. We're ecstatic, to say the least!
As they had her in the Heart-catheter procedure to get an inner look at her heart, they said that this heart attack is completely without signs of cause. She has zero plaque in her arteries, no signs of heart disease, but a collasped artery and it has torn and detached itself from the heart. As of today, they're saying that the artery is naturally re-attaching itself and they don't believe that open-heart surgery is needed at this time. It's unreal.
My mom has always been a healthy eater, pretty active, and has always been the type of person to give everything we owned to help out friends, family, and even complete strangers. I hated that she did this when I was growing up, but I cannot be more proud of her character now that I'm an adult.
However, now she and my dad are the ones needing help. ICU costs are unreal, and the cost of life support and cardiac diagnostics are even more unbelievable. My father works for Phillips 66 in Ponca City and has very good insurance, but he has had to take leave from work during this entire event. The doctors believe she will remain in ICU for AT LEAST the next two weeks as well, putting her in there an entire month.
There are things that insurance just refuses to cover, unfortunately, some of these are medical expenses, some are living expenses. As such, all of us kids are giving every extra penny we make right now to cover the additional costs, but the bills are racking up. As such, we have set up a "Go Fund Me" account to try and recover a bit of the expense that is going to rack up during my mother's recovery process. During that time, she cannot work, and my dad will certainly have to take a leave of absense from work in order to continue caring for her. So we're just trying to help soften the blow.
If you can, PLEASE give even just a little. Anything is appreciated, and even for just the cost of a meal at McDonalds or a trip to Starbucks, or even the cost of putting a can of injector cleaner into your tank, a few dollars here and there will help tremendously. If quite a few people can give just a little, the burden will be distributed amongst many and will help my family immensely.
If you cannot donate, I completely understand. We would all appreciate just your warm thoughts, prayers, blessings dances, or whatever method of positivity you ascribe to. Anything at this time helps.
Here is the link to the Go Fund Me page for my mother.
Again, thank each and every one of you for taking your time and offering any help or good will that you can!
Stuemky Rally Fund by TommyandNikki Larson - GoFundMe
