This is to let you know, the next chapter in the amazing post-stroke survival story of our favourite nonagenarian has begun!
For those who don’t know, Mum is coming up to seven years as a stroke survivor and her story is something I as her carer and son still can’t get my head around even though I have always known her to be one of the most remarkable person I have ever known.
Overnight lost total impendence and became double-up carer dependent as a result of a horrible stroke (clot in artery that failed to clear)
Got next to no rehab but fought on and worked through things in her head
Kept going and kept improving, but still unable to convince the healthcare professionals she was deserving of support - ageist discrimination never went away from day 1
Had a few set backs - caused by healthcare professionals not be totally on the ball (I could use stronger words, but they are only doing the best they can and for that we are grateful after all Mum is still alive and with us
Family has soldiered on trying to do their best but are now showing signs of faltering, but Mum shows no sign of wanting to stop. She gets stronger by the day.
She has recently come back from her latest setback and is working to manage the new medicines and the implications of the last incident
As she shows continued determination and it is well known the one major thing she has missed out on and continues to miss out on is rehab therapy, in particular OT/PT we are going to pursue this avenue once more. After a few failed attempts to go private, we have gone back to market and identified another therapist who shows promise and we have engaged this to see how far they can take us.
The new chapter has begun and it is going to be very challenging because it requires funding which is scare right now, but somehow we have to do this. I was not aware of this until recently and it had never occurred to me that I might be able to go and get some help from …
… GoFundMe
One of the respondents to a post by Rupert @Rups suggested he (Rupert) tries GoFundMe “if money would help”. Well it occurred to me, that money would help big time because we can’t afford the amount of private therapy and aids that clearly would benefit Mum, but which she has been denied through being a victim of circumstance. And so I am going to see if I can get a fund raiser going and if we can’t get Mum walking and talking again sooner than she might otherwise do
So this is to let you know that the new chapter of Mum’s recovery has officially begun, though it began when she came back from hospital in December but we dared to err on the side of caution - how follish are we
Thank you for reading, thank you for your continued support.
I am still getting my head round how this GoFundMe works, but I believe I can recruit co-managers who can help spread the word and so I may come to see if anyone might be interested in helping promote Mum’s fundraising page.
It definitely sounds like a new chapter is about to start.
I have never set up a Gofundme page but people do seem to have a lot of success with it. I imagine it is all about how you write the “plea”. Social media is a good advertising source these days. You could also try a local magazine too.
I’ve never been particularly good at rallying causes, probably because I have no social networks on which to rally. I tried raising money last year for the Stroke Association by walking around town in my pyjamas but the only thing I managed to raise were eyebrows .
I think this is a good idea and I believe the steps are fairly straightforward in launching a campaign. Glad to hear your mother is strengthening every day. May it continue with gusto.
Your Mum is one hell of a trouper! So good to hear of her progress. I hope you find the support you need - and share with us as it’s good to know how others overcome the obstacles strewn in our way - and that your strong and determined Mum continues to progress.
As soon as I read the bit about funding being scarce these days, I thought of ‘Go Fund Me ‘ and would have mentioned it if you hadn’t first! It’s an excellent resource and hopefully, it’ll be of great help to you.
Please post the link on here ( if it’s allowed?) once you’ve set it up as I’m sure some of us will be able and happy to donate to such a worthy cause.
Wishing you all the very best with this new chapter. Your Mum is amazing and she’s very blessed to have you as her son❤️
Glad to hear mum is again making progress in her journey. Like others struggle with Go Fund Me and social media in general in fact do local papers still exist, if they do it’s a story for them to go with and hopefully it will gather dome momentum there. Hopefully viral which would do the job for a warrior who defies the odds and conventional thinking.
Hi Trace @Trace57 - Thank you for your kind words.
I am so pleased to have been part of this community and especially in the past 18 months or so when I believe I have learned a lot about being a carer as well as hopefully shared some of our fairly unusual experiences.
