A Desperate Mom Needs Help Relocating Her Family
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Hello, my name is Dixie, I am a mother of three amazing special needs children. It is with a heavy heart that I come to you here to ask you to listen to my story as this chapter in our lives comes to an unexpected and abrupt end. As you can imagine raising three special needs children, all with their own unique stories, can be difficult and costly. The worst case of our three is our second son who has been diagnosed with an extreme case of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Diagnosed at 9 years old he has not had a childhood, for the last eight years it has taken a toll on his body and it gets worse with every passing year. He can barely move his neck (think of someone having to wear a neck brace 24/7) with little to no movement on some days. Limited motion in his elbows, wrist, ankles, and shoulders. His toes started to curl and disfigure which makes walking increasingly difficult. His fingers are so disfigured, stuck in a permanent curl, everyday things that you or I take for granted are things he would treasure if he could do them. Putting on or tying shoes, zipping and buttoning pants that don’t have elastic in the waist, shaking hands with someone you just met, or just simply being able to hold another’s hand without experiencing pain. We have always done our best to help and support him but we can only do so much with the little resources we have and the somewhat remote area we live in. Additionally, he has also dealt with mental issues that have had an impact on his everyday life (being in constant pain and being so limited as a teenager can take a mental toll).
Our oldest was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 6 then at the age of 11 also ASD (autism spectrum disorder) formally known as Aspergers. These conditions have caused him to develop high levels of anxiety, overwhelming depression and now the school psychiatrist would like to have him assessed for other possible forms of psychosis. He Is high functioning but we as parents know he is just not ready for what the world will throw at him so we will continue to help and support him as much as possible until he is ready to be on his own, but as of right now he doesn’t feel that he is. He literally shuts down if we bring up anything related to the future or the world in general. If it takes until our dying day we will support him in every way.
Our youngest, our baby girl is also plagued with overwhelming anxiety and depression and yes ADHD, a beautiful talented young lady who is so amazing it makes my heartache. She can’t see what we see because she constantly cripples herself with self-doubt. My beautiful once happy little girl who has been slowly deteriorating mentally came to me and begged me to take her to a doctor and get her properly diagnosed and treated for the feelings she was experiencing (She was so scared).
Our Children are our lives.
As for my other half. My husband of 20 years, Michael, has always been here and has been the best father he can be. He has worked himself nearly to death to provide for us. For the last 15 years he has worked in a very physically demanding job, Law Enforcement as a Correctional Officer, 10 years into it though things changed. He blew the disk in his lower back and that forced him out of the job he loved. It took 3 surgeries on his L5-S1 disk to get him walking again (the first 2 failed and the third, a fusion, gave him his legs back). After almost 2 years of recovery (barely living off of what I could make at a part-time job) he went back to work as a Detention Deputy, (it is the only work in this area that pays and has insurance for our children) and only a year later suffered from 2 blown disks in his neck requiring another spinal fusion. After recovering from this one he went back to work in the Prison system and pushed himself as hard as he could, unfortunately, he can no longer meet the physical requirements to be safe at work. As it turns out, there has been quite a lot of nerve damage through the botched surgeries (1 and 2) and the time it took to get 3 and 4 done because of insurance and financial issues. He is still the hardest worker I have known. He will not quit because to do so would show our children that it is okay to give up and he will not. Because of all of this our savings are gone and now we are forced to relocate to find work and be closer to medical facilities for our children, but I have no way to get there. I cannot accomplish the impossible on my own and that’s why I’m asking for help.
Our oldest was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 6 then at the age of 11 also ASD (autism spectrum disorder) formally known as Aspergers. These conditions have caused him to develop high levels of anxiety, overwhelming depression and now the school psychiatrist would like to have him assessed for other possible forms of psychosis. He Is high functioning but we as parents know he is just not ready for what the world will throw at him so we will continue to help and support him as much as possible until he is ready to be on his own, but as of right now he doesn’t feel that he is. He literally shuts down if we bring up anything related to the future or the world in general. If it takes until our dying day we will support him in every way.
Our youngest, our baby girl is also plagued with overwhelming anxiety and depression and yes ADHD, a beautiful talented young lady who is so amazing it makes my heartache. She can’t see what we see because she constantly cripples herself with self-doubt. My beautiful once happy little girl who has been slowly deteriorating mentally came to me and begged me to take her to a doctor and get her properly diagnosed and treated for the feelings she was experiencing (She was so scared).
Our Children are our lives.
As for my other half. My husband of 20 years, Michael, has always been here and has been the best father he can be. He has worked himself nearly to death to provide for us. For the last 15 years he has worked in a very physically demanding job, Law Enforcement as a Correctional Officer, 10 years into it though things changed. He blew the disk in his lower back and that forced him out of the job he loved. It took 3 surgeries on his L5-S1 disk to get him walking again (the first 2 failed and the third, a fusion, gave him his legs back). After almost 2 years of recovery (barely living off of what I could make at a part-time job) he went back to work as a Detention Deputy, (it is the only work in this area that pays and has insurance for our children) and only a year later suffered from 2 blown disks in his neck requiring another spinal fusion. After recovering from this one he went back to work in the Prison system and pushed himself as hard as he could, unfortunately, he can no longer meet the physical requirements to be safe at work. As it turns out, there has been quite a lot of nerve damage through the botched surgeries (1 and 2) and the time it took to get 3 and 4 done because of insurance and financial issues. He is still the hardest worker I have known. He will not quit because to do so would show our children that it is okay to give up and he will not. Because of all of this our savings are gone and now we are forced to relocate to find work and be closer to medical facilities for our children, but I have no way to get there. I cannot accomplish the impossible on my own and that’s why I’m asking for help.
Organizer
Dixie A. Burnitt
Organizer
Lusk, WY