Disabled Mother Seeking Grant Money To Transport Disabled Son

by Michelle
(Saginaw Mi, USA)

Cayden at 1 year old

I am the mother of two beautiful children: Cayden and Kyleigh.

Cayden is 100% disabled. He was born at 30 weeks due to the placenta detaching from my uterine wall. He was born with a Grade 4 brain-bleed, which lead to many complications.

Cayden has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, infantile spasms, hydrocephalus, microcephaly, and has had a stroke. Recently we found out he has problems with his kidneys; he had over 200 kidney stones.

My daughter Kyleigh is healthy and normal! After I had Kyleigh 3 weeks later I had a major stroke, which left me unable to use my right arm, but luckily with PT I was able to regain use of my right arm and hand.

In April/May 2008 I found out I had Moyamoya (Moyamoya is a very rare disease 1 in 1,000,000-2,000,000 people have it. It narrows the blood vessels in your brain.)

It required me to have a brain bypass called a STA-MCA bypass. Three months after my surgery I had a brain aneurysm, which ruptured.

Right after they did the repair, they found I had one more aneurysm in there so 2 weeks later I went in for a clipping again. So in 2008 I had 3 brain surgeries within 3 months.

My husband got fired while away under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). We called the department of labor, and 7 months later he finally got his job back without back pay.

We lost everything, our car, our home, everything! My dad bought us a used car, which we are now unable to drive.

We already sunk $340 into it and now it needs $500 more in repairs, which we cannot afford! I am looking to get the money to repair it, or have a car donated to us.

We use our car to get Cayden to and from doctor appointments in our hometown and to the University of Michigan, and to get me to my appointments for my testing I need to have done.

I am unable to work, and I do not have enough work hours to get disability and I cannot get SSI because my husband makes too much money.

Our car isn't big enough for Cayden's wheelchair and his equipment. I would love a big enough vehicle, but just getting ours fixed would be enough. It still would get us to where we need to go. Please help us!