Young Kidney Disease Disabled Man Seeks Grant Money For Accessible Home Repairs

by LaRance E. McClure
(Detroit, MI, USA)

I am a 37-year-old male. (I'm divorced now since the year 2000 and I'm currently single.

I don't have any kids. But I do have 2 turtles that I have raised now for about six and a half years.

I have a number of disabilities. I'm on dialysis and I have been now for about 18 years, which after a while can make the bones brittle.

It was slowly being noticed that something was wrong when I was in Middle School when I couldn't keep up with the other kids in school.

I developed high blood pressure, and it got worse in high school. The doctors tested my urine and my blood and noticed my kidney functions were low and continuing to drop.

Shortly after I graduated, I started dialysis and I started working at Radio Shack.

Then later I started dating and we got serious and it was so hard to tell her about my condition, but she accepted it and we got married in November of 1997.

After the divorce in the year 2001, I was bowling (which I love to do), and my left hip and my left femur broke.

The doctor said I had the worst case of dry bone disease he has ever seen. They tried to repair it with screws but it wouldn't repair, so they gave me a total left hip replacement.

A year later as I was recovering and using a walker, my right hip broke and my right pinkie finger broke as I was trying to catch my fall.

They tried to repair my right hip but it wouldn't hold, so they gave me a total right hip replacement.

So by the age of 28, I had two titanium hips and after physical therapy in a rehab center and home therapy, I am still confined to using a wheelchair.

I can't stand for a long time, although I can probably take 10 steps using a walker but have to sit down right away.

I also have osteoporosis, compression fractures in my spine and neck, which caused me to shrink considerably, and caused the deformity in my chest and I have arthritis and neuropathy.

But despite all of this, I try to let nothing hold me back: I'm very active in my congregation. I still bowl, sing, ballroom dance and cook.

I do get disability and SSI, but since I had little work experience before I became disabled, I don't get much, barely enough to pay my current bills.

I have a wheelchair that I've had now for about 10 years and the medical supply company will no longer repair it because I own it now.

So for the past few months I have been using a wheelchair that was given to me, but it is not the right size but that's what I'm using now because I have to get around.

I also have a vehicle that is not working and I don't have any money to get it fixed and I have some back bills and some debts I need to pay off.

Before things got so bad physically with my body, I had washed cars, did some computer graphic work and did deejay.

But now my main source of income is SSI and SSDI and I get minimal food assistance by means of the Michigan EBT Bridge Card.

I'm looking for grant money so that I can get a new or quality used minivan that is dependable and have the necessary options such as power sliding doors and rear lift gate and possibly seats that fold down into the floor, so that I can get my wheelchair in and out of the vehicle.

I would also like to get my home more accessible for me by lowering the sink, and getting a walk/roll in shower built because I have major difficulties getting into my bathtub.

I would also like to get my porch and wheelchair ramp repaired, which has been through 10 years of rough winter and rain damage.

And if possible, I would also like to get a ramp built on my mother's house because I rarely get to go and visit my mom at her house even though she lives less than 10 minutes away.

In the past 10 years I probably have been in her house 3 times (with someone lifting me up her steps). She's disabled too, walking on a cane, so a ramp at her house would be good for both of us.