I apologize for writing and not being here to tend to this diary for now. I'm at Duke Hospital today undergoing tests to replace a brain shunt and to take another look at removing a rat-bastard tumor. I'll be back shortly ... but tonight before I go, I am writing on behalf of MsWings, a longtime Kossack and IGTNT diariest who needs us. I promise to be back soon.
A few months ago, I wrote a diary for MsWings, who has trouble typing because of lingering paralysis following a serious stroke and a series of transient ischemic attacks (TIA, or mini-strokes) earlier in 2012. Things were very desperate then -- all this despite her nothing-short-of-heroic efforts at rehabilitation post-stroke.
The outpouring of love and assistance and care and support for MsWings made a huge difference in her life and has given her hope.
But sometimes in life we have to push that stone up the hill more than once, and this is one of these times. MsWings herself is facing eviction today. She lost her insurance just a matter of days ago, not even a week before hospitalization for severe hypokalemia and other issues related to her heart and pulmonary issues.
In August, we opened our hearts and wallets, and that helped more than most of us will ever know. She needs a few hundred dollars more right now.
Will you open your hearts once more? Please?
Please, if you can chip in just a few bucks to PayPal, her email account is MsWings153{at}gmail{dot}com. We know she won't be able to stave off today's eviction hearing, but a promise to her landlord that funds are coming and a few weeks' worth of health insurance will make a difference.
To learn of what 2012 has been like for our MsWings, please read that previous diary. I won't reiterate all; what matters is the resilience of human life and the ways that we can take care of one another.
Since that diary in August, MsWings has achieved so very much. She was able to stay in her home for three additional months, she's grown closer to her two sons and the girlfriend of one of them -- all of whom have come together to provide her with love and support and the knowledge that she can trust them with even the darkest of times.
As parents, as siblings, as children, and even as friends, we often protect the people we love from the darkness of our own lives -- the seeming intractability of our troubles and the difficulties we face. It's a gift when we realize we don't have to hide this from them, that they love us unconditionally, even when we need them.
MsWings has brought her children into her confidence, and all have been working together for longterm stability in new vistas and challenges.
It's not easy. We know it's not easy. Those stones never go easy up those frickin' hills. But we push that stone up again, and most of us here will very gladly help a friend push as well ... and before you know it, we're ready to help someone else and someone else is helping us.
Here is what I heard from my friend MsWings this weekend:
phtsically I;, ,mostly OK my elkectrolyte balances are seriously screwed up; nhext stop- nephrologist. depression is as bad as it has ewver been. soc sec disability appeal is dragging and ssi application is as well.no income at all. health insurance cut me off sept 30. since then
I've had an mri I can't pay for and was hospitalized, today I had [surgery for a cyst] no guess batwhat that is going nto cost when insurance rejects it. cxan't get my meds ;desperately need depression meds. medicaid application is trailinhg along with socsecdisability.
court foreviction Monday.. legal aid cannot help. social sercvices referred me to salvation army which would not help melast month since my only plan to avoid thisin the future (the future is now)was to hope soc,sec. comes through.
I feel awful asking you to appeal tothe daily kos community for help for me again, but I have no other brilliant ideas. I could/should just do it myself but writing is exhausting for me especially right now.
my health insurance is $252/month, so $504tobring it current for Nov 1. the rent is $725 to catch up
Unlike the last time I hit rock bottom I'm not thinking of hurting myself and I have no plan [to do so]
Please know that MsWings has been working a plan to make her life better. She's working with all the social services available, her family and friends, doing the best she can with her landlord, hired an SSDI attorney, received help with paperwork, is seeing a social worker and therapist, and is doing just about anything any human being can do. But it's a waiting game.
MsWings and I found a fantastic disability attorney who has taken on her case. I know this attorney is top-notch, because she was my attorney after I was denied SSDI in the wake of a devastating diagnosis of inoperable skull-base tumor, autoimmune deficiency, and chronic leukemia. She's been working with MsWings nonstop for the past several weeks.
Many other things have been looking up for MsWings as well. Her beloved dog Cassie was able to spend some time with her this fall after a long separation. (Unfortunately, MsWings could not afford the necessary pet deposit to keep Cassie living with her for the longterm, so recently Cassie went to live in Pennsylvania with dear friends. It was a difficult goodbye, and my keyboard is sharing space with a lot of Kleenex now as I write this. Having to make the decision to say "farewell for now, until better times" to our animal companions who love us unconditionally and provide us with more than we can ever give them is one of the hardest things we have to face in this life.)
Please, will you sit with MsWings while she waits for all of her work of the past few months to bear fruit? It will. This woman is tenacious! She's amazing. She's given so much of herself.