Help Preston and Candy Reach Vital Doctor Visits

My wife and I are both Retired with Disabilities. Our health insurance had been providing rides to our doctor appointments, but this year they only gave each of us 6 round trips. We have far more doctor appointments than that. I have a standing monthly pain specialist. I also have my General Practitioner, Heart Specialist, Pulmonologist. I also see the Rheumatologist for a rare form of arthritis that has crippled me in both legs and causes constant pain through my body, causes fatigue, and is responsible for lung damage causing me to need oxygen.

My wife is even worse than myself. As a type 1 diabetic, she has lost over 70% kidney function, she has had 4 heart attacks with open heart surgery at the age of 32. She has Congestive Heart failure and is experiencing sugnificant memory loss. She sees a Diabetic Specialist, Heart Specialist, Kidney Specialist, General Practitioner all in Fresno. She is supposed to see all her doctors every 3 month or less which she hasn't done lately because of the travel difficulties. My wife was hospitalized 2 times in the past couple months. Once because her blood sugar had gotten dangerously high and she couldn't get it down. When she arrived at the hospital her blood sugar was 1350 which put stress on her heart and other organs. A normal blood sugar should be between 80 and 120. Her blood pressure got high and her heart began to falter and we almost lost her. The ER In Selma worked to get her blood sugar down and blood pressure stable and was able to revive her after a really close call. Again, about a month later she was admitted to Selma Hospital ER for congestive heart failure. She again began to have issues with her blood pressure and it dropped to a dangerously low level. (If I remember right the doc said her blood pressure dropped to 40 over 0.) I remember the doc told me she was on her way out, organs shutting down, and he had a difficult time getting a normal heart rhythm.

I don't want to sound dramatic. I feel its important to share our situation so you can make an informed decision. There are lots of scams and this is not one. It is a true need. As you can see, we desperately need to get our truck safe for the road again for many health-related reasons. We've tried using Uber but Uber does not schedule in advance for our area. We call in at the time of need and 9 times out of 10 no drivers are available. Due to this issue, we are missing a lot of our doctor appointments. We have parked the truck because we were behind on the registration and I received a citation. It needs a new tire, and the front disk brakes needed both pads and the disk replaced when it was parked. I have paid the registration and it was up to date but I owed the licensing fees in Sept. which have not been paid. I purchased new front discs but haven't gotten the pads. So this is what I need to do: 1) pay my citation for outdated tags. 2) Get the truck smogged in Reedley. 3) Have the front disc brakes replaced with the new disc I already have and purchase and have new pads installed. 4) Replace the 1 - 4 ply tire that blew out on our last drive before we parked the truck. The tire on the front passengers side is the spare which is not safe to drive on for any distance. So I'll be setting our goal at $600 total.

I know this is hard times for all so please don't put yourself or your family in financial difficulties, but if you can spare anything, $5, $10, $20 or more it would all be helpful. A little here and there adds up and helps by not placing the bulk on any one person. We have both missed several doctor appointments due to lack of travel abilities so we could really use the assistance ASAP.

We would like to thank you for taking the time to read our story and thank you in advance so much for considering our need.

Thank You,

Preston and Candy Ward, Reedley, CA.