Mom2many has GBS and Losing Home

Hello my name is Michelle Pottenger,  I am a mom to 7,  6 boys and 1 girl. My life was normal as could be, raising baseball and football kids as well as having a new husband in a new city, but it was filled with joy.... until December 20, 2014 the day I was admitted to Queen of the Valley Hospital.  Days before I was admitted I started with flu like symptoms, then I started getting tingling in my feet and hands as well as numbnes on my face. Within 1 week I could no longer walk.  After being admitted I started to get worse by the day. A few days after I was admitted to the hospital I was diagnosed with  a rare illness called Guillan-Barre Syndrome, it is a disease that causes your immune system and nervous system to attack each other and cause severe damage to your spinal cord.  Every day I was worse than the day before, I had severe pain in my legs even though I couldn't move them. The doctors gave me Morpine but it didn't take the pain away completely.  At this point I couldn't swallow anything and I had a hard time breathing and speaking was extremely diificult. I was scared and in pain, but most of all I worried about my kids and what would happen to them if i didn't make it.  I was divorced from their dad and they didn't like the woman he was with. I was tormented.  Thank God they were with my new husband (their stepdad) for the time being.   Every day was a struggle with pain and breathing, I was now paralyzed from the chest down and I had minimal movement in my hands and arms. I was given a treatment called IVIG to help.  But I had no improvemenet. On January 6, 2015 I went Code Blue,  the night before I knew I was dying, I felt it in my heart and soul, I saw flashes of my life as I would close my eyes, so I knew that I was dying, that's when I started praying and begging God for another chance,  my boys still needed me and until my daughter the youngest was old enough to understand things I had not told her yet I needed to live.  I woke up with tubes down my throat and I was now paralyzed from the shoulders down, but God had given me a second chance, I knew this because I was still alive. The doctors didn't think I would make it, they asked my sister, who was in the room with me, if I had made out a will, then a priest came in and gave me my last blessings. I was still determined to live.  Within 2 weeks they put a feeding tube in my stomach, which I felt because  I was not given enough anesthesia, since I had tubes in my mouth I couldn't let them know that it was extremely painful. Then a few days later the doctors put in a Trach and I was hooked up to a ventilator for my breathing. I wasn't improving but getting worse with fevers and infections. On January 21, 2015 I was transported to another hospital in Downey- Rancho Los Amigos- one of the best hospitals for spinal cord injury in the nation.  My first week there is fogggy, just like the previous month, I didn't remember most days or who visited me.  All I remember is wanting to go home to be with my kids. After the first week, I was put in a room on the 3rd floor,  the nurses and doctor were great, they had compassion and patience. My pain in my legs were worse I couldn't stand for the bed sheets to even touch them much less anyone try to move me and the Morphine did nothing but make me holucinate. I was finaly given Dilaudid to help calm the pain, it was better than theMorphine. I was still in pain, but now it was tolerable.  I was miserable, I couldn't move or talk. and it was a far drive for my family to come see me as frequent as before. I was at the lowest point. As I started receiving therapy I started improving, Little by little I started moving my arms and hands. with the help of my Speech therapist I learned how to swallow again, at first I was fed like a baby.  One of my early goals was to be able to scratch my nose.  Before I knew it I was not only able to scratch my nose, but feed myself and brush my own teeth.  Then my fingers were finally strong enough for me to use the remote for the TV.  During these months of my illness and recovery my husband Russell, who is self employed, was by my side, he was at the hospital almost every day, without his support I would not had been able to improve so quickly,  and he also had to care for the 3 boys( ages 15, 13 & 11) and my daughter ( age 8) and his elderly mother who were living with us.  I had no income coming in during this time because I was receiving unemployment benefits that stopped the day I was admiited to the hospital, and didn't qualify for Disabiltiy benefits.  With him spending so much time at the hospital he didn't have much income either and we got behind on our bills especially the mortgage on our home. At one point he was afraid to bring me home, because we didn't have much money for food and we were losing our home.   I finally came home on March 27, 2015 in a wheelchair, I still can not walk and I am limited on what I can do for myself.  My 19 yr. old son is not working so he can care for me, because I was put on a 1 year waiting list for home care help. When I came home I was happy but tormented by all the bills that had piled up, and the fact that we can be homeless at any time. There was no Christmas for my kids, I spent my birthday (which is New Yeras Eve) in the hospital without them. They have also sacrificed having to do without things and sometimes even meals. I had to send my daughter to live with my sister because I am unable to care for her at this time and my husband is workimg 15 hour days to try to catch up, but he is 54 and can do only so much. I cry every day without her and wonder if she will even have a home to come back to.   We are blessed to have friends that have brought us food many times. But now we are trying to save our home. And just have money for basic needs and food until I can return to work.