Need to hire a Dog Walker. Please read my story.

I never thought I'd be doing this. I guess everyone says that, but it's true. Hi. I'm Larry. I'm 62 years old and have always been a very independent, self sufficient man, but recent health events have put me in a difficult financial situation.

It started in October of 2019, when I had a total knee replacement. The surgery was successful, but I suffered a mild heart attack the very next day. Apparently I developed a blot clot from the anesthesia. A month into my convalescence, I adopted a rescue dog! He's a West Highland Terrier mix, named Sully. He was 14 months old and came from a high kill shelter in Georgia. We bonded immediately. Walking him three times a day was mutually beneficial as it helped me in my recuperation. After 12 weeks, I returned to work, as a retail salesperson.

Everything was going well, until Covid hit. I actually got sick just as the pandemic hit. Initially, I thought it was a bad cold or the flu. I had a high fever and extreme fatigue. I was bedridden for three days, literally unable to get up. Thank goodness for my upstairs neighbor, who was kind enough to walk and feed Sully and bring me soup. By the fourth day, I started to experience shortness of breath. I called my primary care physician, whose practice was already limited, due to Covid. She advised me to go to a walk-in clinic. Once there, they tested me for the flu and it came back negative. They took me on an ambulatory walk around the office, when I felt faint and my Oxygen level dropped from 98 to 84. They immediately sent me to the hospital.

Once I arrived at the Emergency Room, I was hooked up, monitored and checked from top to bottom, inside and out, including a CT scan of my chest, that revealed I had nodules on my lungs, for which the attending Physician told me to follow up with a Pulmonologist. I asked the Doctor for a Covid test, just to eliminate it as a possibility. If you'll recall, Covid testing wasn't readily available in the early days of the pandemic. You needed to have the following symptoms; Fever, Fatigue, Shortness of Breath and a Cough. I didn't have a cough, so I was denied the test. I was discharged and told to follow up with my primary care physician. In fact, I wasn't able to get tested for Covid until June, which by then was negative. I was told an antibody test wouldn't tell me anything, because too much time had passed.

As fate would have it, the state of Connecticut went on a lockdown and I was furloughed from my job. Just as well, because I still felt like crap. In fact, it was six weeks before I went two days in a row without a fever, when I woke up. I still felt fatigued and got winded easily. I was offered my job back in June, but had to decline, due to my condition. I was then terminated in July. Thank goodness for unemployment and the extended pandemic benefits. Eventually I applied and was approved for Social Security Disability Insurance.

I had a six month follow up with the pulmonologist, where a new CT scan turned up something unexpected. The nodules discovered in March had not increased in size, which was good news. However, the two images did show a change. The new scan showed my lungs covered with faint white lines, which looked like cracked ice. The technical term is Ground Glass Opacity. The x-ray technician said that's what the after effects of Covid look like. I continued to follow up with the Pulmonologist.

In the months that followed, my breathing problem became worse. Walking Sully became difficult, as I had to stop every 100 feet or so, to catch my breath. The pulmonologist didn't think the problem was with my lungs, but with my heart, and referred me back to my cardiologist. Last November, after more than a year of going back and forth between the Cardiologist and Pulmonologist, I was finally diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), a genetic condition sometimes be described as a “hidden disease” because people who have it may not always have symptoms. And when HCM symptoms do appear, they may be difficult for doctors to recognize because they are similar to other health conditions such as asthma, anxiety, hypertension, or coronary artery disease. I am currently unable to work, due to my condition.

In the months since, the cardiologist prescribed several different meds to treat the condition, none of which have worked and I've been getting progressively worse. I have been taken to the Emergency Room by Ambulance, for heart attack like symptoms twice since August. I was admitted on my most recent visit, spent 3 days in the hospital and underwent another Cardiac Catheterization. I continue to seek treatment and will be going to Lahey Medical Center, near Boston, in January for testing and evaluation for an experimental protocol for the treatment of HCM.

If you're still reading, thank you for your patience. Here's the situation. I have a wonderful dog walker, who has been helping me out, as needed, over the past several months. Sully absolutely loves her, which is important, because as a rescue, he doesn't trust easily. She gets $20 per "drop in", during which she walks and feeds Sully and spends a little time playing with him.

I would like to hire her to walk Sully full time, until I'm well enough to resume my duties. $20 per walk, 3 times a day, 7 days a week comes to $420. However, I'm on a fixed income and really can't afford the luxury of a full time dog walker. So, I'm looking to fund six months to pay for dog walking services, as I love him and don't want to give him up. As I said in the beginning, I never thought I would be doing something like this, but I'm running out of viable options. Thanks for your time and consideration.