I lost my DH 24 yrs ago, surprising what you can learn to do without. Look at this as a great opportunity to try to do something you really like. Did SS approve you going out on disability? Around here it is very difficult to get on. I was going to suggest your ex's SS (nana did) if you were married 20 yrs I think you can get it even if he is remarried. Some TS's have amazing things from clothes to medical supplies to GJ. Have you got a garage full of stuff you never use- have yard sale,spare car needing fixing up-sell it! Look for cheaper housing, if house paid for, can you make taxes, ins. & repairs? Out here some people have group come that help seniors & they get work done free repairing house. If you car is costing you a lot sell it & get an older one ,if leased buy used 1 so it is your's! Have a mechanic check out car before you buy used 1. Shop 99 cent or dollar stores? check them out. Don't need to spend $4 for pretty paper napkins when you can get them for 99cents,they have mouthwash, toothpaste & all kinds of everyday things cheaper than grocery store of dept. store. Good Luck & there are lots of other ideas above, make a list, figure out grocery bill, cleaning bill, all that & look for ways to cut back. Do you drink a $ 4 cup of coffee,& have a donut for breakfast. Make coffee at home & buy dozen day old & warm 1- 10 sec. in microwave (freeze rest) make up dishes from scratch & freeze in portions size you would eat for 1 meal, spagetti with the meat & sauce, beef stew,chicken spagetti etc all freeze well,label & have at least 3-4 kinds made up so you get variety much cheaper & less sodium than TV dinners. With your condition should be on lower sodium diet & so much easier by making from scratch. Cook chicken breasts cut in about 4 pieces each(get done faster) in little butter & 1-2 qt water & use part of cooked chicken in chicken spagetti & save the water(broth) & rest of chicken for a hearty chicken soup by cooking up some kind of pasta,16 oz. reg. or wheat, 2-16oz pkg. mixed veggies plus 1 lb carrots, 6 stalks celery in bite sized pieces onion powder or cut up onions- cook those veggies in microwave & mix in with broth & diced chicken & the cooked pasta & some dried parsley for a soup you can almost eat with a fork,& pretty too, just simmer the mix for about 15 min. Precooking veggies in micorwave leaves the broth in tact so it doesn't all disappear. Freeze in 2 cup containers. Jan

Greetings Marcia Banner, I am sorry to hear of the problems that you and your husband are struggling with. As a Canadian I have little practical advice to offer with regard to what steps that you may take to gain support, alleviate your income problem, find lower cost supply of needed drugs, etc. Make sure that your municipal, state and federal representatives become fully aware of your immediate and drastic need. Be polite, make a good solid case for your need for support, etc. Leave them some paper detailing your problem. Be there frequently - don't let them forget you. Be persistent. Are there family, friends, etc. who can go to bat for you, as well? Community, social, church/faith groups, etc.? The more fuss by the more people, the more you're liable to get a hearing - and get something done. Especially if you can enlist some people with a high profile to support your need. If a wheel squeaks enough - and enough people get upset by the squawking - sometimes some grease can be found to quieten it down. Usually you need to become - increasingly over a period of time and without being abusive - something of a substantial pain in the butt. Do you know whether there are groups in your area helping people in similar situation, self-help groups, etc.? Go out looking for them. If there aren't such, can you, or people that you relate to (children, retired parents, faith/church, social, community groups, etc.) help gather such people into groups and, by their support and encouragement, help them become empowered? Handicapped and disabled persons often have become somewhat invisible in our society. Often it helps if some of the media can find your story interesting enough to publicize it. Memo to all: To have Marcia's husband and her to be informed that their regular disability benefit was to be cut off, effective immediately, is terrible and unconscionable. Unworthy of a wealthy economic system and a society that calls itself civilized. Primitive peoples take care of their disadvantaged better than that. After the Enron and WorldCom debacles, I wrote on "Money Saving Tips" making suggestions about lessons that individual working people could take from those dreadful experiences. They were: 1. If you are in a plan where your company encourages you, even subsidizes, your purchase of company stock, it is likely wise to sell some of it later and diversify into other investment vehicles. Many employees of those companies believed their employer to be in good shape - right till the end. 2. Join with other employees to demand that your company pension plan be carried by an outside carrier. The Enron, WorldCom and other companies' employees undergoing such problems found that the company had drained the pension plan, so that their pension credits had evaporated. So: not only did they have no job. A substantial portion of their investments were worthless. And - they had no pension to look forward to on retirement. Their fault? Not at all - except in being unwise enough not to diversify their investments while they had the opportunity. Here we have another lesson to learn, as individual employees. It is important to pressure your employer to have your disability system carried by an outside agency - so that it carries on if your employer does not. It should be funded ahead by the employer so that there would be a pool of capital set up in the hands of the company that paid benefits to enable a benefit to be carried on for a substantial period, even if their former employer disappears. Depending on the amount in the fund and the number of beneficiaries at the time that the employer ceased to fund the plan, people on disability at that time would continue to receive a benefit, at least for a time. Much more humane than the current system that they suffer under. Unfortunately - many employers are regressing. Quite a few who used to have a pension plan have dropped it, or made part-time and new employees, ineligible, etc. It becomes much more difficult to try to get an employer to make such changes unless the workers have the security of a unionized workplace - otherwise, such stirrers-up-of-trouble usually find themselves without a job rather quickly. My best wishes to you and to your husband, Marcia. (just now somewhat less than usually) joyful guy/Ed

I'm so sorry. Give that baby all the love & warmth in your heart. I sort of know what you mean about grieving for him even as you look at his little face; when my Aunt Lillie was in the hospital at the end of her life, I knew she was gone from me, even though she was still "there". It must be much more intense when it's a little baby. You might post on the Caregivers Forum; it's for people who are caring for chronically or terminally ill or disabled loved ones, & there are a lot of warm, caring people over there who can help you with your day-to-day life as well as the "big picture" issues. sending you & the baby thoughts for strength, love, protection, & peace.

I believe you need to contact SSI, you said you get disability benefits, and inform them of your reduced income. They will be able to advise you how to apply for Medicaid. At least in my state that's the procedure. You Department of Social Services may also be of help. I wish you the best possible outcome to your situation - it's a tough one.