Dear Ellen,I watch EVERYDAY!The stimulas shows always make me cry!My husband wks 7 days a wk,14 hrs a day.He has not had a day off in..well IDK wen!We struggle even with all the xtra hrs.He just wants me & our 4 kids 2b happy!He never complains.His car is having trouble,I cannot wk since we cannot afford another car.My father passed last yr & sadly my mother wont do much 2 help us,tho she leads a very comfy life:(We lost our house last summer & now live in an apt.We cannot go out 4 fun or invest in the latest trends.I luv u ellen & even if I never hear from u,u r wonderful & Im so glad ppl like u r still around!Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Hello Ellen, i watch your show every day and i see how you help make peoples lives better by helping them with the Ellen big stimulus package.Lately my situation has gotten worse my van was repoed and i have been the only one working supporting the entire household.My boyfriend is in construction,so he doesnt have any work. I have fallen behind on rent and the utility bills i have several shut off notices and its been really hard but im trying to be positive through all of this. I was wondering if the gold digger machine could make a trip up to Rochester, NH. It would be the best thing that has happened in months for my family and i but if not its ok. I think you are the best!! Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Much Love,
Karey Dillingham

Hi Ellen, I would like to tell you about a fabulous family in our community. The Abro family own our local grocery store in town. Times have been very tough and they need our help.
Freddie Abro has given our local people a job, if you was in need of groceries with no money, he would give you credit, donated to many fundraisers, and let small organizations stand outside the door to raise money.
Freddie is always there for whatever is needed,and don't forget the great smile that everyone has when you are in the store.
For the last year or so things have been very tough and the shelves have not been full. Freddie runs a great business but with the economy, their business is really struggling.
Ellen it would be great if you could help Capac Foodcenter get back up on their feet so they could stay around for a long time.
We really do not want to lose the Freddie Abro family in our small town of Capac, Mi.

dear ellen, i watch your show daily and think at times you are the one reason i wake up in the mornings!You keep me hanging to a hope much greater than the one that wakes me at times! I am a strong individule, that has hit a major road block in life and terrifed of the outcome if i dont get some type of help!Im the single parent of a 14yr old that i feel as though i might not beable to continue to raise my her, due to being out of a job, for starters & to make matters worse, i dont have a car & know that i could never afford one that i could rely on! I have a mortgage that im desperately trying to keep up with, but the utilities are going to catch up with me very soon. i will lose our home & possibly lose the chance to raise my daughter the way id hoped! when times were great, ashley would say, mom, we're so lucky! Now, all i can say is im so sorry honey, but things are surely at a major crossroad! I thank everyone that read this because i know im not the only one out there that is totally down on their luck by no means!good luck & god bless everyone! If anyone still cares or has a heart please tell ellen i need help ASAP! thanks to all & goodnight

hey ellen i watch your show every day!were not going to jo to your show stemulus check well be proty good i was in a real bad car wreck 3 years ago my mom stuck with me all the way through it i was a perapleagec person and was in acomu some of the time!a stimulus chech wold help us alot were really broke right now and we,d appricate anything send by you !!!!!!!!!!!1william ryan

DEAR ELLEN I LIVE IN STPAUL MINNESOTA I LOVE YOUR SHOW USE TO WORK NIGHTS SO SEE SHOW EVERY DAY WAKE AT 800AM BUT NOW NO JOB SO IM THE HOUSE TENDER 4 DOGS 2 CHIHUAHUAS CHICO JOJO 2 GERMAN SHEPERDS MOM DAUGHTER SADEY MOM LACEY PUP PLUS TWO BIRDS COCKATIELS PLUS ONE SNAKE FOOT HALF LONG AND A LIZARD ABOUT A FOOT LONG AND MY GIRL FREIND OF 18 YEARS WHICH JUST GOT HRE JOB BACK AFTER 5 MONTHS OFF SO ON SO ON BUT WE GOT A39 CHEVY MASTER DELUXE CAR FROM HER DAD AFTER PAST AWAY 1 YEAR AGO MY GARAGE IS A SHED DIRT FLOOR LIKE THE FLINTSTONES BUT HARD TIMES HIT HARDER THEN PLANNED SO I CANT BUILD NEW GARAGE TO PUY CAR IN VERY NICE CAR HER DADS BABY TRYING LOOKING FOR WORK MIGHT GO BACK TO SCHOOL FOR VETERAINEREN TECH BUT NO CHU CHING TO LIVE LOVE THE FUGI WRESTLERGAMES SEE YA HAVE TO TEND TO FAMILY GIRL FRIEND BE HOME SOON ONLY ON25 HOURS A WEEK BUT WERE TOGETHER MORE THATS ALL WE NEED TAKE CARE

