Hey Ross can you check this over for factual errors?
Hey Ross can you check this over for factual errors?
I am planning on sending the following letter via email to Thrivent Builds, a company that has sponsored Habitat for Humanity builds in greater Canton, OH. I would like to be factually accurate. Can you edit where necessary?
Dear Sir or Madam:
My name is
blank. My husband Hank and I participate in the
local name Habitat for Humanity and are monthly monetary contributors to Habitat. We believe in the cause and we do what we can.
I am a 44 year-old stay-at-home mom with a content, reasonably full life. In November of 2004 I was diagnosed with valvular heart disease and an aneurysm of my ascending aorta. I was devastated and my world was turned upside down. I was told I could no longer run and I was told not to lift, push, pull more than twenty pounds and "don't do anything that makes you go 'unh!'" Failure to live within these restrictions could mean I would suffer an aortic dissection or rupture--when the largest artery in the body comes apart or splits, allowing all the blood destined for the body to instead pump into the chest cavity until, without immediate, highly-specialized surgery, 90% of patients die. For a "do-it-yourselfer" like myself this was life-changing. My husband was sympathetic. My kids were scared. My parents didn't really grasp the gravity of the situation. My friends were incredulous. No one really understood.
About four months later I found valvereplacement.com. It's a forum on the internet for people who have gone through, will go through, or are close to someone who's going through heart valve replacement surgery. Many of them also have aortic aneurysm--it turns out, for some of us, the two problems go hand-in-hand. Through this website I have met hundreds of people who do understand. Many of them have been through the surgery I will one day have. They give me encouragement when I'm down, information when I'm in need of it and, most of all, they give me hope every day that I'm going to be okay.
The website is free and was founded, I believe in 2000, by a man in Arizona named Hank Eyring and it is administered daily--nearly around-the-clock on an entirely volunteer basis--by a man in North Canton, Ohio named Ross
Your name. Ross, like me, had an ascending aortic aneurysm. He was being monitored periodically (as I am) with imaging studies like CT scans and echocardiograms to make sure his aneurysm didn't get bigger than 5cm--the size that is considered the largest safe size and the point at which most top surgeons operate (although many wait longer and a handful operate sooner). When Ross was 38 years old his aneurysm, which was not yet 5cm, dissected (its three layers delaminated and tore). By the grace of God, his then 13-year-old son awoke in the wee hours of the morning to find him laying unconscious in the hallway. He was airlifted to the Cleveland Clinic where he received life-saving medical care. After months of in-hospital care he was released. He is now legally disabled, wheelchair bound, and on oxygen, but alive and helping people on VR.com every day.
Ross' family has had more than their share of heartache with his medical problems alone, but alas, their problems do not stop there. His wife Lyn has been in and out of the hospital herself with her own serious medical problems and is in a job where she is frequently laid off. Most recently (Fall 2006), Ross' twenty-year-old son Chris returned to live with his parents while he undergoes serial surgeries and rehabilitation for injuries he sustained in a horrendous car accident that took the life of his (former) fiancee's mother, when the car they were in was hit head-on by a drunk driver.
Ross' latest hurdle is what I'm hoping you can help with, either directly or by suggesting a course of action. Ross' home is on a septic system and the town of North Canton (I believe--there is a little uncertainty on my part as this is an internet acquaintance. I can get more specific information should you desire it.) is requiring he hook up to the town sewer system, at his cost, estimated to be about $8000. As one on disability with only one income and a 20-year-old adult son with big bills and no income at home, Ross is in no financial position to comply with the town's requirement. I am not sure what the consequences are if he doesn't comply, but his distress at the situation leads me to believe there are consequences.
Is there anything Thrivent can do? I noticed your organization sponsored several builds in the greater Canton area and I was hoping you might be willing to sponsor this job and find volunteer workers to help out the
Your real last name{\I] family. VR.com members have been generous in the past and can likely come up with donations to help out. For more information see: http://valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19444
Your consideration of helping this man who helps so many himself is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
My real name
