 My tribe... my sincere apologies for being quiet these past several weeks. I have been attempting to accept my new reality... I had what is called a transesophageal echocardiogram at the beginning of March. It confirmed that my mitral valve is prolapsed, causing severe mitral regurgitation. Heart surgery is in my future - to replace that mitral valve. It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN at this time. The Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is the likely cause of my mitral valve prolapse. I see my cardiologist again on Monday to discuss further. I return to University of Iowa on April 9th to meet with the Genetics department. It may be that I have a different form of EDS, such as cardiac valvular. Additional testing is likely needed. My fatigue has been crippling this past month, dizziness plagues me a good 90% of the time, I am quick to become short of breath, and there's a heaviness on my chest 24/7. My driving privileges (and oh, yes, they are a privilege) have been taken away from me for the most part. It's just not safe to have me dizzy AF driving around. Also, I was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) by my new allergist/immunologist, Dr. Davis, with University of Iowa. We were able to tweak some of my allergy (5 different ones per day) and antacid (2 different ones per day) medications - already seeing improvement! In the midst of all of this, we are still waiting for a final decision from Guardian, the long-term disability vendor and am working with an attorney for my Social Security Disability application. Due to the financial strain of my health care costs and not receiving any pay since April 2018, we are facing a harsh reality. We are 4 months behind on our mortgage and behind on utilities. We are requesting a loan of $10,000. This will enable us to catch up on mortgage payments, as well as catch up on other outstanding bills, such as utilities and mail-order pharmacy (90-day prescriptions). I have uploaded two documents - a draft loan agreement doc that I've utilized in the past - updated for our current situation - and an Excel spreadsheet, calculating the interest payments/payoff date. I set the interest at 2 points above prime (prime rate today is 5.5% - I wrote the doc for 7.5%). Ideally, we would pay off the loan in totality once my long-term disability and/or Social Security Disability is approved and back wages are paid. If however that process continues to be prolonged, I wrote the agreement to reflect that repayment would begin in December 2019 over a 5-year term. Between us, we have no credit cards, nor any outstanding credit card debt. The only loan that we have is the mortgage on the house. We own Maru's car outright - it's a 2014 Nissan Xterra. My student loans have been discharged - due to permanent disability. I need to make payment arrangements for past-due medical bills for both Maru and me. We currently have about $35k in outstanding medical debt between the two of us. And, at some point, I will need to make payments on what was still owed for my car that was repossessed - which is just shy of $8k. If you or you know of someone who is in a position to help us with a personal loan, please contact me.
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AuthorKim Dewey 
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