In need of a car for medical appointments

Hello, my name is Shannon Bettencourt and I originally started this for bills and medical expenses but now I am in need of a car more than ever with more and more  appointments with various specialists than ever before. I now have to go to physical therapy, a neurologist, primary physician  and a rheumatologist and the bus and max are long painful rides especially with all the walking in between stops and destinations varying in distance as far as 2 miles. I ride an average of an hour to two hours one way to each appointment and walk for miles sometimes depending on the location of the appointment. With all the pain from the walking and standing I will be in tears at times. But, I know this is what I need to do in order to overcome this illness. I ask if you could find it in your heart to donate anything to help me hit this goal. This all started about a year ago I started to experience excruciating pain and swelling in my hands and feet. Over the span of just a few months this pain and swelling became life altering. I spoke to my doctor who stated me down the avenue of process of elimination. I continued to work as this slow process went on until the point where I could no longer grip with my hands or stay on my feet for more than an hour or two before the pain was to the point of tears and still continued to put on a smile and do my best to work the 12 hour shifts I was working. I would lie in bed at night and cry and pray for the pain to go away. Eventually I needed up in the hospital from the swelling for it had gotten so bad that my toenails started to separate from the beds. I could no longer put on shoes because my feet had swelled so much and my shins and calves had swollen to where my socks were restricting blood flow to my feet. I had only been at my new job for a matter of a few months and was let go because I was still in my probationary period. I moved in with my mother who had been doing her best to carry me ever since. This all happened in May and finally after having surgery on both wrists for carpal tunnel and doing occupational therapy with little results, my physician referred me to a rheumatologist at OHSU. That day I cried in the specialists office as I showed her my hands and feet and explained my ailments to her. She immediately took X-rays of my whole body and had blood work drawn up. The very next day my blood work came back and I either had cancer, leukemia or on of the many various autoimmune diseases that also have the same low red blood cell count, high white blood cell count and other various low indicators that are tell tale signs of autoimmune diseases. She immediately started me on Methotrexate, a form of chemotherapy that they use to suppress the immune system. She said that the response to the medication varies from nothing to nauseated and at the worst and least likely, vomiting. Well, I couldn’t get out of bed for almost a week. It turns out that I am very sensitive to this medication. I wasn’t vomiting, but every breath and every movement felt like I was going to puke my intestines out. My body didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t take my next dose contacted my primary physician right away. I was seen on an emergency visit and he lowered to dose by a third and told me not to stop taking it again. With this decrease I saw some improvement as far as eating and being able to function. But, along with this improvement came more swelling and the pain was still unbearable. When I saw my rheumatologist 2 weeks later for our first check in, she was not happy that my dose was lowered and instead almost doubled it and put me on injections saying that this should help alleviate some of my nausea and also prescribed a anti nausea medication. Well, I was really sick for 3 days and for the other four days of the week I slowly felt better each day but still very nauseated, but better. I actually got out a little and went with friends and family out to the river and bbq and had my first real enjoyable summer days this year. Well, I didn’t realize that I would pay for those few days with a flare up that left me bedridden for a week and on crutches to get to another emergency appointment when I was told that that I couldn’t exert myself that way at all or my body would respond this way. I was I. Tears again. I couldn’t grasp the fact that I was so sick and that my physical limitations along with how sick the chemo was making me had left me almost completely disabled. I cried in his office and asked him what am I supposed to do for an income and he told me that I couldn’t do anything that required physical exertion and then told me that I should file for disability. I can’t do much without wanting to throw up and I can’t stay on my feet for long periods of time or the pain has me in tears. I have exhausted my savings and no longer can pay my 65 year old mother rent and she has payed my last months credit card payments but is struggling to take care of us both with her income. I am waiting for unemployment but because I only have worked 6 months in the last year, it won’t be much. My mother is stressed to the point of going into debt herself if I can’t find a way to at least get some type of help and could lose her apartment if I can’t come up with something soon. I’ve looked into emergency services and I’ve talked to social workers but due to Covid, the wait is long and the help isn’t much. I am 41 years old and for the first time in my life I am not self sufficient and my spirit is broken. Im not asking to be taken care of, I’m just asking for help to pay my credit card debt and put something in my mothers pocket to help with the over $2000 a month rent and bills that she is covering for us both to live here. She should be retiring but instead is taking care of her 41 year sick son. I will be collecting a check from either social security or unemployment or possibly both but the process is slow and I have no where else to go. Covid has really limited funding and increased the already long waiting time for all government programs. I can only pray that God will put it in your heart to help someone that has God in his heart and love for a mother who has gone above and beyond. I am ashamed to have to ask for help like this, but my pride is a small thing compared to the necessity of a home and food. I am heartbroken because a son should be caring for his mother at this stage in his life and I see the pain in her eyes and I know she can’t do this for much longer. I am thankful for what I have and I am not a selfish person. I am asking for what will ease my mothers burden and allow me a while longer until God provides me with the answers of how I can prevail with this illness. Because through God all things are possible!! Through God even an illness like this will not stop me from living life through His blessings and His love!! God bless your heart to see truth in my words and may he give you the compassion to see a son who is humbled enough to ask for help not only for myself, but to ease the burden of a mother who has long ago provided and cared for her child. Thank you and God bless!!