PLEASE HELP: For the Love of My Life

Three years ago, we were a normal family living our dream. My beautiful wife Shelley was so full of life and energy. She was adventurous with such a Zest for life. Every day was a whirlwind centered around our daughters and their endless activities. I had a good job in outside sales. My wife was the matriarch of our home. It was up to her to run the household and get the girls to school early every morning and to gymnastics, cheer, volleyball. basketball, soccer to name a few. I learned as a child growing up in a family of 10 that being a mom is more than a fulltime job and much harder than working a job like we dads do. A mom's work is 24/7 as it was for my wife ensuring everyone got where they had to be and had what they needed ready to go and never did she complain she loved every minute of it!

However, Covid brutally attacked our Home. We were all stricken but Shelley got it bad, really, really bad. She was given less that 1% chance to survive. Our world stopped. I choose to put my job aside to stand vigil at her side day & night as she lay strapped down to a gurney in a coma on life support for what was an eternity. Ultimately, I was told by the doctors that she wasn't going to make it. Then the orders came down from the administration, it was time to pull the plug. They needed her spot for other patients. The hospital was so full. There was nowhere to put neither the living nor the dead. The bodies were lined up down the halls. Death was everywhere... It was an experience I will never, ever, be able to bury deep in my mind. It haunts me forever...

They removed the tubes and wires that connected her and the machines that had been keeping her alive. The head doctor was the last one out. He stopped at the door and turned his head to me and said, "she may possibly could live up to 12 hours, but I doubt it". He then turned off the light, closed the door and left me alone with her to die. Shear panic and anguish overwhelmed me as all the memories flashed through my mind. I held her and told her how much I loved her. I cried and cried. I prayed, please God give her back to me. There was an analog clock on the wall. It burned a hole in my brain as I watched the minutes tic by. I still see it now. Minutes became hours. It felt like all time and the earth had stopped. Then, a real miracle happened. She came to and started talking. She told me God sent her back. He told her it wasn't her time yet. The doctors and nurses were astounded. All declared it a miracle. They rushed her to imaging and ran scans. Her lungs, that just hours ago were completely encapsulated with pneumonia were now completely clear. They had told me time and time again that her lungs were so damaged that she would never be able to breathe again. This is not possible, but it happened indeed. God truly is the giver of life. The hands of God had cured the covid pneumonia in her lungs and given her life again.

However, unlike Lazarus, she did not walk away that day nor for many months to come. The damage to her brain for the lack of and insufficient oxygen, the damage to her organs that happen when sediment for so long. and especially the blood clots have wreaked havoc on her. The energy is gone now. The Zest is gone. Chronic illness has stolen the women she was. All except the fight. Nothing will steal that away from her. She can stand toe to toe with Tyson and Ali when it comes to determination and Punch! It has been a 3 year battle since. Constant stays in the hospital and endless trips to all her specialists and the labs and frequent blood transfusions have wiped me out financially.

The company where I had given 21 years, over half my adult life with total loyalty, where I started literally at the bottom lowest job and worked so hard and moved up, terminated me months ago. I was told they didn't want to hear about my wife anymore. I was told I had to sell more. I was told they wanted younger guys who work harder and are moving forward, not backward like me. I was given sales goals that I was unable to achieve because I've had to balance work and taking care of my wife and we still have a minor child at home I have to take care of also. I was working out of our home what I could but it wasn't enough for them.

Over 3 years now of massive medical bills have wiped me out financially. All my savings is now gone. I have sold all of my cars and now drive a rental. I've sold the jewelry, the motor toys, her wedding ring and everything else of value we had. The only thing left is our home.

She just got out of the hospital again last week. They discovered new blood clots this time and she has become antibiotic resistant, so the infections are getting so bad the doctors are talking about amputating her legs.

People ask me, but I thought you had a lot of money? I have worked hard all my life to save for our future, college for our daughters and one day retire. They just don't understand what it is to have constant, never ending, staggering medical bills. Even worse are those that think you just don't have to pay the bills. Really? Show me a doctor who works for free. Show me a pharmacy that gives you thousands of dollars of prescriptions for free. Show me a hospital that stays in business when no one pays. If you want to continue to go back, and she has to, that's what chronic means. You have to pay or you wear out your welcome. How about those that think the government helps everybody and they give you everything you need and you get it now. Well, once you are indigent it appears. Those of you who have been through this understand, but those that have not, simply don't know. It's like I tell any man who tells a woman that he understands what it's like to have a baby or thinks it's no big deal. I tell them to push an 8 pound bowling ball out your butt and then tell me you know how it feels!!

I need help and I need help Now. She has a stack of prescriptions to fill and really needs to go to her doctors and the labs cost thousands.

I am behind on the mortgage and utilities. My credit cards have gone into default. I am on my last resort and soon to be on foot and God forbid, homeless but if I don't get her the care she needs, what does it matter? If I can't continue to get her the medical care she needs, she will lose her legs and I shutter to think what next!