Hi, we are the Dingle family, still reeling from our husband/dad’s death in 2019. Today, we come to you with a request: help us pay for a service dog for Zoe and medical/dental bills for all of us! None of that is cheap, and combined we’re looking at $26,000. Yikes. That’s a lot. I’ve answered some questions below, but contact me if you have any others. I don’t love asking for help, and when Lee was alive, we were able to regularly be the helpers rather than the helped. We humbly (and a little discouragedly) come with this significant ask, knowing this isn’t the first time we’ve needed you. A service dog could open so much of the world to Zoe, though, and her well-being (and healthcare for the rest of us) is worth coming to you like this. If you’d prefer to give by Venmo, Zelle, Ca$hApp, or PayPal, contact me and we can coordinate that. …………………. A few Q&As… 1. What would a service dog do for Zoe? Mobility dogs pick up items, retrieve items, open doors, help sort laundry, assist her in positioning in the bed, get an adult at night if she needs help, open and retrieve items from the fridge or pantry, help her transfer from her wheelchair to the couch, and help her be less vulnerable and more independent. Zoe’s dog will be trained for her specific needs. The organization we’re working with is licensed and well-established, and they require a two-week training intensive to make sure Zoe and her dog are ready to go together! We expect her to be matched before the end of 2024. 2. What medical bills? I don’t share details of my kids’ health journeys, but I will say this: we had to change insurance plans and restart a deductible when I got my new job as a grant writer for a public education nonprofit. My job covers most of our needs, but the non-profit pay doesn’t provide the buffer we're missing in the absence of Lee’s income. In the past year collectively, our basic medical care has included 112 physical therapy appointments, 297 mental health care visits (social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist), nine outpatient visits to UNC Children’s Hospital, and two outpatient visits to Duke Children’s Hospital. Further, we’ve had seven IV iron infusions, 12 IV biologic immunosuppressant treatments, two castings for leg braces, six hematology/oncology appointments, one colonoscopy with another on the horizon, three GI appointments, one bout of general anesthesia, one ER visit, three urgent care visits, six knee injections, one spine injection, three pain management appointments, four rheumatology appointments, 13 x-rays, five dental work appointments (not including cleanings and orthodontics), two endocrinology appointments, and two or three infectious disease appointments. Every month, we require 36 different prescription meds (two that cost thousands of dollars a year, even after insurance) and five supplements, not including any additional prescriptions for things like strep throat. (We do all the things to care for ourselves to prevent the need for healthcare, but most of us were born with or acquired chronic conditions, including, for one or multiple of us, asthma, Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, HIV, Long COVID, cerebral palsy, periventricular leukomalacia, POTS, anxiety, moderate-severe PTSD, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, a spinal cord injury, hidradenitis suppurativa, and Cushing’s disease. We’re active, we eat well most of the time, and medical costs are part of keeping us healthy rather than failed treatment/staying sick.) 3. What dental bills? We didn’t have dental insurance since before Lee died. We are getting caught up in care, especially Shannon, who has spent several hours in the dentist's chair in the past few weeks. (We also need five sets of orthodontics in the near future, but I’ll be financing our braces, so those aren’t included in this money we’re raising.) 4. What happened to the money donated to our family when Lee died? We spent it on funeral expenses, student loan debt, medical bills, health insurance, supports as I recovered from extensive spine surgery in January 2024, a new wheelchair van, a new wheelchair, extra expenses when we were displaced when the house flooded in summer 2024, new appliances as ours broke, new windows as ours broke, a new HVAC unit, homeschool expenses for our kiddo with Long COVID who can’t attend school right now, childcare, and basic life expenses when I couldn’t work due to my own or my kids’ disability needs. I’m sure I’m forgetting other things, but suffice it to say that it was not squandered and we were and are grateful for the generosity of others. Now we live in the space where we make too much for government assistance but don't make enough to always make ends meet. 5. How can we help? I know with climbing costs, everyone is strapped for cash. If you can’t give but can take one or more of the kids on an outing, bring by a meal, send a text… anything that reminds us that we aren’t alone in all this.
Artículos relacionados
