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Dear Mike,

I was just diagnosed with MS after two years of thinking the symptoms I had resulted from a very low-speed rear-end car crash on 6/16/05. After getting a runaround from my own insurance company, I finally got a closed brain MRI showing the disease. I am on SSD and Medicare. My worst fear is of going into a nursing home. I now live with my father, who is 78, in our family home. He is ill also, but does pretty good for his age. Reading this site made me start thinking for the first time that we could actually get our own home in shape, with the help of the government, to remain here in spite of further adjustments that would need to be made to the house--WE MIGHT NOT NEED TO EACH END UP IN A NURSING HOME WAREHOUSED AND WASTING AWAY.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I WAS LED TO THIS SITE. I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH.

I intend to read completely through this information and act on it not only for my own and my father's benefit in order to remain in our own home, but would also advocate in my town and with my federal, state and local lawmakers. If you have any other suggestions as to how I could also advocate in other ways for this superior cause, I would be more than grateful to hear back from you by mail or email.

Signed, Happily at Home

Dear Happily at Home,

I am really glad to hear that the website information was useful to you and is helping you and your dad to remain in your own home instead of going to a nursing facility. I have been involved with advocacy for home and community alternatives to nursing facilities at the national, state and local levels since 1984. In this decades long struggle, stories like yours give me a real boost!

You should know that for many people, MS is not the downward spiraling, lethal disease of yesteryear, but can be treated as a controllable, chronic condition; with the proper health care and long term community supports, people with MS can have long, happy, productive lives. I certainly wish so for you.

I want to share contact information about a great guy that fights for home and community alternatives to nursing facilities at the state level there in New York. His agency is located in Rochester, NY. His name is Bruce Darling and he is the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Center. His email is bdarling@rochestercdr.org.

Good luck and please let me know if there is any way I can be of assistance.

Yours truly,

Mike Oxford

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