MS Disabled Woman Seeks Disability Grant For Home Repairs And Transportation

by Carey
(Austin, Arkansas, USA)

My name is Carey. I am 40 years old, married and mother of a daughter who is 14 years old. We live in the county of Lonoke in Austin, Arkansas, USA.

I'm disabled by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and looking for a disability grant or any kind of help for home repairs and transportation.

In the beginning stages of my disease I was growing easily fatigued, waking up tired and not knowing the reason. I went to the emergency room for the second time in June of 2009 fearing that I had a stroke.

I had numbness on my entire right side, visual disturbance, and lost the ability to write. After being diagnosed with MS, I have not been able to work.

I taught myself to write again, with the attitude of I am not going to give in to this or give up. I learned to write again by placing my left hand over my right hand until I was able to gain control and function of my right hand again.

This disease has no cure; we can only treat the symptoms. I recently got to appear before an administrative law judge for my disability case and was given a favorable decision. We're still waiting for the payments to begin.

We live in a mobile home that was built in 1994 and is in need of several repairs that we are not financially able to have completed at this time.

My husband is also disabled and in need of a complete hip replacement and we do not know how we are going to come up with the money to afford that surgery at this time.

I believe it will take two years of being on disability before he can get Medicare, the same trouble I am facing. To get Medicaid for an adult in the state of Arkansas where we reside your medical bills have to be three times your income.

Doctors don't just want to treat you without being compensated, which presents a problem as well. Currently our medical bills are mounting.

We were borrowing a car from my parents and the transmission and air conditioning compressor both went out on it and we do not have the money for repair costs exceeding the value of the car.

We have a 1991 Chevrolet pickup truck with 8 cylinders, one of which has burned out. We call the truck Bessie. She's been a blessing but eventually is going to quit on us. I joke about Bessie a lot of times saying that she drinks gas and sips oil.

We are in need of reliable transportation. It is a challenge just getting our medications each month. If it were not for the help from our family we would not have survived.

Our mobile home is paid for; however, the land it is on is not. I always dreamed of someday having a house of my own. I pictured in my mind a house with a porch that I could sit outside in a rocking chair on to enjoy the fresh air. At this time I don't see how this dream can become a reality unless we are blessed with some divine intervention.

During my lifetime I always considered myself to be a hard worker. I began working as a child doing the little jobs like cores for my grandparents or at home, picking peas from the neighbor's garden, just anything I was able to do a job and earn money for doing it.

I got my first real job when I was 16 years old and continued to work throughout the years with a brief period of six to nine months I believe it was that I took off to be at home with my newborn child in 1997.

Our church has helped us to put propane in our tank, which we use to cook and to heat the house.

Specifically we are in need of reliable transportation. Assistance with medical bills we currently have would be of great benefit.

We have a host of repairs that need to be made to our mobile home. We'd love to be able to have a new home built, but our income is not going to support that.

We need to have our electrical wiring and breaker box inspected. Our central heat and air unit went out several years back. Since then we have been using window air conditioning units and plug in electric heaters.

A couple of years ago we got a propane wall heater that is in the living room. The propane heater is very helpful but does not provide heat to the entire home.

While using the window air conditioning units you can barely use any electricity in the back half of the home or it will trip the breaker.

During the cold season, we need the kind of heaters with a thermostat built into them so that they will turn off and on. If they run continuously it will burn the wall outlet.

There is a rotten area in my bedroom floor along with a mold problem which I am sure is not healthy.

I tried to fix our broken back door the best I could with spray foam and duct tape so air wouldn't just go in and out freely.

The stairs in the back of the house need to be replaced and the back door that is broken has no stairs to it.

We need to have our roof sealed to prevent leaks.

In one of our bathrooms the shower is not usable. It was leaking and we had to turn the water off to the shower.

Ideally, if we could make our home handicap accessible that would make things much easier on me with my mobility issues.

I have a walker that helps me to steady myself but it is not possible to get through the doorways without turning it sideways. Having a ramp to the front door would be a great help too.

I do not want to sound as though I am due any of these things. I simply am expressing the needs we have before us. I'm placing my faith in God to see us through to whatever is fitting to be in His will.

If we are fortunate enough to receive any type of assistance big or small, disability grant or otherwise, it will be considered a blessing.