Dear Ellen,
I feel my patient Sarah Mora who is a courageous 23 year old is a wonderful candidate for your big stimulus package. She has been battling so many medical problems leading to big medical bills.
I apologize for it being so long, but please read it. It is truly an inspiring story.
She has osteogenesis imperfecta which is brittle bone disease and is not curable, she can fracture just moving her wrist the wrong way, she is constantly in casts, sometimes one on her arm and leg at the same time. She is constantly in pain.
Where do I begin? At age 12 she got all her basic immunizations at her pediatrician including the hepatites B shot. She got severely sick because of this shot. It suppressed her immune system so she had no antibodies in her blood to fight off infections. She received several immunococal booster shots which helped to a point but her body still did not respond to the shots completely. She then started with sinus infections and severe nosebleeds. She would get nosebleeds every day that would not stop on their own and she would be at the ENT, walkin clinic or emergency room getting it cauterized with painful silver nitrate sticks or packed. Some of the doctors would not numb her nose before cauterizing, but she still managed to stay strong. This then led to a search for a better ENT which then led to an embolization which is an extremely risky procedure where an interventional radiologist inserted a catheter in her groin and fed it through until it reached her nose in attempt to seal off blood vessels in her nose. The doctor noticed she had an abnormal amount of blood vessels in her nose, so she sealed off blood vessels which helped for a while but then she started with the nosebleeds again. She then started with knee problems which led to arthroscopies of both knees starting in 2000 on the right knee, then 2001 for the left knee for plica syndrome. In 2003 she developed tarsal tunnel syndrome in both her feet so she had to undergo surgeries for that. She then underwent another knee arthroscopy on each knee again in 2004 because the plica grew back causing her pain and clicking yet again. Then in 2005 she underwent 2 elbow arthroscopies for plica syndrome. She had multiple ER visits before this surgery for her elbow locking up on her, she would be in excruciating pain and the ER doctors would not know what to do and finally they had to sedate her to straighten the elbows. She had 2 surgeons in the room with her and they both have never seen plica syndrome in an elbow before, but it was very obvious that Sarah had this plica in her elbows. She then endured shoulder pain leading to surgery on both of her shoulders for severe tendonitis and bursitis, the doctor was a sports medicine doctor and he commented that he had never seen a shoulder in that bad of shape even in the athletes that he treated in the past. She also in between knee surgeries would have locking in her knee where her heel would be touching the back of her thigh, she incurred many ER visits for this as well to straighten it under sedation.
She also had to have her appendix removed in 2003, she also had ovarian cysts removed at the same time and then was diagnosed with endometriosis. She had her gallbladder removed in 2005 which the doctor noted that it was an underdeveloped gallbladder. At age 16, she started fracturing. She fractured her left foot first, no injury, they put a cast on it, she then developed pain in her right foot, that became fractured as well, the only choice was to put her right leg in the cast as well but then she would be bound to a wheelchair so she had to wait until the left foot fracture healed and then the day they took the left cast off, they put a cast on the right leg. She continuted to fracture and noone knew why. She was sent to multiple major medical centers to try to figure this out. In 2005 she was finally diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta which is brittle bone disease which is normally diagnosed at birth but because her fractures didn't start until age 16, noone knew to look for this. They tried her on Actonel which did not work. She then was sent to another specialist in another state who recommended an IV medication but it is not covered by insurance. She continued to fracture and went to several Osteogenesis Imperfecta clinics throughout the country to get help. She was given false hope many times, being told that this would be the place to go each time but noone knew what to do. In 2006 she started with left hip pain and clicking, which led to her being sent to a doctor in another state who does hip arthroscopies, at the time there were very few doctors in the country doing hip arthroscopies. She had a labral tear which he repaired. She then developed pain and clicking in her right hip and was sent to another state for that resulting in a labral tear. She then developed hip impingement and had to travel to yet another state to get that fixed. The surgeries only lasted for so long and then she would get pain and the clicking back. She was sent to several hip surgeons throughout the country, each time being told this is the one who can help you. In between all of this, she would get episodes of blacking out and the doctors in her state of connecticut did not know why, so she was sent to a doctor at Baylor in Houston, Texas. He sent her for a tilt table test, she had an episode during it and her heart stopped which led to her being admitted and getting a pacemaker put in. For her hips, she was then told there was a doctor who definitely could help her, but at the time she was in Texas because she had gotten her pacemaker put in. She and her family had no money to send her back home to connecticut. So she gave up hope that her hips would never be permenently fixed. Her father then decided to just go for it, and she used a buddypass from a friend who is a flight attendent. She flew home and then her father drove her 6 hours in a car ride to the doctor. He said he could not help her but there was only one doctor in the country who could help her, and he was in Vail, Colorado. Sarah never heard of Vail and then started looking up hotel prices and realized it was an expensive town. She had her right hip operated in February of 2008 and her left hip operated on in August 2008. Her hips were in bad shape. This surgeon was able to reconstruct both of her hips. These were both 6 month to a year recoveries. This also meant a lot of therapy, which led to a tremendous amount of copays which she is still on a payment plan for as of today. Her protocol was for at least 6 months of therapy, her insurance stopped her after 25 visits. She was told she could go to a local gym, she cannot afford to go to a local gym, she was also told by her hip surgeon to just do swimming as a way of therapy but she can't afford to go to her local community center pool. It is also not safe for her to be at a gym because of her cardiac risks.
