From Homelessness to Healing: Don's Story

Hello, my name in Don ODette, Father, animal lover, and one time prominent local and regional musician.

I am starting this go fund me page in hopes of raising money to help me with housing and transportation to get back and forth to doctor appointments, and to recover from hip replacement surgeries.

My story started with a visit to the dentist of all places. When at the dentist office to have a tooth pulled they had to take my blood pressure before the procedure.

My blood pressure was so high the dentist said that can't be right. After several more attempts it was found my correct.

My blood pressure was

221/146. I ended up going from the dentist office straight to the emergency room where I was treated for high blood pressure and put on a prescription.

Shortly after that I noticed I was having problems with my vision. I have been fortunate to be able to get state health care, or I don't know what I would have done.

After seeing a local optometrist I was referred to a specialist. After several tests I was informed that I had a stroke that had blown out the blood vessels in the back of my eye causing distortions in my left eye.

This is called Wet Macular degeneration, an eye condition that has no cure and can hopefully be slowed down by a series of shots directly in the eye. This was a set of three shots a month apart.

I received the first shot and came back for the second when I was told that vision had gotten worse. I had the second shot it got even worse.

There was no way I was going to get the third shot. That's where we are to this day. Shortly after that I lost a close dear friend to Covid. This along with the self pity party I had at the time made it impossible to concentrate on my job.

I work commercial Heating and air conditioning that have enough voltage and amp to kill you if your not paying 100% attention.

Aftera time I was able to pull it together and get back to work.

I was fortunate enough to land a good highpaying job in my area. Things were looking pretty good and I felt hopeful for the first time in a long time.

Then weeks into my job I took a fall at my house I had been renting for years. I slipped off a deck that was to be replaced for years. The result was me sliding down the steps till my right foot planted and violently jamming my hip up in the joint. It had become so bad that I couldn't perform the duties at work. I was still on my probation period with the company, and they made the decision to let me go from the company.

I would like to add that this 5 days before my insurance was to start.

Luckily I was able to get my state insurance back quickly. I then, after a referral saw a orthopedic surgeon. This is when I found out I had advanced Rhumetory Arthritis in both hips and will need to have them both replaced.

Due to some family issues than needed immediate attention, I was forced to put off the procedure.

During this time I informed property management company of the incident I had at the property where I had the door slammed in my face.

I was forced to file a lawsuit. With no income I was living on my savings. It was at this time a family member with a severe drug addiction gained access to my bank account and cleaned out my savings of nearly $5000.00 dollars. Now completely bankrupt

I had gotten behind on rent. This is when I was hit with a eviction notice and had to vacate the house.

I had eviction court and had a week to come up with the back rent.

I was able to raise the money by selling off a good portion of my belongings. The kicker is,that after all of the scrambling and stress of becoming homeless, the property management refused to take it and finalized the eviction.

This left me and my two cats homeless. My two cats and myself lived in my pickup truck for months. During a bad winter storm with 30 below windchill one of my cats ran of and was never seen again. To a animal lover these aren't just animals, these are family.

So here I am a year later still living in my truck with one cat waiting on my first hip replacement on January 7th my S.S.D.I. hearing on February 12th and my truck my cat and I have been living in blew the engine. This is where its become a do or die situation. Now Im truly homeless and without transportation to my medical procedures.

I still hadn't figured out a housing situation for my recovery from the hip replacement.

Only five weeks away after coming all this way is discouraging to say the least, but I have to stay optimistic and have faith that things will work out.

With that being said, It's hard for me to open up and talk about this. I come from the generation where men didn't talk about their feelings and were told to man up and deal with it.

So that is my story on that,and If your able to help, that would great.

Thank you for your time.