Les Dent Single Dad Disabled

On that day in late October I just dropped my son off at school and was walking into work, minutes after walking into work I’m approached by one of the front desk ladies telling me I have a note from the school telling me I need to call the school because there is a possible medical emergency involving my son. I was astonished because I just dropped him off and he was just fine and there was nothing wrong with him. He had evidently passed out in the hallway and 911 services have been contacted. I flew to that school traveling 65 70 miles an hour up Central avenue knowing that that is dangerous but all I could think about was my son and what was wrong with him. We got to the hospital and they did an EKG and ran some other tests and they came back then informed us that the EKG showed a low PR interval with his heart in that is most likely would cause me to pass out it may be something new or he may have had it all his life but it’s not anything serious they said it’s just something to keep an eye on. Is the doctor was examining my son and ask him about any symptoms he had with some of the symptoms had perked the doctors interest in had prompted him to do a lumbar puncture otherwise known is a spinal tap. I'm not saying I'm glad that he passed out but it was a blessing because the spinal tap showed them positive for meningitis and I'm afraid that if we didn't see this issue with him passing out that we may not have seen the meningitis and time and things could have been a whole lot more serious but we caught it early enough where he did spend some time in the hospital and out of school but he got better and got back to 100% health after a few weeks. I would say not even a week week and a half after this all happen with Michael it was November 29th and I had woke up and my leg hurts I looked down at it and it was really red and hot and I thought what what is this but I dealt with it and I went through the day at work and by the end of my shift I can hardly walk in the redness of gotten a deeper darker red and started to spread around to the back of my leg. I hesitated I’m going to the hospital I came home I talk to my brother about it I talk to my son showed my mom via video call. They were all insisting to need to go to the hospital so after much prodding in you not really wanting to go I did go and was ended up being diagnosed with cellulitis a severe case of cellulitis I was given antibiotics and pain meds and said do not miss any of the meds and antibiotics should clear this up in a few days. It wasn’t 18 hours later and I looked at my leg again and it looked like hamburger meat. Immediately returned to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with sepsis So within the 18 hour. I went from having cellulitis to being septic I was scared I thought it was going to die. Cuz I’ve heard how serious sepsis is in my case was pretty serious. They wanted to admit me, ended up giving me this medication called Oritivancin. It's a cousin of vancomycin and much stronger. They call it the atomic bomb of antibiotics. Because just under $10,000 for one dose in takes 3 hours for that goes to be IV into your body. It took a few weeks but the infection finally subsided only to bring to light the underlying issue that helped cause me to get cellulitis because the doctors are wondering how did you get it on your leg. well I ended up having and being diagnosed with peripheral vascular disease. Which affects the blood flow in the immune system's ability to fight any infection in that area thus allowing me to get cellulitis which turn septic. David cellulitis and sepsis is gone I still have considerable redness and swelling unbelievable pain in my right leg. I am seeing a doctor for it the worst case scenario is having what they call the vascular graft done. I visited the doctor's yesterday and they wanted to try a couple other things before they go that drastic and perform surgery they had me start with a couple meds a blood thinner and some things called compression socks. To top it off my primary care provider when I went to see him last handed me a letter stating that I am until further notice out of work. I think to myself how am I supposed to survive how am I supposed to raise my son. I did some research and found out that Montana does not have any form of short-term disability that I am ineligible for unemployment. I'm ineligible because a year ago at this time I drove taxi in Phoenix Arizona and that's considered a private contractor job and I didn't receive a standard paycheck which would have then forced the company to pay unemployment insurance therefore I’m not eligible for it because any wages I made we’re not reported because it’s an independent contractor. So I'm virtually stuck between a rock and a hard place I can't work I can't get unemployment if I can't get disability short term disability that is I did apply for long term disability but that takes a long time to get. My son and I we only know a few people here in Great Falls we really don't know anybody but thankfully there is one person we know and we've met that has been more than kind more than compassionate more than caring in I can't think of that person enough without his help we might be homeless. so as of right now I'm moving forward I don't know what we're going to do. you know I made a joke in a in a letter that I wrote stating that if we somehow won a lottery that was like $5,000 that we that we keep us afloat because then we can pay her our finances you know a few months ahead of time and focus more on my health instead of being all stressed out because of wondering how we're going to live where we're going to get money but that's just a joke I couldn't get that lucky we couldn't get that lucky