Over the past 4 years, we have been in a seemingly endless battle with medical debt. Our family is working as hard as we can to claw ourselves out from under this mountain, and we could really use a hand.

Bennett, our 4.5-year-old, dinosaur-obsessed son, is profoundly disabled. He struggles with severe cognitive delays as well as gross and fine motor limitations.

In his young life, Bennett has been through 6 hospitalizations (including NICU and 2 other stints in the ICU), 3 surgeries, and more imaging and procedures than we can count. And while that is a lot on its own, we also have significant travel expenses associated with every visit. We live in Wyoming, but all of our medical care is split between Colorado and Utah. His hospitalizations have all been in Fort Collins or Denver (1-2hr drives away from home). One of his surgeries was in Salt Lake City, a whole 437 miles away from home.

In Denver, we see Neurology and GI. In Fort Collins, we see his PCP, and we go to a therapy clinic 3x a week for Speech, Physical, and Occupational therapy. In Salt Lake City, we see 5 different teams between 2 clinics. We have made 6 trips to SLC this year, with 2 more planned and the potential for another surgery before the end of the year.

Bennett has been thriving this year and has made huge leaps in his social interaction and verbal communication. His perseverance is really a wonder to behold. He craves independence in every way possible, and we want to support him in all of the ways that we can.

While we have become fairly accustomed to our level of debt and the payments we have to make every month, these staggering accounts and travel expenses keep us from being able to work toward bigger goals.

Things we would like to work toward include:

1. Get equipment that better suits his needs; right now, he has a stander, a piece of equipment that allows him to bear weight through his legs while standing in one position, but he is getting to a point where we really want to invest in a gait trainer with a full harness so that we can hopefully start introducing independent steps.

2. Build an actual emergency fund and savings for our family. Right now, even if a minor emergency were to hit, it would take us out at the knees, and we need to start saving knowing that one day we are going to need a more disability friendly home and vehicle.

3. Being able to afford different experiences and adventures that help motivate and shape the best parts of his childhood.

4. Start a fund for a service dog. We have approximately 10 years before we would want to welcome a service dog into our home. However, getting a mobility dog trained and well-suited to Bennett can cost upwards of $20,000