Nothing yet (no responses), but we remain hopeful...... not to turn on the waterworks... but today was a bad day for my wife. She is sick again with another infection and was told today that she needs additional surgery (she has major abdominal pain and they are talking about taking her stent out early due to another infection). Let me explain.......
My wife was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer over 2 months ago (and she was on life support for 5 days after the surgery when she was fighting sepsis and was in the hospital for 10 days), and she had gotten better since then (much weaker, but the Tumor was a 4 lb. stage 1 tumor that was almost as big as her bladder that the surgeon scraped out and allegedly got all of the tumor). The experience has just taken a toll on her..... and she is going thru a followup surgery to remove a stent that is between her bladder and kidney (and to check if the cancer has returned or is gone). Our medical bills went past 100K as a result of her hospitalization (and our part of that bill is over 5K, which we are scrambling to put together). This is on top of the 10K we still are in hoc with (from the physical therapy after she was shot 11 years ago in Elgin). She is a permanently disabled woman due in part to that shooting over 11 years ago (she was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time) and is now otherwise getting cabin fever at home as I am always working.
I want to be able to take her camping at the local state parks so she can enjoy nature and get out and spend quality time with the family while she is still able to ambulate. Our weekends mean everything to us now (did I mention that our 23 yr old son is handicapped / disabled and lives with us permanently also?), so we just need a break to get our beloved RV on the road safely. This means that we don't have the funds to replace the tires (they are $1,200.00 for 6 normally brand new). Many people want to go to Disneyworld and on European trips or cruises when they get sick, we just want to putz over to a campground and mingle with people and nature (while she is still able).
Now, this isn't a crisis.... and this is a "want", not a "need". We are not poor (and consider ourselves blessed to have a roof over our head, my having a job, and food on the table), but we don't have options such as a home equity loan or extended credit (we are upside down by almost 45% of our mortgage for a house that is worth almost half of what we paid for it back in 2005), we don't have any family with money to help , and everything we spend goes to trying to stay in our house and keeping both my wife and son medically stable. We bought a new car last October on payments as her previous car needed too much work regarding repair (and talk about lousy timing, we wish we didn't have that payment now). I drive a 11 yr old minivan and am very happy it is still in good shape (we kept it instead of trading it in.... just in case). We are trying to sell the extra vehicle (but it has over 177,000 miles and it needs too much work to get anything of real value for it).... and it needs an alternator and repair to the cooling system.... so we are thinking of just letting it sit until I can fix it instead of selling it for peanuts.
Now, this isn't a "poor me" post. We appreciate God's blessings and my wife's angels who kept her alive thru first a shooting and then a cancer scare / life support event. We also wouldn't have our son any other way (we firmly believe this world would be a better place if all families had a special needs child).
So our "want" is this: Anything someone can do to get our tires replaced will be appreciated (if someone just recently replaced their tires and are about to throw away 2 to 5 year old tires with some life left in them, that is fine). As long as they are safer than what we have now, anything will be helpful. We don't need money for tires (we'd rather see such money go to a good cause such as the homeless), just please... if anyone knows a tire place (such as a truck tire supplier) that may be able to find some tires that could still be used and would be safe for us (we don't plan on travelling further than 50 miles in any direction), please pass this link to them and ask them if they can make our dream come true.
