GOOD NEWS PART 1

I’ve been wanting to write since yesterday,but we’ve been extremely busy,and running on fumes,but for once,hopeful fumes.

     I’m going to continue this blog for perpetuity. My hope is that others who are caregivers fighting and waiting for resources for their loved ones and themselves can obtain some sense of how there are times when the journey can be filled with unexpected obstacles and unforseen circumstances. It’s always going to be an essential part of my life to diary the events of the fight to save Karen’s life.

      Anyway,this is going to be two parts because there are major events unfolding at the moment. The best and most hopeful of these are that 2 days ago,on Wednesday,two caseworkers from an agency we contacted months ago, People USA, arrived here at the hotel to have Karen and I sign papers and release forms,one of them being a contract that accepts us formally into their assisted housing program. I’m posting the letter here. We are allowed to start searching for an apartment in Ulster county, NY,about 45 minutes away from here, across the Hudson River. We can have a realtor assist as well. This is an amazing development and couldn’t come at a better time. Once we secure a place,they will assist us in moving, help with any furniture and household items we may need, and ensure we have the peace of mind of a regular roof over our head. The rent will be 30 percent of Karen’s SSD check,but that will also cover utilities. This program is strictly for people who have serious illnesses like Karen does.

       We consider ourselves lucky. The housing applications we filled out to live in our county would possibly take 3 years to come to fruition. We were told on Wednesday that there are people waiting in shelters all over the state for an apartment to come through. Many landlords don’t want social services clients in their apartments. That’s their right. However, even if we’re met with resistance,the people at this agency will intervene if necessary to facilitate the rental.

      We also on Wednesday traveled to Westchester Medical Center Radiology for Karen’s Liver Transplant Clearance MRI. We will be meeting with their team again in about 2 weeks to find out if she’ll be indeed placed on the list. We don’t know if they’ll say yes,it’s a tribunal of professionals that make that decision. I’ll write more details on that in the next part.

      This afternoon, we are traveling to St Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh NY to see Karen’s vascular surgeon to have an ultrasound to determine the severity of the injury she suffered at dialysis last Tuesday. It does indeed look worse,not better. The results of that I’ll write and post as it happens today. You’ll see the photo of her arm here.

      The aspect i hope everyone will understand is that we are grateful for everything that you’ve done to show your care for us. Karen and I know we couldn’t have gotten here to this point without your help. Spiritually,supportively,and yes, financially. It is with that statement that I announce that all fundraising efforts cease on the first of this month.

      We never wanted to ask for anything in the first place.  If you’ve read every blog post or listened when I recorded a couple,you’ll know that some situations were just beyond the scope of anything I could fix myself in the moment. Since August, we’ve had to pay almost 600 a week to stay here with only 1,400 a month income. That just doesn’t compute. The fear of not being able to know if we’d get thrown in the street or be able to feed us would consume me, and cause me to indeed be desperate. I had always hoped that I could’ve exposed the GOFUNDME to other communities of people besides OPL Family.  When you don’t have any other family, it’s a difficult endeavor. I will always regret having to ask for as long as we did. However,I will pay it forward. I do indeed have a very sensitive heart,but inside it is the spirit of a lion. I refuse to lose. I have been down, depressed,scared,angry,self hating when plans didn’t work out,or other adverse events took place. I expressed it here because I knew you cared. I’ll never forget that.

      That’s it for part 1. You’ll see part 2 tomorrow. As far as asking for help, we just have to survive until Thursday night/Friday morning at 1AM,when we get paid. After that, we are standing on our own,no matter what. I’ll discuss that in more detail later as well. Please wish us well with the vascular surgeon. Talk to you later,thank you for everything.

Brian