BreakEFX at 6:00,
John Runnels at 6:45,
Wendy Woo Duo at 7:30,
Ginga at 8:30,
Hazel Miller with Papa Juke at 9:30,
Girls on Top at 10:30,
All Star Jam at 11:15.
Special Guests : Erica Brown & Lionel Young!
For EVEN MORE INFORMATION, Go To http://www.myspace.com/boulderbenefitconcert
Susan Nadia Moi left the rehabilitation hospital on Christmas Eve and spent a few weeks living with one of her supporters before moving into an apartment with a friend in the second week of January.
In January, Susan regained independence of mobility, which
included taking the RTD bus to school, for shopping and to visit friends. She restarted
at
At the present time, Susan wants to focus on school and is planning on returning to work at Safeway in a month.
At the time of the fire, Susan, as a member of the Community of Sudanese-American Women and Men had a health insurance policy with Kaiser Permanente. Her Kaiser Plan has covered her medical expenses.
Proceeds from the Susan Moi Fund and from Crowd Funder have
been placed specifically for Susan in the
Susan says she is grateful to the many, many people who have taken an interest in helping her since the fire. She is particularly grateful for those who have spent countless hours with her personally in the hospital, helping her move into her new apartment, tutoring her, transporting her to school and doctors appointments, and supporting her emotionally.
Wow! It is hard to believe all of these wonderful things are
happening right in front of our eyes. Kaianna came for dinner last night on a
six hour pass. Jada was in SO HAPPY to be with her Mama all evening. Kaianna
was somewhat overwhelmed with all of us in this small apartment but loved every
minute
We had the Christmas trees (yes, still.....) all lit up when she came in the front door. You should have seen her smile! She especially loved the one from Ed (!!!!!) with the fresh (formerly fresh) roses and baby's breath. It is still beautiful - we do have it on the patio as it is shedding. We are keeping it as long as we are here. We are going to decorate it for Valentine's Day this week.
Jada slept in her ladybug jammies, had her Hello Kitty slippers on the entire evening . . .
We had a great meal of salmon, lentils, vegetables, rice, spinach and feta salad. Kaianna loved it! We talked and laughed and cried and hugged. She did not want to go back to the hospital, understandably so, but she returned about 9:30. She was exhausted. She has a full day today and after her last therapy session, we are doing an interview with Fox TV as a follow up to Kaianna's story. . .
Kaianna read a lot of her cards and letters last night - still has several
hundred to go through. Keep them coming -- she really enjoys them!
We are on top of the world in case you can't tell. I know we have only just
begun but it is the most exciting time that you can imagine. To see Kaianna
smile, even frown and scowl
, hug, kiss, talk with her, watch her progress
each day and above all, to continue to thank God that she is alive!!!!!
. . . Last night was a priceless evening, I'm sure one of only thousands to come. We all have a new appreciation for life, for miracles, and for family. . . I love all of you! Hugs and once again, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS, LOVE AND SUPPORT!
Candy
Hi All,
Happy Holidays!
Susan was dismissed from the rehab unit on Dec. 24. She is doing well medically;
she does need more visitors at Stephanie's home. Stephanie works in
Susan will probably move into her new apartment at
Please pass this on, and a big thanks to all of you for your wonderful support.
Janet
Dec. 17 Fund
Raising Event
The fund raising event at the Outlook Hotel for Susan Moi and Kaianna Kadivnik was fun, well attended, and raised approximately $8,000 (a record benefit at the Outlook) to be split evenly between Susan and Kaianna. At one point, there were so many attendees that people needed to wait at the door to enter, because the restaurant was at capacity.
I wish to extend my thanks to all those who jumped in to make the event a huge success!! At the risk of missing deserving people who helped with the event, I’ll try to highlight many individuals who deserve special thanks!
Susan
After being lifted from her medical sedation about 10 days
ago, Susan has progressed amazingly well. I visited Susan this morning. When I
arrived at her room, it was empty. I found Susan at the computer in the
cafeteria emailing friends. All indications are that Susan will leave the
rehabilitation hospital either the day before or the day after Christmas. We
all expect it to be Wednesday. She’s talking up a storm, walking around, working
on math, reading on The Constitution and writing about it in her notebook. She
is watching TV for the first time in her life, mainly basketball, soccer and
her favorite game of American football. During my visit, Susan described how
she laughs and laughs when the man with the ball falls on the ground. “I yell, ‘Get
up, get up!’ But other men jump on the man with the ball, so he can’t get up!”