Mum is blessed for sure. I am lucky that my sister has also devoted a lot of her time and resources into helping care for Mum. It is even more impressive as she does this whilst holding down her day job. People often remark how we are doing a wonderful job looking after Mum and I guess we probably are but first and foremost, and I have mentioned this before, Mum is a self-healer. How she does it I do not know, but she does. I guess the values they (Mum and Dad) instilled in us as children have allowed us to do what we do and for that we are truly grateful. Both Mum and Dad made huge sacrifices to ensure we had the best possible start in life and they did it without being pushy.
Now what we are doing is to make sure she gets the best possible support she can get. We are also trying to share as much of the learnings we can in the hope others may benefit from our experiences. Nobody should have to go through what we are going through and I know this is exactly how Mum would want it to be.
I would like to be able to share Mum’s story in greater detail for future but at the moment I am finding it difficult to collate all the information and decide on a format that would be a good way of sharing this.
Our belief is that whilst Mum’s way of life both pre stroke and post stroke might not be everyone’s cup of tea, for those who might be interested it could be hugely beneficial. I just hope I am able to achieve half of what she has. Even as I write this, I find myself thinking how foolish I have been to have taken for granted some of the things she shared with us and taught her.
I’ll have to go away and think about this a bit more.
I am pretty new to this forum and just wanted to say that reading posts from members on here, and your posts in particular, have really given me a much needed boost on the tough days.
My previously independent 83 yr old dad had a severe haemorrhagic stroke in early December and your post about certain things being denied from the start due to age (rehab), and then the subsequent impact on management really resonated.
We are very early on in our journey and are preparing for discharge, but reading how strong your mum is and all she has had to overcome with you guys by her side is really heartening. Your positivity through the toughest of circumstances really shines through.
Please do post a link to your Go Fund me, and thank you for your posts.
@Elmo854 just popping by to say hi & welcome to the community. Sorry to hear of your dads stroke but pleased to hear you have found some useful information on the forum. @ManjiB has been on a long journey with his mum but his willingness to share their story has helped so many people & shows whatnis possible when others may have written people off.
It’s great to see how supportive you all are on this topic and I know nothing has been set in stone with regards to using Go Fund Me. I did, however, just want to jump in with a quick reminder that we don’t allow links for fundraising. I saw a couple of people were not sure about this so below is a snippet of our guidelines for anyone that was unsure.
Just to clarify on @ManjiB’s behalf. He can, however, post that he has put a link to his campaign on @Bobbi’s OMG WhatsApp group? And can he contact individual members through Chats and DM with a link or not? Just to clarify.
Hello @Elmo854 - Nice to meet you and I am pleased you have found the posts on this forum helpful. There are many wonderful, knowledgeable members who always happily share their experiences and views. This is a very supportive community and the beauty is there is no commitment or obligations on your part
Wrt to your Dad, I am sure with your help he will do nicely. Our posts on here are meant to inform and inspire and if even one person takes something away from it we will have done our job.
Wishing you and your Dad a healthy and happy journey down the road of stroke recovery.
Thanks for checking in. To clarify, we don’t allow personal fundraising links anywhere on the site, including in topics, posts, or direct messages. We apply this consistently to everyone to keep the space fair and safe for all members.
We are not connected with the OMG WhatsApp group, so what happens there is separate from us. As it’s a separate space, there’s no need to post on the Online Community about links shared there, members of the WhatsApp group will see them directly within that group.
It is not now, and nor has it ever been my intention to use this forum as a platform to raise funds or for any form of personal gain. I guess the majority of us do not read the small print when we sign up to things and it is important that t’s and c’s are respected.
My posts are meant to help provide information and encouragement based on my experiences and learnings. I think the fact there are ways people can get help if they need it should be mentioned (within the rules) as I don’t see this being any different to me suggesting you can get help from Citizen’s Advice Bureau or Age UK etc. Had it not been for someone mentioning the crowd funding / Go Fund Me, I would never have thought of it, but now this could potentially be very helpful to me and indeed others who are financially constrained.
As far as I am aware we / I haven’t been in breach of the t’s and c’s applicable to the use of this forum and nor do I intend to breach them.
I appreciate you clarifying this for us and my apologies if I have caused confusion and/or concern.
Rupert @Rups - thank you also for taking time to help to clarify this.
.