{"id":80,"date":"2024-07-07T20:59:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T20:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/?p=80"},"modified":"2024-07-07T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T21:00:00","slug":"how-can-we-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/","title":{"rendered":"How can we help?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bodie COTA Campaign Video\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4-tSpmNsCCc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">These are the posts that are hard for me to write, because we\u2019ve never been good at accepting help. We much prefer to be on the giving end. Long before I had kids, I donated blood and platelets regularly, and I volunteered with the Make A Wish Foundation (now that was trippy to be on the other end of receiving a wish after having been a wish granter myself!). When Bodie was 10 months old, I joined with fellow heart moms and we founded our own nonprofit, Sisters by Heart, to help others newly diagnosed with HLHS. My parents raised my brother and I from a young age to give back, and I\u2019ve always done that. This is all to say, asking for help isn\u2019t really in my DNA. And Dusk is about the most independent man you\u2019ll meet, so asking for help isn\u2019t any easier for him. Our tendency is just to say \u201cno, we\u2019re fine. But thanks for offering!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">But the reality is that, no, we\u2019re not fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">We\u2019re doing our best in a really tough situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">But, at the end of the day, that\u2019s exactly what this is \u2013 a really tough situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Dusk opened up about it recently on his Facebook page, and talked about how difficult it has been to have our household split. Dusk and Sierra are down in San Diego, holding down the fort there, taking care of the house, the myriad of animals (you wouldn\u2019t think it, but, taking care of 2 dogs, 4 cats, a rabbit, a turtle, a fish, 3 ducklings and almost 40 chickens actually takes time!), and still trying to work. And I\u2019m up here with Bodie, trying my best to work while he\u2019s in the hospital, but it\u2019s hard. &nbsp;I\u2019m trying to gain some semblance of normalcy to get work done for clients, but it\u2019s difficult with practitioners coming in and out of Bodie\u2019s room constantly, as well as the unpredictability of his needs during recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">It&#8217;s all just hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">That said, it\u2019s time for us to admit that we could use some financial help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Hospital admissions are expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Heart transplants can be upwards of a million dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">You read that right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Thankfully, we have insurance, but our out-of-pocket costs will likely be close to $60K this year alone. In addition to the medical costs, we\u2019re incurring the cost of having our family living between two different locations, as well as the costs to fly and drive back and forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">If you don\u2019t know our family well, Dusk and I are both self-employed, which compounds the difficulty of the situation. When we\u2019re not working, income\u2019s not coming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">And this situation isn\u2019t changing anytime soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Bodie will still be inpatient for at least another week. Once he is discharged from the hospital, we will be required to remain up in Northern California for at least 2 months, during which time he will have many more appointments, lab draws and procedures to ensure he is not rejecting his new heart. (Rejection of organs is at the highest risk during the first 3-6 months post-transplant.) And once we are released home, he will have to return to Northern California at least every 3 months, if not more often, for follow-up visits and procedures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Because of this, we have partnered with the Children\u2019s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) for assistance with transplant-related expenses. Please consider making a donation to COTA in Bodie\u2019s honor right through this website \u2013 anything helps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-transparent-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-09ccc259ab6a6fd0d0602edf186e203b\">The Children\u2019s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation\u2019s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA\u2019s services are free to their families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Also, whether or not you\u2019re able to contribute financially, please, please continue praying for Bodie! Your prayers have brought him miracle after miracle, and I truly believe he may never understand the magnitude of the miracles we witnessed while he was on Ecmo and being transplanted. But we do. And we know they all happened because of the army of prayer warriors who have been lifting him up. So please, please continue your prayers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the posts that are hard for me to write, because we\u2019ve never been good at accepting help. We much prefer to be on the giving end. Long before I had kids, I donated blood and platelets regularly, and I volunteered with the Make A Wish Foundation (now that was trippy to be on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1977,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How can we help? - COTA for Bodie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How can we help?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These are the posts that are hard for me to write, because we\u2019ve never been good at accepting help. We much prefer to be on the giving end. Long before I had kids, I donated blood and platelets regularly, and I volunteered with the Make A Wish Foundation (now that was trippy to be on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"COTA for Bodie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-07T20:59:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-07T21:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amybennett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"amybennett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/\",\"name\":\"How can we help? - COTA for Bodie\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-07T20:59:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-07T21:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/30b8fbe3f427d26d5af304f041247432\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How can we help?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/\",\"name\":\"COTA for Bodie\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/30b8fbe3f427d26d5af304f041247432\",\"name\":\"amybennett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ff0b2e9a7d598f981f32291600e95e14f6a6de52fb1e4f3b92e97b12a4ef8054?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ff0b2e9a7d598f981f32291600e95e14f6a6de52fb1e4f3b92e97b12a4ef8054?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"amybennett\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/author\/amybennett\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How can we help? - COTA for Bodie","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How can we help?","og_description":"These are the posts that are hard for me to write, because we\u2019ve never been good at accepting help. We much prefer to be on the giving end. Long before I had kids, I donated blood and platelets regularly, and I volunteered with the Make A Wish Foundation (now that was trippy to be on [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/","og_site_name":"COTA for Bodie","article_published_time":"2024-07-07T20:59:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-07T21:00:00+00:00","author":"amybennett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"amybennett","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/","url":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/","name":"How can we help? - COTA for Bodie","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-07-07T20:59:58+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-07T21:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/30b8fbe3f427d26d5af304f041247432"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/2024\/07\/07\/how-can-we-help\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How can we help?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/","name":"COTA for Bodie","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/30b8fbe3f427d26d5af304f041247432","name":"amybennett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ff0b2e9a7d598f981f32291600e95e14f6a6de52fb1e4f3b92e97b12a4ef8054?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ff0b2e9a7d598f981f32291600e95e14f6a6de52fb1e4f3b92e97b12a4ef8054?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"amybennett"},"url":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/author\/amybennett\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1977"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}