Well, this is about 3 weeks after putting my story on aidmate, and my bathroom just burned down! We managed to put the fire out, I don;t know how, it was huge! But we got it out and we are still alive!The bathroom and all of our chlothes on hangers and all our pj's and underclotheswith it! My fathers chest of drawers that he had since I can remember. We didn't have time to call fire dept, no phone or cell service here!It started in the wall circuit.We did bucket brigade till it slowed down and my husband brought hose in through window to finish it ! He is digging burned clothes out as I type to be sure it can't start back up!!
Hi, I am a 52 year old Registered Nurse that has been unable to work a full time job since January of 2004. At that time I was working full time for Pasco Regional Medical Center in Dade City , Florida. I was a busy nurse with lots of love to give to my patients and I loved my job. I have been a nurse since 1992 and have always loved nursing. In December of 2003 I finally went to the orthopedic doctor that worked at my hospital, I had been walking on my left knee with worsening pain for almost 7 years, learning to hold my knee just so, so that the pain was not so bad. The prior December my right knee had begun to hurt and in just one year was as painful as the left knee. I had tried a few arthritis medications from my regular Doctor, but they did not help. I had delayed going to the Doctor prior to this because I believed that at the least I would need an exploratory arthroscopy of my knee that would require me to take time off work, and that my work was valuable and my hospital and coworkers needed me on the job. When I went to the orthopedic doctor he sent me for MRI's of my knees, which I had done at my hospital where I worked. It would have cost more on my part to use an outside facility as my hospital was self insured and charged a higher co-pay for any outside services obtained. I had the MRI's done and had an appointment to return to the Doctor in about a month. The results of my MRI's were accessible by the hospital and all employees that had computer access, although we were all aware that to look at someone's medical records when you were not directly responsible for the care of that person constituted a HIPPA violation, or in other words was a violation of that persons privacy and protected by law.( My employers looked at my MRI results. They had already fired several people that used the insurance regularly. One was a supervisor that had been there many years, whose husband had brain cancer; another was a supervisor that had a heart condition that was always landing him in other facilities Intensive Care Units because he liked going out of town on his time off. ) It so happened that the following payday we all had to show our hospital badges for formal identification to pick up our paychecks. I went in to pick up my check and was told as they handed it to me that I had been changed to part time status and was no longer covered by the hospital insurance plan. I looked at my check and noted that an insurance premium had been deducted from my check, and asked them what was going on. I was told that they did not need a reason to change my status and that even though there had been a premium deducted that that premium was for the prior 2 weeks of coverage, so my insurance was absolutely canceled as of that day. My work schedule did not change until the following week, when I had been scheduled for just one day. This went on for another week and my next paycheck was so small I could not pay the bills. I spoke to my nurse manager to ask if I could be scheduled for weekends only and she said that would not be a problem. My brother had passed away the previous summer and he had been buying a piece of land with and old double wide on it. My sister-in-law had not been able to make herself return to the property since her husband, my brother had died there in the house, and had asked me if I wanted to take over the payments which were only 200 dollars a month, but they were over 8 months behind. They were buying from a private individual that had not tried to foreclose on the property. My husband and I moved to this property and began to pay the 200 a month and for a while no one said anything about the late payments. I worked one weekend after the move which required me to drive over 100 miles to get to Dade City and to stay with a friend while I was there, then return home Sunday night. When I called Monday to ask about my days to work the upcoming week my nurse manager told me that she really didn't need me to work, and maybe I should find other work closer to me so I could work more hours. I tried to work several places but my arthritic condition was obvious in my walk and I was unable to get full time work. I found a nursing agency in Macclenny Florida just across the state line from where I was living in Georgia. This agency provides nursing staff for the prisons in the area. They took my application and did the required background check on me. When the background check came back clean, they began to send me to the prisons to work. I could not work every day because my knees would hurt and swell too bad, but because they pay a decent hourly rate I was able to pay the electric and cable bills and my car payment and land payments. That worked for 2 years, but then my condition worsened to the point where walking 50 ft was too painful and I would have to sit down and get off my knees, even it that meant sitting on the ground. I tried to get the prisons that used me most and knew I was a good worker to hire me so I could get the insurance but that didn't work. My husband has been disabled since 1987, and receives Social Security Disability, about 900 dollars a month. When Medicare part D started we got him on a plan that takes 70 dollars a month out for his prescription coverage. Also the IRS is taking 140 dollars a month out due to my error of not counting his income on out taxes in 1999 and that made a huge difference in the taxes we owed because it was 100% taxable when added to my income, and we got a refund that year, so adding the refund to the taxes we owed means a huge repayment. I did not have a regular job when they decided to garnish my wages and then no income at all so they finally started deducting it from his SSD this year. His car payment of 344 dollars and our car insurance of 160 dollars comes directly out of his bank account every month to be sure they are paid. That has left us 250 dollars a month for electric, cable, gas, food etc. Cable may sound frivolous but we live so far from any town that we cannot get even one channel over an air antenna, and I know I am saying cable to simplify things but it is actually Directv, satellite service because there is no cable service in this area either. I have to have satellite computer service also because I do not have a telephone for local dial up because there is not any ISP that has a local dial up where I live, I checked all of them. The telephone here is Alltel and they have no competition so local service is 70 dollars a month plus 10 cent minute long distance just like it was before competition made a lot of companies have great long distance deals. My car payment is 377 dollars a month and am now 120 days past due, and they are taking it from me this week. I have managed to make 4 years of payments out of 6 and now I am loosing it. The phone is gone and the Directv is turned off. I am expecting the electricity to go next. My husband told me to go to The Dept. of Labor, Rehabilitation Division to see if they could help me so I could go back to work. They worked with him when he was first injured, but he was unable to heal enough to return to work. I contacted them and went to an appointment in Waycross, Georgia. I was told they could not give me any financial help, but they would send me to a doctor to see if they could help me physically to return to work. I went to see their doctor last August. After the reports were sent to the Rehab office, I was told that they will pay for me to have both Total knee replacements which is all they could offer me due to the extensive damage the arthritis had caused to both of my knees. I am sitting here now 3 weeks after my first knee replacement on my left knee. The Doctor said 3 months and he will do my right knee. It was the most painful surgery I have ever had, but I cannot wait to have the right one done and to heal so I can return to work. But I have nothing and am loosing everything while I sit here recuperating. I am crying all the time, I don't know how we will survive until I return to work. If there is anyone that is willing to help please, I would be so appreciative, I don't want to be homeless and have no where to go, I am scared and don't know what else to do. My family cannot help, I have asked them all. I found this website by accident today, so I am telling my story. Can anyone help us? Thank you for reading this. Sharron
