I'm the only one in this family household with a job, and I can only work part-time. My mother got a bad spinal injury years ago, in a car accident, and my brother got a traumatic brain injury also in a separate car accident (pictured). Due to the severity of their disabilities, My brother's brain injury causes seizures and intense paranoia, so he has had a few jobs for a few weeks, and something like extreme weather will upset his seizures or he'll hallucinate problems with his coworkers. It has been pretty much impossible for him to keep a steady job and my mom worries about him so much her quality of life has gone downhill.

October has been one of the hardest months of our lives. During this time, our washing machine broke, then the fridge broke and our roof collapsed from a flood (pictured) and termite infestation ,my mom's phone broke, I had to appear in court for a debt lawsuit, a man impersonating a city employee broke into our house, and my mother was scammed at a used car lot and increased her car payment by hundreds of dollars while I was asleep and couldn't stop her. (She's overly stressed it's not her fault. It's the whole reason I'm part-time but I can't be there for everything.)

I've never used welfare before but I finally did apply for foodstamps in October and got approved, but I got an email just a week later that the government shutdown will be stopping foodstamps.

I simply can't keep up with these continuous problems.

My teeth have gotten very bad and I can't afford dental insurance and haven't visited a dentist since I was 14. My teeth are really painful.

My mother was prescribed fentanyl lollipops called "Actiq" by a pain management specialist in Colorado around a year after her car accident. These are normally only given to patients who are in hospice; when taken by someone healthy, they completely destroy your teeth. My mom only used Actiq about a year but it caused enough damage that her mouth is now constantly infected, too.

I've needed a bicycle for years so that I can get to work if my mother is busy or in hospital, but due to our circumstances I'm completely unable to ever get one. She's never able to visit her relatives because we need her car to drive me to work.

We were able to keep up with bills well enough when the economy was better, but it's becoming increasingly more impossible and our recreation budget has been $0 for years. Every single time things start improving slightly, some enormous expense will require my mom to beg our relatives for money again and completely drain my bank account. October had several at the same time.

I really hate asking for handouts and turn down money from my friends all the time because I know most everybody's poor right now and I don't want to make their lives harder, but I don't know what else I could do. I've been a grim person to be around lately because this stress is really getting to me and ruining my social life. This is incredibly serious to me and I'm embarrassed to even ask for help. I can provide evidence to the best of my ability that all these things are true if you're curious.

I don't know what else to do and desperation is setting in, especially in regards to my teeth. Our house is just a house, but my teeth getting infected and spreading to my brain or heart is a constant worry I have. My grandma has offered to drive me to Mexico to get me cheaper dental care, but "cheaper" is unaffordable to me. I'd really like to just get dentures at this point.

My mother is very active on Nextdoor App. and some locals may have seen her there. Annually around Christmastime, she always collects gifts for children in foster care. And this is the first year she's told me she's not up for it and her devotion is having to be set aside because of our own struggles. I see how much it hurts her to say she feels like she cant do it.

All proceeds will go to my mother, Brittney Montoya, and hopefully a little money will get our house into a more sustainable position and one where we aren't stressed out about money all day and don't have to use a laundromat... And if enough is gathered maybe my mother and I can explore the dentures idea together.

Thank you for reading. I'm sorry I'm not good at this kind of thing. We need help. Period. Its a hard place to be.