Cheering in Lincoln City!!!!

Once again I have been a blog slacker. I have had some serious issues in the past few months, but that doesn't excuse not posting. In November my friend Kip drove me to Salem to follow up on my application for disability with Social Security. Apparently the online application I had filled out a year previously did no good, and wasn't even considered an actual application. So I had to start all over again at the beginning. I did however get a really wonderful lady named Mrs. Gonzales. She helped my fill out applications for both disability and SSI. She said that was a smart thing to do in case one got approved faster. It would at least give me money for continuing to pay my meager $250 a month rent and utility bills.

I developed vertigo last fall sometime, and had trouble with losing my balance so much even grocery shopping was nearly impossible for a while. The dizziness most days is much better than it was. Then I fell on Christmas night and dislocated/sprained my right shoulder which made doing pretty much anything annoying and horribly painful. Add these to my rheumatoid arthritis, sleep apnea, carpal tunnel, etc. and it was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back. Of course all this was followed by me hurting my back a little over a week ago (seems to be a chronic state lately), and I did it getting up off the toilet. At least the doctor and I couldn't figure out how else I did it. My daughter says, "Mom, I can't believe how many meds you take!" I have a row of them now. I am however starting to feel a bit less pained most days.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I got a call from my daughter Tess telling me she had received a call from the Kids Wish Network. My littlest granddaughter Cassie has been approved to receive her wish. (This was after being rejected by "Make-A-Wish.") I am sure many of you think all seriously ill children are eligible for Make-a-Wish, that is not the case. They need an actual timeline of their life expectancy. What they didn't seem to understand is that her doctors don't know that. There is no way to predict what sort of issues she will have. Every time she has a growth spurt there are new problems, and that has been happening since she was born. Last year she endured a nearly 12 hour surgery to augment her bladder, which this year has caused her to have kidney stones. The first time she passed hundreds of them in a few hours. Then she had to go to Doernbecher Hospital for ultrasounds of her kidneys and bladder where they discovered a giant stone had passed to but was too large for her to pass, and wouldn't fit in the catheter. She later had to go back to the hospital and have it surgically removed. She is doing fine now, but of course every invasive procedure leaves her with infections that have to be fought. She has an open immune system and catches everything that goes around.

The same morning within a couple of hours I also got a call from Mrs. Gonzales at Social Security. I figured it was going to be the rejection call I had been warned by many people to expect. She sounded so cheerful I really wasn't sure what was going on. She told me I had been approved for both Social Security Disability and for SSI (which would have taken it's place had my disability app. been rejected). I am going to be receiving enough to pay my rent and bills and for the first time in years not have to rely on my daughter and friends for month to month expenses. I feel like an elephant was taken off my back. What a supreme relief. I am hoping I will have enough from the retro money I was sent to hire someone to help me clean up my house since I have been unable to do it myself for a long time now.

When I called Tess to tell her the news I was so happy I was crying. I could hardly talk and she could tell I was crying. She was really upset and I said, "It's happy tears, Tess, it's just too much good news on the same day. They approved my disability app." Then she laughed and said, "I was just so worried that you had fallen again." Needless to say we are a happy bunch, and Cassie's wish is going to come true, too. She wants desperately to meet Howie Mandel. She has been watching him on "America's Got Talent" for several years now and says she is his #1 fan. Cassie's wish on Kids Wish Network!