A little background information. I am 40, almost 41 years old, married with two beautiful daughters ages 8 and 5 and disabled since April 2001. I receive Social Security Disability but we all know that it does not come close to a regular pay check. Before I got sick, my wife and I were both working and our combined income was close to $85K per year. I began getting sick in 1999 with acid reflux or GERD. I went through every drug on the market and using each above the recommended maximum dosage with little or no relief. When it began eating away at the lining of my esophagus to the point I was developing holes in the lower portion near the point where it connects to the stomach and spilling into my lungs so badly that they thought I had developed asthma, their only other option for me was a surgical procedure called fundoplication. This procedure takes the upper portion of the stomach and and wrap it around the esophagus to tighten the valve to prevent the acid from coming back up and to cover the holes. It was supposed to be a laproscopic procedure where I had it done on one day, spend the night in the hospital and go home the next morning. My maximum time off work was to be two weeks. I actually left the hospital on the day I was supposed to return to work. When I kind of came to on the first day after having the laproscopic procedure go so badly that I had to be opened up the full length of my abdomin so that they could try to fix what they did that almost killed me plus I was in intensive care. The next day, they did a test where I drank some awful tasting mess so they could check for any leaks in my stomach or anything. Guess what, they stated that they found leaks and back into the operating room I went where they took everything they did the day before apart and did it all again. This time when I woke up, again in intensive care, I was on a ventolator for a week. They took the thin lining that is between your organs and your skin to keep then from growing to each other to wrap my stomach and seal off the 3 or 4 places that it tore open during the laproscopic surgery. During the first, laproscopic, surgery, in addition to my stomach tearing open in 3 places, my liver was cut/damaged to the point that the gave me at least 4 units of blood. I haven't been able to work since then. I have constant diarrhea, abdominal pain which is increased when I eat anything at all, on a scale of 1 to 10, I stay around 8 or 9 all the time. I also have a partial small bowel obstruction that will eventually have to be surgically fixed. The obstruction(s) are caused from the extreme amount of scar tissue that I have in my abdomin which is why they don't want to operate again until they absolutely have to. I have been admitted to the hospital 12 times in just the past 3 years and have already had to have surgery to correct a blockage in my colon. My small intestines, colon and I don't know what else is attached to my skin where the lining was removed. I cannot lift anything more than 5 to 7 pounds, pull, strain, climb, crawl nor stand, sit or lye down for more than about an hour and a half at a time because of the pain. I also have areas that are close to herniating which will also cause another surgical procedure. When they admit me for a blockage, I spend a week there with a tube down my nose (NG Tube), in my stomach connected to a suction pump to pull all of that stuff back out and clear the blockage, for then anyway. One, I cannot even stand to think about any other surgery and two, the doctors don't want to do it either. In addition to all of that, and I left some things out, I have degenerative disk disease in my back, my spine has lost it's curve at the end where the tail bone is. Also, I have to sleep with a CPAP machine because of sleep apneia and have to take medicine during the day because I also have narcolepsy. Dealing with all of this has caused depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder from the surgery. I still and always will deal with these health issues and mental stress from now on. Because of all of my problems, it's obvious that my wife had to leave her job to care for my and our children so we have been trying to make it on Social Security Disability which is getting harder and harder every day. We have already gone through our savings and 401(k)'s to survive and keep our home and a vehicle. Our credit is shot because we have had the 2 cars that we had when this all happened repossessed. Also, all of the other credit we had then, fell behind and pretty much totally destroyed our credit. We are behind one house payment and the mortgage company is a pain to deal with and absolutely refuse to offer any assistance at all. I am still trying to pay some on my hospital co-payments that are now pushing a total of close to $10K and I never know from day to day when I may have to go back. Plus, like everyone else, I have the normal power, phone, cable, water, trash pickup, car payment, car insurance, homeowners insurance, food and school things for our girls. We also heat and cook using propane gas. We have been without propane for 95% of the winter and we are out now which means we heat with small electric heaters and cook on a hot plate, microwave or small toaster oven. Right this moment, we have a total of maybe $5 to last two more weeks and it's about to drive us crazy. We can't cook, heat nor watch TV because the cable has been turned off until I can get money to pay them in two weeks. I am the type of person who hates to have to ask others for help. I would rather help others than to ask for help but I don't have much of a choice right now. Our families, our church and our friends have been great during all of this but they all have their own bills and families to take care of also. Any help would greatly be appreciated! May God bless you!
Here since: May 14, 2008
Female, 22
CSR
Wichita, Kansas
Languages: English
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Here since: May 12, 2008
Female, 40
Domestic Engineer
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Languages: English
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Here since: May 9, 2008
Male, 40
Disabled
Shepherd, Michigan
Languages: English
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Here since: May 7, 2008
Male, 47
disabled{autobody tech for 30 years}
new york
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Here since: May 6, 2008
Female, 46
childcare provider
lakewood, california
Languages: english
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