Savannah needs a wheelchair ramp
Donation protected
Savannah is my seventeen year-old daughter and my first child, the oldest of four. She recently went from a high-functioning, over-achieving, sun-shining and outgoing girl to someone who is wheelchair bound, without the ability to dress or bathe herself and can barely feed herself (more on how this all went down later). We are at the end of our lease contract and have to move in two weeks. We found a rental house that will work with Savannah’s disabilities (has a room downstairs she can access), but we have to construct a wheelchair ramp and the homeowner’s association requires a city permit. We were told by the city of Brentwood, TN that the ramp cannot be made of wood, dashing our hopes of having a good friend and carpenter being able to make the ramp for us for only the cost of materials (about $350). We are required to either pour a concrete ramp (we can’t change the structure of this rental permanently) or get a metal ramp (steel or aluminum). After brain surgery, four hospitalizations totaling about a month of time, and a slew of doctor visits and expensive lab and x-ray tests, we’re swimming in medical bills. We quickly blew through what we had saved up for a down-payment on a house which has left us with no savings, no financial cushion and mounting medical debt. We can’t even come close to affording the approximately $5,000 it would take to have someone construct a large, metal, wheelchair ramp in such short order.
Savannah is a vivacious seventeen year-old young woman who only 9 months ago was on the high school swim team, preparing to sing with her school choir in NYC, and had a 4.0 GPA. One morning last September she started complaining of headaches, which worsened enough to make her nauseous, then her toes started going numb. Doctors discovered a golf-ball sized mass in her brain that required urgent surgery. She did amazingly well and she was blessed by great medical staff and doctors who themselves were blessed by God--most of the mass was able to be removed and she was not supposed to have residual problems.
About a month into her healing period she began having subtle but worsening problems walking up stairs. She progressed from needing support walking up the stairs to needing a cane, to requiring a walker, to being completely unable to walk—all in about seven weeks. She has had to sleep in our dining room (we brought her bed downstairs) because she can’t climb the stairs anymore. She has fallen more times than I can count the weaker she’s gotten. She began losing vision, pretty rapidly lost the use of her hands and has needed heavy/frequent steroids causing significant weight gain. A few hospitalizations, enough medical tests to make your head spin, and dozens of doctor consultations later, we’ve learned that she has Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP)—a more chronic, more difficult to treat, and more permanently disabling form of Guillain-Barre syndrome. We’re told she will likely recover some function, but it will take about 1-2 years. Until then, she will likely be in this wheelchair for most of that time.
Her life has been pretty miserable and she’s put up with a lot and has been patient and understanding. She’s learned how to live without many things, but being able to get her in and out of our house is not optional. My wife, my family and I are very hard workers and always do and always will max out every ounce of resources, talent, hard-work and family support we can before ever asking for a hand-out, but we are out of options. I pray that you may be in a position to provide a little support and also have the love and compassion in your heart to help us. God bless you!
Savannah is a vivacious seventeen year-old young woman who only 9 months ago was on the high school swim team, preparing to sing with her school choir in NYC, and had a 4.0 GPA. One morning last September she started complaining of headaches, which worsened enough to make her nauseous, then her toes started going numb. Doctors discovered a golf-ball sized mass in her brain that required urgent surgery. She did amazingly well and she was blessed by great medical staff and doctors who themselves were blessed by God--most of the mass was able to be removed and she was not supposed to have residual problems.
About a month into her healing period she began having subtle but worsening problems walking up stairs. She progressed from needing support walking up the stairs to needing a cane, to requiring a walker, to being completely unable to walk—all in about seven weeks. She has had to sleep in our dining room (we brought her bed downstairs) because she can’t climb the stairs anymore. She has fallen more times than I can count the weaker she’s gotten. She began losing vision, pretty rapidly lost the use of her hands and has needed heavy/frequent steroids causing significant weight gain. A few hospitalizations, enough medical tests to make your head spin, and dozens of doctor consultations later, we’ve learned that she has Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP)—a more chronic, more difficult to treat, and more permanently disabling form of Guillain-Barre syndrome. We’re told she will likely recover some function, but it will take about 1-2 years. Until then, she will likely be in this wheelchair for most of that time.
Her life has been pretty miserable and she’s put up with a lot and has been patient and understanding. She’s learned how to live without many things, but being able to get her in and out of our house is not optional. My wife, my family and I are very hard workers and always do and always will max out every ounce of resources, talent, hard-work and family support we can before ever asking for a hand-out, but we are out of options. I pray that you may be in a position to provide a little support and also have the love and compassion in your heart to help us. God bless you!
Organizer
Daniel Bustos
Organizer
Brentwood, TN