This first note is from Kate, who put this GoFundMe together with Kelly's permission. Kelly is a friend of a friend and I offered to help by putting together the fundraiser. She's had a heck of a few weeks. Bobby is her service dog in training, who helps her with day-to-day living. Kelly is a Disabled woman who is active in advocacy for Disabled people, a writer and academic of theology.

She has been Deaf since birth. She was born with Juvenile onset Stills Disease / SJIA (Systematic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis). At the age of 9, She had a sports accident which left her an incomplete quadriplegic.

She also keeps a blog and maintains other web presences. Her main blog is at https://drkellyfleming.ca.

Kelly's story, with some light editing:

"Perfect Storm" I’ve never heard this term until 2 weeks ago.

Bobby, My Service Dog

While Bobby was in boarding school, when he came home on the weekend, I noticed something was wrong. He was begging for water, having accidents… Just not normal for him. I started having him tested. He tested positive for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Since he was still a young puppy, I agreed to have him tested further to find out if there was an underlying issue or a more complex diagnosis. After over $2k of testing, we discovered it is only CKD due to his kidneys not fully developing. He’ll be on Rx food for the rest of his life.

As he had already started his service dog training, I asked his vet if he could continue. When he asked me what skills he would need to do, he said that all was good and no reason for him not to continue learning those skills as they are not overly demanding.

I was glad to find out we’re only dealing with CKD and that he could continue doing what he loves to do.

Wheelchair Woes

At the same time as all this was going on, I was dealing with the issue of my wheelchair needing tires. As a result of not having traction on all 4 of my tires, I then had an accident in mid-September. I was on dry concrete in our underground parking lot and I stopped my chair but my tires didn’t stop and I smashed into a foundation pillar which snapped the front end of my chair and re-injured my wrist that I broke 2 years ago.

I’ve been told to rent a power chair (that won’t meet my needs and is not covered by ODSP) or raise money for my power tilt ($5,000) to go with a different company that is not the required company the government requires us to use for wheelchairs with tilt. The government will pay for the wheelchair itself, just not the power tilt which comes to pretty much the same amount as the first of renting an unsafe chair. Ironically, although they pay for our power chairs, they do not pay for batteries. Go figure! How is a power chair supposed to work without batteries?

Van Tires

Whilst still trying to get my chair fixed, I noticed that the alert light for my tire pressure on my van occasionally came on. When I got my tires changed to put on my snow tires, they discovered there’s a split in one of my all season tires so in March I’m going to have to buy brand new all season tires ($1200).

After nearly 3 months, my wrist is almost healed. Bobby has successfully transitioned to his Rx food which is over double the cost of dog food that you get at the pet store. I’m in debt past my eyeballs from paying for Bobby’s training and then all the medical tests we had to do.

I still have a wheelchair that isn’t safe but I have no choice but to use it. And come the new year, I’ll have to figure out how to buy new tires for my van.

So this apparently is “The Perfect Storm”.

Gratefulness

I’m grateful my Church has a food pantry which has helped at least to feed me the past few months. I need to lose some weight anyway

I’ve gone through a lot in the past but it was spread out over 8 years. All this happened within the span of a month (except finding out that my van tire was split).

Now, I take a deep breath, give thanks to God that Bobby is healthy albeit living with CKD and I’m healthy albeit living with the “normal” complications of my disabilities.

I have a roof over my head, basic food covered and finally I have heat in my place after 3 years of no heat in the winter.

And Bobby is thriving in his skill training! He is learning so much and he’s on task with a number of his skills so we are teaching him the next level of his skill work. "

Kate here again. Her positivity is inspiring, given that she's had a very rough go of it recently. Even $10 will help her.