Need new lift chair
Donation protected
Normally, I would be donating to a site like this, but I find I'm on the other side of giving. My story is rather long and complicated but essentially I found out I had severe osteoarthritis in 2002 after being out of work for over a year. My wife and I tried several doctors, multiple treatments, as well as three attempts to get SSDI, I had just about given up hope. My weight ballooned and I became bed-ridden. Around 2006, I decided I didn't want to wait for the Grim Reaper and was slowly able to get things going in the right direction through diet and limited exercise. Eventually I lost around 500 pounds but still had a way to go. That is until I fell and hurt my back again.
When ever possible, and sometimes when it was a stretch for us, we helped out friends and family with bills and necessities they could not pay for themselves. Some have paid us back, but some took advantage of my good-hearted nature. Water under the bridge at this point but lessons were learned.
Fast forward to 2014 - more falls put me into the hospital and two different month-long stays in different nursing homes. Several times I had to be taken by ambulance to doctor's appointments and to have tests done. None of that was cheap, but my wife had a decent job and we had a little money from an inheritance that helped significantly. We'd finally found an organization that would do in-home therapy in late 2015, but then two things happened - my wife lost her job and the organization lost its funding. Once again we were back to square one. On top of that, I have developed severe complications further limiting my mobility and have not been able to leave the house in over a year.
The money we'd saved is rapidly becoming depleted and even though we used some of it to buy a lift chair in December, it has broken and would be more expensive to repair than to replace it. We've been fighting our insurance company (United Health Care) to get a hospital bed and that may finally happen, but I've learned to take nothing for granted. We do know for certain they won't buy or even rent a lift chair.
At this point, I'm living in this broken chair 24/7 and don't think I can do this much longer. I never thought I'd have to do this, but I am growing desperate. My wife and I have paid it forward and will do so again when possible. Please help karma move things in our direction if you can.
When ever possible, and sometimes when it was a stretch for us, we helped out friends and family with bills and necessities they could not pay for themselves. Some have paid us back, but some took advantage of my good-hearted nature. Water under the bridge at this point but lessons were learned.
Fast forward to 2014 - more falls put me into the hospital and two different month-long stays in different nursing homes. Several times I had to be taken by ambulance to doctor's appointments and to have tests done. None of that was cheap, but my wife had a decent job and we had a little money from an inheritance that helped significantly. We'd finally found an organization that would do in-home therapy in late 2015, but then two things happened - my wife lost her job and the organization lost its funding. Once again we were back to square one. On top of that, I have developed severe complications further limiting my mobility and have not been able to leave the house in over a year.
The money we'd saved is rapidly becoming depleted and even though we used some of it to buy a lift chair in December, it has broken and would be more expensive to repair than to replace it. We've been fighting our insurance company (United Health Care) to get a hospital bed and that may finally happen, but I've learned to take nothing for granted. We do know for certain they won't buy or even rent a lift chair.
At this point, I'm living in this broken chair 24/7 and don't think I can do this much longer. I never thought I'd have to do this, but I am growing desperate. My wife and I have paid it forward and will do so again when possible. Please help karma move things in our direction if you can.
Organizer
Chuck Avery
Organizer
Bellefontaine, OH