Making Lemonade!

So it has been nearly a year since my last post and you all are probably wondering what's going on with us? Well, this has been an exceptionally terrible year. Since 2011 rolled in, we have not had a bad luck break at all and it is still going strong.

At the beginning of the year, we started out with some mild car troubles. Well, they seemed pretty severe and costly at the time but in comparison to the rest of the year, it was pretty mild. Both of our vehicles had broken down at the same time, not just once but several times this year. Several thousands of dollars later, both vehicles are... "knock on wood"... on the road and running again.

Little did we know that our car troubles were going to be the least of our problems. Sometime in April we got a call from Dillon's nephrologist. (For those who don't know, that is a kidney doctor). Dillon had been diagnosed with high blood pressure for a few years now but we thought things were under control. Well, when his doctor called and told us he had some concerns about his recent blood work, he mentioned the possibilities of needing a kidney biopsy. I was slightly alarmed but kept my cool because the doctor didn't seem to act like it was an emergency since he said we would discuss it further when we came back in June. I was thinking, well, if it can wait two months then I am sure it's not life threatening. An assumption I shouldn't have made.

When we went back to the nephrologist in June, the doctor ordered a 24 hour urine collection and more blood work before setting up a biopsy. The urine collection showed some pretty high levels of protein and the blood work showed some high bun/creatine levels. BUT... when the doctor ordered that blood work, he accidentally checked the box to do a kidney and liver panel when typically he would have just done a kidney panel. When the results came back, not only were the kidney levels high but the liver panel was abnormal too. Now all of a sudden, we were having to see several different doctors and they were all conferencing back and forth but no one had any answers as to what was happening. We went to see the pediatrician, the nephrologist and now the gastroenterologist too. We had several more blood tests and an ultrasound then we were scheduled not only for a kidney biopsy but also for a liver biopsy. Then more blood tests and even an MRCP. Mind you, Dillon has a phobia of needles and loud noises. Therefore, you can just imagine how terrible this was for him.

After all the tests, needles and loud machines, we finally got a fraction of an answer.... Dillon was diagnosed from the nephrologist with Focal Segmental Glomerlosclerosis. This is a chronic kidney disease that has no cure and minimal treatment for the symptoms. We found out that Dillon has only about 50% function left in both kidneys. It is estimated that he will need a kidney transplant in about 3 years or so.

From the gastroenterologist.... more "good" news... Dillon was diagnosed with Sclerosing Cholangitis. This is a chronic liver disease that also has no cure and minimal treatment for his symptoms. The good news is that we found this problem at its early stages and will be many years before he needs a liver transplant, if at all.

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Wow, this was a bad year!" Well, the story doesn't stop there. With all of this stuff going on, you can only imagine how much stress this put on our lives, our family and my marriage. Without giving up too much personal stuff, my husband and I have been having some major problems too. We have gone through some tough times through our 19 years of marriage and the toughest has hit us this year. We are making it though. We are dedicated and supportive of each other. We will overcome all obstacles.

One obstacle that we are currently trying to overcome is our financial difficulty. For the first time in our marriage, we are struggling. With all these extra expenses, so many doctor's appointments and missed days at work we having trouble keeping our heads above water. We cut any extra expenses we could. No cable bill, no home phone, no going out to eat all the time, no more driving more than we need to, etc. The only bills we have now are our two mortgages, utilities and a couple small loans. We took out the second mortgage after we closed our restaurant and our trucking company six years ago. We still owed money on our businesses when they were closed and we have been able to pay them with a few dollars left over until now.

Before we started missing mortgage payments, we tried to contact the bank to see if we could refinance our house. Combining two mortgages into one with a lower interest rate would save us from foreclosure down the road. However, when we contacted the bank, we found out that we owed $8,600 too much on the balance of our mortgages. Our loan to value was 90% and we could only refinance if it were 85% or less. During this conversation with the bank, I got a little teary. The bank rep transferred me to the "loss prevention" department with a simple explanation saying, "they may be able to approve a refinance knowing your circumstances have changed since the loan was originated." I thought that would be great. Only when I finally got the loss prevention department on the phone they thought it was necessary to close my other bank accounts and they wanted to tell the credit reporting agencies that we couldn't pay our mortgage. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. All I wanted was to do the right thing and prevent foreclosure. We didn't allow them to do anything else but they did put a hold on our access line of credit account so we couldn't borrow any more money from them. Our credit was always great and still is. We have never missed any payments for any bills but we will go without a lot of things in order to do so. Like many Americans are doing these days.

Some people would say we were dealt lemons this year. I say, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I want to figure out a way to get out of this rut that we're in but I am out of ideas. We have tried talking to the people that handle all the new government (Obama) foreclosure prevention programs but, can you believe, we don't qualify for any of them. There are like 20 programs and not one of them will accept us.

I am not looking for hand outs or charity. My husband works full time and does some landscape stuff. I am working full time, going to college full time, home schooling Dillon, parenting Dillon and my six year old daughter and keeping up with all these problems and appointments. I am not afraid to work for everything I have but we are working as much as we can and it's still not enough.

You all have been so supportive and helpful in the past with getting Dillon some new friends so I thought I would ask for some help again. Does anyone have any ideas that could help us is our situation? I need to make lemonade out of our lemons!

Please post comments or send me an email with your suggestions. I am an entrepreneur at heart and I am not afraid to try something like this. I even thought of selling some baked goods (I love to bake) but I don't know that I would be able to get these products to enough people to make any real money to help us out. Any other ideas would be great. Tips, tricks or insight of any kind would be much appreciated.

Thanks again!