SLE Disabled Britney Seeks Help For Bridal Shop Business

by Britney Mensing
(Atwater, MN, USA)

My name is Britney Mensing. I am disabled and have been on Disability since 2000. I was diagnosed with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) August of 1999. I suffered with this disease trying to get the pain under control for about 3 years.

I finally found a doctor that was able to control my pain and manage my medications well enough for me to be able to do normal tasks again. By late 2003 I was almost pain free with the control of meds.

In February 2004 I got pregnant. I was followed by a high-risk OB, my rheumatologist and my primary care physician. I saw my OB at the end of June of 2004, he said everything looked great and the baby was doing well.

I got sick shortly after that with what I thought was just a cold. I had a very high fever and the medication that I could take was not working. So my doctor suggested I go to the Emergency Room.

I don't remember much after that. My parents tell me that I was at the local ER overnight but they couldn't do anything for me so they sent me to the metro area University Hospital.

I was having such a hard time breathing that they had to induce a coma and intubate me. In the time I was in the coma, I went into preterm labor and delivered my son who weighed 1 pound 3 ounces.

He was not breathing when he was delivered but was revived and put on a ventilator. My son had to have heart surgery soon after because there was a valve that hadn't yet closed.

I also had heart problems. I had a leaky mitral valve and had a mass behind my heart that was causing problems. The mass broke apart and caused me to have several strokes (4four to be precise).

I was in a coma at the time so the doctors were not aware of this until an MRI was done. The emboli from a mass generally go to the extremities and I ended up with blackened toes on my right foot. Then it started on my right hand.

I was brought out of the coma mid-August and moved to a rehabilitation center. There the doctors could see the extent of the damage that the strokes caused.

I was completely paralyzed on my left side. I lost my right peripheral vision. I also had many cognitive problems. I had to learn how to eat and drink all over again along with toileting. I also had to learn how to write and problem solve again.

While I was doing my healing and therapies, my son was in a different hospital recovering as well. He suffered and struggled through many different infections. He also had to have laser eye surgery because his retinas were starting to detach.

The surgery was successful and the doctor was able to save his vision, but he will never have peripheral vision. His vision was also tested as being very near-sighted.

After we were released from the hospital, we went home to live with my parents. I was scheduled for several surgeries on my foot and my son needed a lot of care that I wasn't able to do on my own. I went through four foot surgeries before it was over.

Today my son is five years old and doing well. He has some developmental delays and his vision is still bad, but he compensates for it well. As for me, I have been pretty healthy since then and doing good as well.

I still have numbness on my left side and some right side vision loss, but I am able to do pretty much everything I did before the strokes.

My best friend and I have always wanted to open our own business and about a year ago we started thinking about a bridal shop. She has done a marketing plan and we are scheduled to meet with a financial planner on January 20, 2010.

Having this business would give me the opportunity to have a physical non-strenuous job by bringing in a little extra money and still be able to be available for my son.