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Ava and Shelly can depend on Parish Nursing to monitor their health, because of you
You can call it mother’s intuition or luck but thanks to your gift, Shelly and Ava Hoffman call it a blessing.
Shelly is a nurse with the donor-supported Parish Nursing program at her church. She is also the mother of teenaged Ava, and she just had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right with her daughter’s health. When the program was doing blood work at the church one Sunday, she convinced Ava to get her blood glucose tested. That’s when they caught her Type 1 diabetes at a very early stage.
“By Wednesday she was in the hospital,” Shelly says. “It’s incredible that she wasn’t chronically ill, and relatively well—we couldn’t believe we caught it so early. Of course, getting a teenager who feels fine to stay in the hospital wasn’t easy.”
“It’s amazing we found it before it was a real emergency. It has been a life-changing diagnosis.”
Shelly has also benefitted from the Parish Nursing Program. As a survivor of thyroid cancer, she also needs regular blood work to monitor her medications. “We always take advantage of the yearly blood draws at our church,” she says.
“Some families really struggle with affording the constant monitoring they need. I see a lot of people who really depend upon having these screenings—lab work can be very expensive. I want to thank you and let you know your gift is providing a very valuable service.”