April Otwell
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Know Thy Limits

11/19/2018

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I want to get real with you guys. The last few months I’ve been struggling with anxiety and depression pretty hard. I’m usually a very positive person but this has me in a dark place and I don’t like it. I’m hoping I can help sort through these feelings by writing everything down. I don’t want to take medication for it because I could become dependent on it and I definitely don’t want that. If I cannot do this on my own I will have to see a doctor. I know my limits. I have honestly reached those limits and I see my doctor tomorrow to be able to talk to him about everything plus a few more things.
These are the reasons that I’m depressed:

I have cabin fever. Right now I’m stuck in a 24x12 space with all of my animals, a mini fridge, a tv, a dresser, a jewelry box and a desk. There’s a few other things in the building but it’s too hard to write everything. I have so many plans that I want to do but I’m stuck because I don’t have room for any of them. I need more space to grow basically. I feel like I’m suffocating in this small space.

I have no friends to hang out with so I’m extremely lonely. I’m stuck at home alone all the time. I have Jessa and Kelly but honestly I can’t take the kids screaming and stuff all at once. I can handle one or two of them but when you throw all four of them into the mix I can’t handle it. I have an anxiety attack every time. I feel like the walls are closing in around me and that I can’t breathe.

These are the reasons I’m stressed and anxious:

I have anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 worth of medical bills that need to be paid but I’m on disability and can’t sustain my monthly bills with paying my medical bills. I’ve looked into a personal loan but with my 589 credit score I can’t get approved alone. I don’t want to ask anyone else to sign with me. My credit is so low because of past medical bills on my credit report.

I have a triple wide trailer about six or seven miles from Jessica’s house that my dad bought me. It’s mine. He’s currently living in it so that he can build himself a house on the river. I love the trailer, yes it needs some modifications so I can live there alone but overall it great. There’s just one downfall. It’s in Belah and away from everyone I’m close too. Here in Trout I have Mike, Pam, Little Mike, Jessica, Derek, Kelly (when’s she’s down), the kids, and Hailey. If I get into a bind I have someone within a few hundred feet who could come help me. If I move out there I’m going to be all by myself. Yeah it’s only a few miles but it makes a difference.

I have been trying to learn how to drive. My insurance doesn’t cover the cost. I just received my quote of how much my training is going to be and I’m looking at $9,500 just for training! Driving is one step to being independent if I have to move to Belah. I wouldn’t be stuck at home all the time. I have a Go Fund Me for my driving if you’d like to donate to it or my PayPal. There’s a donation button on my home page and the link to my GFM is https://www.gofundme.com/empower-sci?pc=ot_co_dashboard_a&rcid=c8258761f67c45c0a55db8bedcf42075

I’m trying to go to college to help me make a career so I can make more money for my future but of course that requires a lot of money. I have applied for FASFA and I qualify as a dependent student since I’m twenty three. Soooo I’m having to push back my studies until July 2019 so I’m considered a independent student and can get the max grants.

Some other things bothering me is:

I need to attend therapy for my health but my healthcare doesn’t cover all the cost so I was paying $60 a week! I can’t afford that!

I need Botox injections but they are about $700 every twelve weeks after insurance payments. Again I can’t afford that!

I don’t qualify for Medicaid because of my disability but my disability isn’t enough to live on by itself.

I have some other things bothering me but I won’t air my dirty laundry out for everyone. The point is everything is just becoming very overwhelming for me and I’m trying to sort it out. I have lost my motivation to do just about everything besides take care of my animals. It’s depressing upon itself. I need some prayers for clarity.
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A Complication

11/5/2018

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I travelled to New Orleans to visit my urologist, Dr. Winters with LSU Healthcare. In December of last year I had surgery to reroute my bladder to a stoma in my belly. I can now catheterize myself through the stoma and don’t have to wear a bag. They had to close my bladder neck to prevent leaking through my urethra. About three months after the surgery I began leaking a small amount through my urethra. We were all kinda like ‘okay this is probably because my stitches aren’t healed yet.’ We let it go but over the course of time it’s started getting more frequently. We have explored the fact of maybe it’s a UTI so we put me on antibiotics. The antibiotics do help but unfortunately it starts happening again. At one point my skin was starting to show the wear and tear of staying wet all the time. With a spinal cord injury you have to take care of your skin so that you don’t develop your pressure sores which if not treated to lead to more serious complications and even death. So I came to the conclusion that I needed to call my surgeon to find out what was going on.
The day didn’t start out exactly as planned because we were about an hour late for my appointment due to the fact that I live four hours away and there was an accident on the highway that caused traffic to be backed up. The doctors office almost wouldn’t see me but thank God by the time we got there they changed their mind. Dr. Winters sat down with me and went over my symptoms. He asked if I was on any bladder medication to help with bladder spasms and I told him know that I am not on any medication besides Lisa to help with my swelling. He put me on some medication for bladder spasms called Veslcare. I take 5 MG in the evenings.
Dr. Winters told me that if this medication doesn’t help then he would have to lightly sedate me to do a exploratory exam. It could be a fistula from my bladder neck closer. Basically it’s like a small pouch that collects urine and when my bladder spasms it causes the fluid to escape out my urethra. If this is the case I will have to have vaginal surgery to fix the problem. He said that it is a common thing that happens after this type of surgery but normally it does not present itself this late after surgery. I didn’t tell him that this is been happening for that long. He says it is not as complex as the first surgery but it is still a major procedure because everything is made up of scar tissue which is a different type of tissue that healthy tissue.
I waited a few days to post this blog to let my medicine kick in to be able to give you guys a little bit of an update and so far I haven’t leaked on this medicine. I’m going to continue to use it for my months trail and hopefully it’ll continue working.
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    Author

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    Paralyzed from the neck down after an ATV rollover at 14, April Otwell is beating the odds the doctors gave her. She's a blogger, fantasy writer, college student, sugar glider guardian and spinal cord injury survivor.  She's even writing her first fiction novel!

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