Living with multiple sclerosis has not been easy. This painfully progressive and chronic illness has been the hardest challenge I have faced. Much like any trial in life, I need support when things get tough. And right now, it is tough. Several months ago, one of my insurance benefits was taken away and left me without the caregiver help that I desperately need. Then all of my benefits were taken away. Someone clearly overstepped their bounds. Right now I seem to be losing many battles. My well-being, physical, and emotional health depend on me getting this care. Please donate anything you can to help.
Caring for someone with multiple sclerosis involves unique stresses and uncertainties. The disease is unpredictable, so it’s hard to know what a person with MS will need from one week to the next.
I have become wheelchair bound. Living with this disability requires help and assistance in the home with activities of daily living such as bathing, cooking, transfer assistance, dressing, physical therapy and more. I am now faced with the seemingly impossible and daunting task of procuring help on my own with no resources as well a limited availability of this type of help.
As you may know, these services are costly. The alternative to this necessity of life is too bleak to mention, much less to even think about.
Not having caregiver assistance has affected me negatively in many ways. I require their assistance to:
Get to and from doctors appointments
Help prevent blood clots and severe edema
Keep up with my hygiene and bathing
Transfer out of my wheelchair when it requires maintenance
Taking trash out and checking mail
Cooking meals
Physical Therapy and passive stretching
Reaching things I’m unable to get, even with a grabber extension
Getting my medicine
Using the bathroom at times
Running necessary errands such as getting groceries
Household chores I can’t complete myself
No one should have to neglect their own medical care. Your donation will help prevent this.
$114 will cover one day of care from a home health agency, $798 an entire week. The most hurtful of all is that I have an emotional support dog with whom there is a strong bond, and if I am forced into a facility, not only will we be forcefully and involuntarily torn apart and suffer much anguish from this, but the odds of survival are slim to none for each of us. We both feel and have emotions. He should not have to suffer for anything not his fault. Neither should anyone, myself included, for that matter.
Help in the home with activities of daily living is currently by far my most pressing need. Please donate to supply medically necessary care that I so desperately need during this time as I struggle with the cruel effects of multiple sclerosis. The cruel progression of this disease has left me with more than my fair share of difficulties. Unfortunately, go fund me sites and the like are taking the place of health insurance more and more.
Family and friends of Ann Sharkshnas are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Illness.
Ann has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.
For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.
Thank you for your support!
