Our lives have forever changed! My family and I need to move to Colorado before the winter so my husband can be near his transplant center. He is in desperate need of a double lung transplant. Last week he was in ICU and they started chemo suppressant. We need help!

My family and I moved here to Billings, Montana from Harlingen in October of 2023, at the behaest of my in-laws. My husband Florentino “Tino” Fuentez, III, our 5 year old Claudia and 6 year old Eli. In November of 2023, my father-in-law passed away from complications related to diabetes. In April of 2024 we found my mother-in-law dead on the floor from complications related to Alzheimer’s and suddenly the whole reason we moved here was gone. We haven’t been able to secure any housing and have been staying in a hotel since we arrived. I find myself being the only one working these days as my husband has had to cut down on his hours since he has gotten sicker. Approximately in 2018, he was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease or ILD. Back then it wasn’t as advanced. In August of 2024, he was at 20% use of his lungs and came home from a week long hospital stay with an oxygen concentrator and portable tanks when he goes out. Since he needs a constant flow the imogen machine won’t help. Now he has approximately 13% use of his lungs with acute respiratory failure. He can’t stop working completely, like he should, until disability gets approved. He is on 7 liters of constant flow oxygen and needs a double lung transplant. We were told that now we have to move closer to Aurora, Colorado ASAP, so we can be near the transplant center at UC Health. We can’t afford to move. We need help with paying for our room at the Ledgestone. We pay $70.00 a night. I owe another $860 to get me through until August 5. Furthermore, we owe $800 for our storage unit here since I haven’t been able to pay it in 2 months and I fear it will be getting inventoried to get auctioned here soon. We also still have a storage unit in Texas that is behind too. We have 2 kids 5 & 6 and trying to provide for them when you have no money to get food, clothes, gas or pull-ups is becoming a problem now since I am trying to do all this on $16.00 an hour. The pay here in Montana does not compensate for the cost of living here. In total I pay $2,150 a month for our room to keep a roof over our heads. That ends up being my entire check twice a month. Now that we need to move to Colorado i have to start all over again with finding a job and house. I don’t know how I can do it. As I look at the housing in Colorado I don’t see how I can afford this and after he gets his transplant he will need constant care so I probably won’t be able to work then unless I can find a work from home opportunity or get him 24 hour in home care. If he can’t get the transplant he will die. We even talked about going back to Boston for his transplant so I could be closer to my mom, who lived there, but we just lost her on June 28 and I wasn’t even able to get home to her service and say goodbye. I feel like a failure and I need help! He is depressed and feeling like a burden to me and a failure to the kids also.

He ended up in the ICU last Monday night. His O2 level dropped to 47, which is critical and his heartbeat was over 200. He was in there until Thursday. They changed his immune suppressant to IV infused chemotherapy now, which they gave him twice in the hospital. I need to pay for my hotel room by Friday or they are gonna kick us out. I have no where to go with the kids and a dog.

Our lives have just gotten so much more complex and knowing that at any moment could actually be the last moment for him terrifies me. I will be left alone with the kids and no one to help. We have been together for 16 years. He is my rock and knowing that I could lose him drives me insane. I have to hide my cries for during my drive to work or in the shower so the kids don’t see. I am trying to be strong for them. I am 51 years old and he is turning 50 on November 4. I know that everyone has their own troubles and that my troubles and situations are my own and probably come from my own mistakes in life but I didn’t plan for this. I have lost everyone in my life. Not being there for my mother was torture for me but if my husband should take his last breath and I can’t be there I don’t know how I could live with myself but I know I would have to for the kids. Knowing that setting my pride aside and asking for help that can help my husband live to see the kids grow up is something else that I couldn’t live with if I didn’t try.

God Bless You. Thank you, Lisa!