Times are tough around the Malik household here in South Lyon. Aunt Annie is pretty much bed-bound because she hasn’t walked in four weeks thanks to two week-long hospital stays for UTI’s that she’s been battling, on and off, for the last six months.
We have some PT lined up this week to begin to help AA regain her mobility, but her lack thereof means that when she needs something, I’m on call for anything and everything, including bodily functions.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s 4 in the morning or there’s a big blog story breaking, if I need to get upstairs, I go upstairs, and I try to stay with her and provide for her needs.
That’s led to some very long days (like today), and very long nights. I’m doing everything from dispensing antibiotics every 6 hours (the stuff she’s on is hard-core heavy, to finally kill off recurrent UTI’s) to cooking, cleaning up after her and simply providing comfort via companionship. It’s intense, and it’s being in close quarters for long periods of time, and sometimes it’s messy, but that’s what the caregiving job entails.
As such, we’ve had to purchase a fair amount of medical supplies, and that’s eaten into what I’ve already described as a tenuous financial situation.
Having to pay nearly $300 to MedStar and LYFT to simply get home from the hospital twice was bad enough; if I may be blunt, buying a bunch of rubber gloves, wet wipes, commode liners, trash bags and bed pads is adding up as well. I’ve already had to re-stock some of those lesser-cost items repeatedly.
Long story long, whether it’s raising funds to help pay our $1,500 in property taxes, or trying to raise $600 in funds for the server costs for the blog, or just attempting to get by in terms of the “stuff we need” to care for AA, I’m behind the curve, and I need your help, if you’re willing to assist.
We’re particularly behind on the server stuff here, though a kind donation helped us afford the first of several hundred dollars’ of bills from Bluehost.
Obviously, I’m still blogging about the Red Wings as time allows, and while caring for AA has to come first, AA is also super supportive of me doing this job so I promise that I’m going to continue to provide as much content as time and circumstances allow. I am trying my butt off to work for you, and that commitment remains.
Things should get a lot better time-wise over the course of the next month. Aunt Annie is strong, and she’s an excellent learner, so our hope is that she gets at least some mobility, and the ability to transfer from bed to bedside commode. Walking to the bathroom and back is a ways off, but it’s very possible in six to eight weeks…
It’s just the financial issues that really bite into us, and it’s time and energy spent taking care of AA on my own, initially, at least, that’s exhausting me and taking me away from the blog.
For now, however, we have a GoFundMe for our property taxes…
And if you’re willing to help the blog out, we’ve got a PayPal account at rtxg@yahoo.com…
Or Venmo at George-Malik-2 if you prefer that route.
I hate having to ask for help, but we’re down a ton of money due to medical costs this month, and for the next two months, my paycheck will be docked $300 per month because Aunt Annie stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks, and the State of Michigan doesn’t pay caregivers for time when the client is in the hospital.
So we’re not out of the woods just yet.
It sucks having only enough income to pay the bills, and nothing more, but we’ve done our best to exhaust our options in terms of both raising funds for property taxes (AA melted her jewelry down last year to pay them) and raising funds for the blog on our own, so that’s why I have to ask my readers to assist. It’s not easy or fun, but it’s necessary, and I hope that you’ll understand.
Moreover, if you can’t donate, I would kindly ask you to share this fundraiser or at least the GoFundMe. We’re trying our best to get by, but we “need a little help from our friends,” whoever they may be.
Thank you for reading.
