This campaign is to assist myself and my adult daughter, Gena with relocating her to a lower elevation for health reasons and also to be near her siblings that can assist in her care.

Gena has congenital heart disease and has had her pulmonary and aortic heart valves surgically replaced in 2010 with Mosaic pig valves.  Along with valves she had a plate put in her left ventricle and other heart repair as her heart was growing into the back of her sternum.  Those valves are beginning to fail as expected after 15 years, and she will be having them replaced again, this time via TAVR/TPVR (transcatheter valve replacement) through her neck with a beating heart.  Too many previous surgeries and four Herrington spine rods caused too much scar tissue to get her on a heart-lung bypass machine.  

It became apparent Gena was unable to maintain oxygen saturation at a higher elevation when driving through Yellowstone National Park coming home to Colorado after visiting her grandmother in Washington state.  She has pulmonary hypertension and was on two liters of oxygen at the time, using her portable concentrator when on the road and plugging in her home concentrator at hotels.  It was agreed upon to leave the park at 2:00 am to get to a lower elevation to stabilize her.  The volunteer fire department in Dubois, Wyoming assisted with that.  She is now on three liters of oxygen, 24/7.  Without her concentrator Gena's oxygen drops into the 60 and below within minutes (high 90's is optimal).

September 2024, we were heading to Seattle to meet with the TAVR team by way of California to visit her sisters and niece when Gena took ill and ended up in a ventilator in the cardiac ICU in Marysville California.  After her release ten days later, we returned home to get her well and wean her off the Amiodarone and other medications.  The cardiac team and her Electrophysiologist at the Heart and Vascular Center at Anschutz Medical Campus assessed her overall health.  Her valves are diminished, but not needing changed as yet.  We were advised that she would do much better at sea level because of her small lung and weak lung, which would help her heart to not work as hard.

Gena uses a wheelchair or mobility scooter when we leave the house because she has an ankle that needs replaced and they advise against surgery.  

I have been house hunting near Yoncalla, Oregon where my eldest daughter and only grandchild lives, and is currently taking care of her father (also Gena's father) after he lost his wife recently.  It is my hope to leave Colorado in a couple months.  On a personal note, I am divorcing to make this move, my husband of sixteen years does not wish to leave since his children and grandchildren live here, and my priority is Gena.

Having Gena's sister near will take off some of the burden and ease my mind about care for Gena if something were to happen to me.  I too will benefit from the lower elevation, as I do not experience restless leg when out of Colorado.  The sleep deprivation from worry and restless leg cause unnecessary strain on day to day living.

I will happily send documentation of all I have stated above.  Thank you with all my heart if you are able to contribute to our cause.