(Read: She’s doing well.) Susan looks forward to returning to
Kaianna
Today, in addition to visiting Susan, I also delivered
Christmas presents, cookies, and prepared meals from many supportive people in
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How things change so quickly. Susan was moved to
Susan is doing quite well, she still has the trach and can't speak until its
removed, she is writing notes to communicate and thinking about the
future. The trach will be removed in the next week or so. Susan
will then work on swallowing and speech rehab.
Visitation is now completely open. You can visit Susan anytime between
8am and 7:30pm. It is probably a good idea to keep visitor numbers to no more
than 3 people in a group. If you have a cold, don't go. Susan doesn't
need to catch it. So, no more visitation
schedules!! Thanks so much for bearing with so many complicated details
in the past 3 weeks. We've gotten her through a very difficult period of
time.
Please visit Susan if you can get down to
Janet
I had a wonderful visit with Susan, despite some amount of
chaos. She smiled a lot while I was there. I was so surprised and relieved to
see what good shape she was in. I was prepared for the worst, in terms of
possible disfigurement, and more devastating skin conditions. But she looked
great, like Susan, with obviously a lot of pigmentation issues, but still just great!
I told her that she looked beautiful. She was very happy. We went on to talk
about math (I told her I would not allow her to give that up), and I brought
her
pictures of me on top of
As before, she could not talk adequately because of the trach, but could
write short phrases.
As I left Susan was being prepared to move to a different building called the
Spaulding Rehab Unit, at 900
It’s been 3-1/2 weeks, since I was last allowed to visit Susan. As I entered the hospital, I hoped for the best. I was not disappointed. When I first arrived, Susan was pretty out of it. The nursed fussed around for 10 minutes or so, while I tried to figure out what to do with myself. I told Susan I was there and held her hand. I’m sure she recognized me, but it was clear that reality was very much a fog for her.
Then the nurse finished and left. I put in a CD of African Music that Debra at school had told me that Susan really liked. Immediately, Susan opened her eyes, and started – to get out of bed! I don’t know if she needed to use the bathroom or wanted to dance. I grabbed the attention of the first nurse I could find, who pushed a button, and five seconds later six nurses were doing whatever they could to keep Susan in bed. It was perfect Susan! I knew right then that Susan is going to be just fine!
The nurses closed the curtain, and asked me to spend some time in the waiting room and return in 15 minutes or so. After 45 minutes, the curtain opened. Susan was wide awake.
She was sitting up in bed. Her tracheotomy prevents her from talking, but she has no problem expressing herself. While I was there, over the next 30 minutes, Susan had what appeared to be her first real conversations with the chaplain and the hospital psychologist. In reality, I know that they had visited her many times over the previous 24 days, but today was the first time that Susan was able to respond to them.
When Susan wasn’t preoccupied with the specialists, I pulled
out my bags hand made cards and strings of cranes created by students at the
school. As I started to read the first card, big tears from both eyes rolled
down her cheeks. Susan continued to cry as I read each card. After I read
Sierra’s card, Susan reached out for the card to read it herself. Finally, she
handed it back to me. As I read Kaitlyn’s card, Susan took the card from me,
held the card to her heart, and cried a little harder. Susan smiled as I read
Nick’s card, and clearly wanted to say something after I read
Perhaps contrary to better judgment, I told Susan that soon she would be continuing her high school studies. I told her we’d bring school to her until she could return to school. To this, Susan seemed visibly upset. She shook her head, clearly angry and distraught about how her injuries sustained in the fire had interfered with her progress in school and her graduation plans. This is one emotional mountain for her.
All of Susan’s hair is growing back. Her face looks 80 fine, a beautiful dark Sudanese brown. While raw and pink, it looks like the rest of her face will heal well with time. Much of Susan’s hands and arms were burned but seem to be healing well, and there is still plenty of Susan’s hands for visitors to touch and hold. I know Susan has graphs on her back too, only because I glanced back to watch a moment of Susan’s wrestling match with the team of nurses. Susan is a fighter. She is expected start talking again by the weekend. I expect the next week to one of tremendous progress in her recovery.