my disabled mother that I’m caring for

I thought I’d share my mothers story. I hope this will help others understand the struggles my mom faces every single day just trying to live normal life. I also hope it helps others who care for a sick parent, sibling, and so on that they aren’t alone.

If you don’t feel like reading a long post let me just say please consider helping my family and I give my mom the life she deserves. Her autoimmune disease are continually getting worse and if we can do even just one small thing to help make her life easier we would be over the moon!

My mother, Melanie, was diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases after two years of undiagnosed illness. When her illness first began it presented itself as soreness in her hands, difficulty swallowing, weakness, & overall fatigue. For years nobody could figure out what was going on. I watched my mom go from a happy, loving, kind, & caring mother to a fragile, broken, and depressed woman. Her health quickly declined and before we knew it she started to become more and more dependent on us just to function on the day to day. I truly thought I was going to lose my mother at the age of 19. After doing what felt like every test under the sun she was finally diagnosed with scleroderma & polymyositis.

Both of these disease effect her skin, causing sores /calcium to grow under her skin. Her skin becomes painfully dry and is often red and splotchy. Her wounds will not heal and often become so infected they leave her hospitalized.

Both diseases cause trouble with mobility. Her muscles are nonexistent at this point. She can’t walk without and walker or wheelchair. She struggles to walk even short distances. My mother isn’t able to lift her arms or legs without assistance nor is she able to live day to day life without a lot of help. She can’t shower on her own, can’t get up from a chair, can’t even open a water bottle.

There are so many more issues that come from her disease I could probably write a whole novel. The one thing I could never put into words is the helplessness and heartache we feel not being able to help our mother. We love our mom to the moon and back. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for her.

The money will be used to make my mothers house more functional for her including redoing her bathroom so she can actually shower properly, building a ramp to make getting in and out of the house easier, making the house safe, and making sure it’s cleaned properly.

The money would also be used to help pay for medical bills, medication, medical supplies, & any other medical needs.

If you made it this far thank you so much for reading and I hope you’ll consider donating or even just sharing this post. Anything we’re able to do to help our mother would help lift the stress we all feel.