Overcoming Setbacks: A Family's Journey

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$400 raised of $15K

Overcoming Setbacks: A Family's Journey

Overcoming Setbacks: A Family's Journey

0% complete

$400 raised of $15K

5 donations
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Hi everyone! Many of you already know that I am a double leg amputee, and that I have MS and am on dialysis for kidney transplant rejection.
After I got my second prosthetic leg, I was at physical therapy 3 days a week and doimg very well, starting to try walking with nothing but a cane. It is going to take time but I am determined to get there so I can be put on the "active" transplant list.
Everyone's help in my last GoFundMe was able to help make ends meet. Then the medical bills, after insurance, rolled in one after another. My wife, in addition to her full time job, taking classes to finish her teaching degree (100% funded by financial aid) took on an additional part time job. This still didn't cover 100%. I even made sure that I stretched every dollar as thin as it could go.
We have had to make decisions lately on which bills to skip and we alternate each month which ones we skip. Each month we fall short on car insurance, food and gas on top of having to make very minimal payments on the medical bills. Our daughter works part time at Jewel and she is the one who went and bought both kids' school supplies and clothes (bought at Good Will) for this school year.
It has been a very hard struggle but even through all of the stress and worry we were somehow figuring it out yet behind on all payments just so we could make sure the kids had food and a roof over their heads.
Just as things were looking up from a health and mobility standpoint hell struck yet again.
I was involved in a car accident that ended up shattering my L2 vertebrae and cracking a rib. Now at a standstill on physical therapy, delaying transplant by several more months. Doctors want me to stay out of the prosthetics to keep pressure off of my back.
This has resulted in my wife having to use her almost all of her PTO to get me to numerous doctor appointments, MRI and xrays as well as one of my dialysis treatments.
To add insult to injury, i lost my long fight with the insurance company in covering the prosthetic on my right leg. They deemed that the leg i already had was all that was medically necessary. They only covered about $130 of a $15,000 bill. I MUST have the leg since I have to be able to WALK into my appointment for transplant with nothing more than a cane.
As i start to make the progress, i have been set back what seems like 10 steps back after each step forward, getting me no where. I have gotten pretty depressed knowing I am the cause of most of this yet I couldn't prevent or treat anything fast enough. The legs had to go due to blisters that formed, got infected right away and infection took over faster that treatment. My Kidney is rejecting due to antibodies not working inside of me anymore. And I for sure had no way to make myself develop MS. I feel everything my family is enduring is all my fault and I am doing my damnedest to get back to being able to work again but there have been too many setbacks that I see no light anywhere let alone at the end of this tunnel.
I NEED HELP with this bill for my leg so I can get back to simply making ends meet. Although transplant has been delayed, I know I can work through the struggle of all the medical payments and monthly bills, but I can't take care of this one.
I thank everyone for your love and kindness in the past and I feel shitty having to post this but I dont know what other choice I have. I just need one more boost of help to keep me sane and take care of my family as the guilt is real for the way they have to live to no-fault of their own.
Feel free to call or text if you would like more details or just to say hi or chat. My number is [phone redacted]. Thanks to all of you and always love you all!!!
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Paul Rutkowski
Organizer
Sycamore, IL
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