Hi, I'm Carrie, and I'm Beth's friend and former colleague. Beth and her sister Lynn live in the U.S. where all matters of healthcare seem to be just a little more complicated than here in Canada. That's only one of the reasons their friends wanted to pitch in and help out, however. The main reason is that these two women are caring, loving, and very positve, and they deserve to be able to make their lives easier. But don't take my word for it -- Beth can explain things much better than I.
From Beth: You may be saying to yourself, 'What makes these people so special? Why should I give them any money?' Well, the truth of the matter is that although I would love to think we're special, I don't really know just how special we are.
My sister Lynn and myself have both striven to help others throughout our lives, often without taking into any serious consideration how much damage we were doing to ourselves. But then, how many of us think that our entire body can go haywire?
It is really interesting, at least to me, that both Lynn and myself have had in so many ways the same challenges, the same goals, the same catastrophic events in our lives, the same or very similar spiritual outlook, and now even the same manifestations of autoimmune disorders. This, all without us really knowing each other; Lynn was in seventh grade at the time I was born. By the time I remember, she was an infrequent visitor coming back from a private college-equivalent bible school.
Anyway, what you really are probably asking is what we need and why we need it.
The What:
This can be broken down into the imperative and the 'necessary but not required yesterday'.
The Imperative: We need to have all of our doors including interior doors as well as our front and back doors widened to a minimum of 42 inches. Although we have been approved and even measured for power wheelchairs, they will not begin building them (which will take four months) until they have verified that the doors have been widened enough for the wheelchairs to pass through.
We also need our front ramp enlongated to meet required specifications, and our back deck rebuilt and a ramp added.
Estimated cost for imperative needs ranges from $8,000 to $12,000.
Other Necessary Modifications: The biggest of the other modifications is that of our master bathroom. We need all carpeting removed, possible repairs to the subflooring, and new nonskid flooring installed. The present shower stall and bathtub need to be removed; the toilet needs to be replaced and moved; and a roll-in shower installed.
This bathroom remodeling may cost up to $25,000.
Another less needed modification would be to remove all carpeting from the house and replace with nonskid flooring. This would cost approximately $18,000.
The Why:
Both Lynn and myself are now totally disabled with rheumatoid arthritis, lymphedema, and a host of other autoimmune disorders. We are basically bed-bound with extremely limited mobility when we do get up. For example, for me to get out of bed, go to the bathroom which is less than 20 feet away, take care of business there, come back to my bedroom, resituate my bedclothes, and struggled to get back into bad more than 1/2 hour as elapsed and I am totally exhausted for at least 2 hours.
Both Lynn and myself greatly miss being able to simply go into the living room to watch television, help in preparing dinner, play games at the table, and for myself to be able to access my art studios. The wheelchairs well make all of those things do-able.
It is no fun being a prisoner not only in your own home but literally a prisoner in your own bed. Without your help, however, we can't come up with any plan that will allow us to regain some living in our lives.
This photo shows what lymphadema has done and why the wheelchairs are so important:
