Original GBS at age 7, will turn 42 in July

[FONT=”Arial Black”][SIZE=”5″]I originally was diagnosed with GBS at age 7, long before any of the modern treatments. At age 20, I had my first heart attack (I did travel a minimum of 14 flights a week and had 100 horu work weeks, so it may not be GBS related, it may have been DVT or PAD instead).

I have been in a wheelchair since age 17 (I was walking “funny” since age 7, tripped over the stress reliefs in sidewalks, was using forearm crutches toward end of high school, and shared service between wheelchair and crutches after then, until about 2000 or so).

I also had a second heart attack in 1995, and a possible one that was a “silent” one picked up on an annual cardiac stress test.

My business partner caused me to “retire” right after my heart attack (a complete cardiac arrest and a month’s inpatient cardiac rehab, from mid-October to mid-November, and his thought I would end up “dead”, if he did not “fire me” by paying off my debt, just this visit to the hospital was a quarter of a million dollars, with no insurance due to exhausting both a Blue Cross Policy and a Blue Shield Policy in California, long before then)

I went on Social Security Disability effective 14-February-1989, so I will have been on SSD for 21 years as of just a short time from now.

I felt that I should give a bit of an introduction, before I give my prayer request. When I had my heart attack I was eating only fish and chicken (no red meat), plenty of vegetables and fruits, low sugar, low sodium, low fat. so a very “heart healthy” diet, I played wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball at least weekly, a lot of “mileage” in airports and on business trips. So at 6 foot 2 inches and 176 pounds, and a 42 long suit size with a 34 waist. I was as “healthy” as I could be.

But these days, I am living in Ohio (had a roommate whose mother was having memory problems, later to be diagnosed as Alzheimer’s with my pushing her doctors to send her to the RIGHT doctors. She is still alive as of this writing at age 89, my roommate wanted to come back, and I could not afford our apartment in Orange County, California on my own. So I prayed that if the Lord provided a way for my roommate to return to here, I would come back to help, the Lord Provided and on 31-October-1996 I was here in Ohio, and my roommate arrived on the 16th of November, due to mover problems, she was able to stay in her home until 2001 when she became too violent for myself, and her son to take care of).

After my rent, utilities, and medicare part D co-payments I have nothing left over (I praise the Lord for Food Stamps, such as they last each month). But that put me on a diet that is not the most healthy. When I had my heart attack I entered the ER at 176 pounds, when I was discharged about a month later I was closer to 200 pounds on a strict hospital diet, no outside food, no vending machines, no “second helpings”. So my shoulders are shot from years of walking on forearm crutches with leg braces for quite a long time.

Now I am about 285, due to trying to live on what $3 a day in food stamps can buy one at the grocery store, and inability to really do much exercise and here halfway between Cleveland and Colubmus, Ohio there is not much in the way of services that is home to a large prison, a so/so hospital (at least it passes JCAHO certification), and a closing GM plant. The town has 20 percent unemployment, and that is before the GM plant closes at the end of this month.

My roommate who has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, but is fully ambulatory, has slightly slurred speech, and severe hearing loss that requires use of hearing aids, is only working because he is my “Personal Care Attendant”. So it has been a “survival mode”. No other suport services with even what the Federal Medicare Home Care Waiver provides, which is only a small paycheck for my roommate to help me out. Everything else is “my problem” to deal with regular Medicare and Medicaid providers directly. So plenty of fun.

I just have opened my heart here. Just wrote this from my heart, and did not really plan any of this writing. I can not even put into words exactly what I would have as a prayer request, except to basically say, to keep my roommate Daniel, his mother Anne, and myself in all in your prayers.

God Bless,

John[/SIZE][/FONT]