Help Ted Recover From A Gas Explosion

As a few of you know I recently relocated to Colorado after spending most of my life in New Jersey. Halfway through the isolating experience that was 2020's lockdown I made the choice to get healthy and leave the decrepit century old building I had been eduring for over a decade. As I was experiencing a massive weight loss of over 100lbs in under 6mo, my cat's and my own health started to rapidly decline. We left the old apartment in May 2021 and were mostly settled in the new place, then things took a turn for the worse.

After a few months of jaw pain and increased sleeping issues, I was advised by a dentist to get my wisdom teeth removed (one of which was severely impacted). Exactly a week to the day after the procedure, I had to do the hardest thing ever and say goodbye to my best friend and sole support of the past 11yrs. After a month of being bedridden due to grief and infection, my condition continued to decline. A few trips to the ER, an ENT visit, and various bouts of antibiotics later, it was decided that I would require sinus surgery. Apparently having a sinus infection travel to a dry socket after wisdom tooth removal is fairly common, who knew?

In addition to the cleaning and closing up of the infected channel I would also need a septoplasty. On top of an entire sinus reconstruction, I had to have eustachian tube surgery as an infant. This complicates things quite a bit as you need specific equipment for the surgery. After a few more months of waiting due to COVID delays, I was finally able to have the procedure in May 2022. Once the surgery was successfully completed, I was bedridden for another month. From there it was a year of monthly post-op follow ups which included hearing tests and ophthalmology visits due to the swelling pushing into my ears and eyes. I had to re-learn basic functions like bending over, light lifting, drinking then eating solid food, and lastly staying asleep longer than an hour or two (which I hadn't been able to do since pre-pandemic) without agitating the healing process.

Health issues aside, the new apartment wasn't working out either. During the almost two years living there I was subject to startling neighbor noise like banging, doors slamming, and various domestic disputes (some of them violent). As a survivor of parental, peer, and institutionalized abuse who was at the time rehabilitating a new cat who also came from severe trauma, this was not a living situation conducive to our continued progress. Once my lease ended this past May I decided it was finally time to leave the congestion, aggression, and high living cost of the east coast behind. Packed a storage unit, boarded my cat with a pet shipping company, and took a 2 day Amtrak out to Denver. I was finally free and ready to start living for myself.

Once I arrived in Denver I set up base camp at a hotel and started the new home hunt. After a month and a half of waiting for new listings and getting snaked out of a few places by people with realtor resources who hadn't even toured the units, I finally found what I thought was the perfect place. A top floor townhome with a full kitchen, in-unit washer/dryer, and the most important amenity of all, peace & quiet!

With the lease signed and keys in hand I started making numerous daily trips gathering essentials to put the new place together as quickly as possible so I could start working. On the 4th day in my new home (August 10th) I had just finished putting up a cat-proof gate by the stairs and was waiting for a call back from a potential employer when I noticed a faint smell of gas. Natural gas and cooked meat have similar smells and I had just cooked a burger on the electric coil stove earlier, so I thought nothing of it. Went around the corner and when I came back home the smell was noticeably stronger. I went to the kitchen to lift the stovetop and investigate. Hadn't put foil down on the burners yet so perhaps a bit of food got stuck? All of a sudden I heard a loud BOOM followed by the building shifting and falling apart around me. At first I thought it was maybe an earthquake. Then a pipe shot out from the hallway floor and started emitting gas. After a moment of initial shock and panic, I ran toward the front of the house where I found the front stairwell had completely collapsed. Luckily the window was cracked open. I opened the window, punched out the screen, and slid down the rubble where a neighbor was able to pull me out. Aside from a few scrapes on my legs, I was okay.

From there I watched in shock as a swarm of emergency crews, news people, and neighbors descended on the property. For hours I stood there watching my life quite literally fall apart and realizing if I was in any other part of the house I wouldn't be here right now. Thankfully my cat was supposed to be flown out to me the following Saturday so she wasn't there.

As required by the lease terms I did have renter's insurance which covered the non-depreciated essentials, but as for a new living situation, I am in great need of assistance. The insurance company has put me up at a hotel for a month. After going back to the scene to take photos for insurance, I stopped by Sam's Club and spoke with the manager. He was extremely understanding and said I could start whenever I wanted. Problem being, I don't have any ID for the paperwork which means I not only can't work, I technically don't exist. A copy of my birth certificate has since been ordered, the speed of which is at the mercy of the New York records offices (which can take up to a month or more). Now I don't have that kind of time to spare. After a month I will start incurring hotel fees which average out to a thousand dollars a week. This is in addition to food, $350/week for the pet sitter, $55/mo for the phone bill, $400/mo for the storage unit back in NJ, and $400/mo for health insurance which is very important to have being only a year removed from a big surgery. In addition to lease fees when I'm able to find a new place, it will cost $1,500-2,000 to have them bring my cat out and approximately $6,000 to have my belongings in NJ shipped out. All of which I had planned and budgeted out before I was displaced. Now with no family or support of any kind I have almost no funds to stay afloat and am having to accept the possibility of being homeless. Any assistance to help me rebuild my life during this time would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and contributions.