Living With Multiple Disabilities And Seeking Government Transportation Grant

by Robert Dale Ramos
(Houston, TX, USA)

When a person has to face the possibility of a disability that will forever change their life, a lot of soul searching takes place after the initial shock.

It causes a person to reflect on their past life and enables them to make the necessary changes in their present life to allow them to make advancements.

It is then that the person begins to evaluate just how far they will be able to proceed in their ability to cope with their new disability.

My story begins when I was fresh out of high school. It was back then that my life went astray and I began hanging around the wrong places and definitely the wrong people.

I began to drink heavily, which led me to using drugs of all types. For 33 years, to me my life was one big party. At some point I even sold drugs to help support my addiction.

This led to heavier usage of drugs, which spiraled my life further down. Finally at the age of 46 I decided that my life needed a serious change.

After being in a Drug Rehabilitation Program at the Salvation Army for eight months, my entire life changed.

Please note that this was not my first endeavor to rid myself of drugs. This had been my third attempt.

Maybe my age had something to do with it but I felt that this time I had to succeed.

Well it's been five years since my lips have touched alcohol or drugs.

The first year of my being clean in 2006 was wonderful, to the extent that my body could hardly recognize being sober after all those years.

It was in the second year of my recovery that I suffered a heart attack and lost the use of the left side of my heart.

Now keep in mind that I never realized that I had suffered a heart attack, so my life continued on as usual.

It was early in the year of 2007 that I broke my foot from a job related injury and did not realize it due to the severe neuropathy from diabetes.

Well I developed a blister on the bottom of my foot, which turned into a diabetic ulcer.

After months of doctor's visits and lots of medication, the infection from the ulcer became so severe that I had to have a below the knee amputation to remove the infection on October 16 2007.

At first I was very bitter thinking that my life was over. Well as I said at the beginning, one tends to reflect on one's past life and present life and then they continue on.

In the next two weeks I had begun adjusting to the loss of my limb. While in the hospital dealing with the loss of my leg it was then that I found out that only half of my heart was functioning.

I then had to have two stints placed into my heart to open arteries that would increase the flow of blood into my heart.

Upon being released from the hospital I just knew that the worst was over. But that proved to be a lie. On November 16, 2007 just thirty days after my amputation I suffered a stroke.

This only made me bitterer than before and I just gave up on life in general. I felt that I had lost everything. I could no longer live a semi-normal life.

For two and a half more years all I would do was stay in my room and cry.

Well feeling enough was enough I decided that I needed to get out of the house and away from all the self pity. I wanted to get back to what I enjoyed the most, working and being with people.

So I started going to The Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in Houston in August of 2010 where they help people with disabilities through Exercise and Water Aerobics.

I enjoyed it so much that I started volunteering there as a Front Desk Clerk.

Well getting back and forth to the center can be quite challenging due to our public transportation system and their dealing with people with wheelchairs.

I have to leave three hours earlier to be there on time and it takes two to three hours just to get home daily.

So now I'm desperately trying to obtain a grant so that I could purchase a vehicle.

I'm currently living on SSDI, but as you can guess this is barely enough to pay the bills.

There must be some way that I could obtain assistance. I pray daily that some way will be given to me and that I will be able to over come this obstacle.

I've also started working with the United Way Organization with their Careers and Recovery Program in trying to find a job. I send out lots of resumes weekly.

We all know that to obtain a job and keep it, we must have proper transportation. So I'm begging in the name of God that there will be someone who may help me regain a part of my life back.

I'm willing to work hard and would deeply appreciate your input and help. A government transportation grant or equivalent would be a godsend.

May God Bless You All
Robert Dale Ramos