Help to Help my Son

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I have been on thyroid meds for more than half my life. I am now 77. All in all my treatments have been uneventful. Well except that I lost use of one vocal cord in surgery because a nerve was cut and could not be repaired. Then, around 2019 or 2020, I was given the wrong dosage of my meds by two maybe three different doctors. They kept moving out of town so I had to keep finding new ones. I simply trusted my doctors and took my prescriptions as told. But I don’t now! Those different doctors had me on the wrong level of thyroid medicine which caused a number of debilitating symptoms. Finally my son took me to the emergency room when I was unable to breath. I was admitted.

I was on Levothyroxine for many years. The prescription was oftentimes adjusted for need depending on the blood work results. I had a lot of the problems associated with taking too much thyroid medication including anxiety, depression, elevated heartbeat, high blood pressure, irritability, always extremely tired, memory loss, inability to concentrate. My brain just would not function.

I kept going to the doctors checking me for alzheimers or dementia. I even had a brain MRI. Nothing showed. It wasn’t until I was admitted to the emergency room that it was determined I was taking way too much thyroid meds and my heart could not pump correctly. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. And without oxygen, nothing works.

One of the first things my ER doctor told me, was I needed to get a new doctor.

I figure I have lost, so far, about 4 years of my life struggling with trying to get well from all those symptoms. I was admitted to the hospital April 4, 2022. I stayed about 4 days. I had a wonderful team of doctors and nurses. But it is now Summer of 2024 and my brain has not returned to normal and unfortunately I have recently been diagnosed with severe lumbar stenosis. But I don’t want to go into that. It has no bearing on why I bought a car I cannot afford.

In January 2021 I decided to go to look at cars. Why, who knows. A local dealership was having a big sale and a drawing for $25,000. The drawing attracted my attention.

I found out later that they were trying to sell all the cars on their lot because they were getting ready to move to another location.

The salesman I got was not employed by the company. He was a professional salesman contracted to empty the lot. He was very good at his job. But he used dirty tactics. And I was feeble minded because I had been (unknowingly) on the wrong medication for so long. He was very pushy. Got right up in my face. Told me he had already shipped off my trade-in. I just sat there telling him no. But he did not listen. He literally wore me out and I did not have the strength to fight him. It was a terrible experience but I could not seem to just walk out. I understand now that it was the same kind of tactics that police or detectives used to use to get a suspect to admit to a crime. Just wear them down. (They do not use that tact now.)

I was there for hours and I found out later he tried to get financing with 10 or more banks. I have letters from them denying it. They all refused but one. That was all it took. Just one was all that was needed and a feeble minded woman. I was so embarrassed I could not tell my family for the longest time.

I began to realize that I would be 81 before the car would be paid off.

I have an autistic son that I have been trying to provide for even after my death. The house is paid off and I have monies set aside to help support him. The monies may or may not last thru his life time depending on how costs increase. Almost yearly there is a slight increase in his income. Never have I seen it above $50/mo. But auto and homeowners insurance, gas, groceries and property tax go up even more.

But even with all my pre-planning, if the car is not paid off before my death, he may loose it. He does drive, but he cannot afford the payments. I was so proud when he finally got his license in his 30’s. Even though he learned on a manual transmission and burnt up a clutch learning.

This car payment keeps us from purchasing anything but the necessities. I have not purchased new clothes for years and maintaining the house is difficult. Thank goodness the roof and windows should last both our lifetimes, but the HVAC and HWH may not.

I paid over $27k for the car. Have it down to $12,011.36 as of July 2024 payment. I am not good at math anymore, but I figure that is about 26 more payments or 2 years, 4 months and I will be maybe close to 80. ??? You figure it out. I turned 77 in Jan 2024. Unfortunately the car is worth maybe less than $8,000 now. I tried to figure out a way to unload it, but nothing worked out financially for us.

We also work with DoorDash delivering to make ends meet. It is really slow right now. My son picks up and delivers. I am the navigator. He cannot do it alone. The navigating would make it too much for him to handle. I could not do it by myself either.

I have severe spinal stenosis and am scheduled for surgery Aug 5th. That will put another glitch in our DoorDash earnings for a while.

I have done what I could to allow him to live in his own home after I am gone. He would not do well in a group home.

Please, help me to help my son.

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Thank you,

Helen Ussery