She then in October 2008 was having a problem with her hip adductor, so she had a special injection but it cost $950 which she or her family did not have the money for, but thinking this will help and being told by the office that insurance usually pays a portion of it, so they would at least get something back. Well insurance considered it experimental. She then developed knee pain and clicking again in her right knee so she underwent surgery again with the colorado knee surgeon this time in january of 2009 and she had a synovectomy. She then developed knee pain in her left knee so she then had to travel to colorado yet again in may 2009. She had arthrofibrosis in her knee which is on to arthritis. Both of her hip surgeries insurance kicked out saying they are experimental because this doctor in Colorado who did AROD's surgery, is the only one doing them, so it is not quite heard of yet. and they are $27,000 dollars. But her hips are doing so much better. She does need another injection in her hip adductor but she can't afford the injection fee and the injections that insurance will cover are steroid injections which she cannot have because of her bone problems and the steroids can cause longterm tendon damage.
She has also been going to mayo clinic in Minnesota for over a year now. She started with stomach problems in 2003 and was admitted multiple times but none of the doctors knew what to do. She went to a GI specialist at mayo last year. She was diagnosed with a slow motility disorder. He is the only doctor who can help her GI problem. She has been seeing him for over a year now and is doing much better with medication. She developed a serious infection called C Difficile multiple times and was treated and hopefully it will not come back.
She also has been seeing several other specialists at the mayo clinic to try to piece the puzzle of her other medical problems together. She saw a bone specialist who was just recently able to put her on an injectable medication that Sarah has to self inject every day.
She underwent an endoscopy in July 2009 and was diagnosed with candida esophagitis. She then had another one the end of July and she still has the candida esophagitis despite medication. During this endoscopy, they had to end it early because her heart rate went to 163. She has to undergo future endoscopies to see if the candida esophagitis is still there but due to her high heart rate she has to have anesthesia as supposed to sedation.
Meanwhile, she is burdened with a ton of medical bills. She owes a tremendous amount of copays to mayo clinic, she is on a payment plan for her copays and deductibles for Vail. She can no longer afford these payment plans, she was never able to afford them to begin with. She can barely wake up from the anesthesia and she has to immediately deal with these issues instead of concentrating on recovering from her surgeries. She also has to deal with her insurance having clinical policy bulletins so now before she can do any bloodwork, she has to get all the billing codes, call her insurance company and ask if there are any bulletins on them. She can't afford the hotel stays in Vail or mayo clinic etc. She does not qualify for housing because ronald mcdonald houses are for children and the only other houses they have are for cancer and they will not make exceptions. For her medical bills, she does not qualify for financial assistance since she does have insurance. Both Sarah and her father are constantly fighting these insurance battles.
With the exception of Colorado, and a few other trips, Sarah has traveled to all of these medical centers by herself. Her family can't afford to send her, nevermind one of them going. Her recent visit at mayo led to yet another knee arthroscopy this time a diagnostic arthroscopy due to an abnormal aspiration of her knee which they determined from that, she had crystals in her knee and an abnormal amount of synovial tissue and fibrous tissue in her knee. They have never seen crystals in a 23 year old before. They tried to proceed with an ultrasound guided biopsy but they were unsuccessful because the tissue was too deep. She then underwent the knee arthroscopy by herself, they did several biopsies and noticed that everything the doctor cleaned out of her knee in may grew back. She managed to hobble on the crutches through the airports to travel back home to connecticut. She was in excruciating surgical pain because she could not take pain medications being by herself.
For one of her knee surgeries in Colorado, she fractured her arm just because she was using the crutches for her knee so she had to get her arm casted and be fitted for a platform crutch. There are only certain doctors in the country that can help her so she has been sent out of state for most of this, therefore incuring airline fees, hotel fees, and countless doctor copays, deductibles and things that her insurance company kicks out as experimental. She is always asked by her doctors, who is with her, and she says "I came by myself" She is told how brave she is for traveling by herself, and she says well you have to choose which surgeries someone is required for and which surgeries someone is not required for. She is always told by her doctors that she has a smile on her face all the time even when telling them everything she has been through and is continuing to go through. Her motto is, if she doesn't smile and laugh, she will cry. Her dad traveled with her to Colorado for her hip surgeries because those surgeries were really involved so he had to go, regardless of not being able to afford it.
She is starting to make strides at mayo, but I don't know if she will be able to continue to make these strides because of her financial situation. She or her family can not afford the flights, hotel stays and payment plans for copays. She also needs a foot surgery in Colorado and right now she may not be able to have that either because of her financial burdens. She also needs to go to St. Louis where her cardiologist is, he moved from houston to st. louis recently. She needs to see him for her dangerously high heart rates. She is faced with not being able to see him because she cannot afford the travel expenses. She continues to get bills and cannot even afford the payment plans because its just too overwhelming. She is scared as to what is going to happen since she can't afford the past and current payments and can't afford future medical travel. She is terrified of what will happen to her once the appeals for her hip surgeries are denied and she is stuck with 2 $27,000 bills that she can never pay or even go on a payment plan for, if this happens, she feels like her life won't be worth living anymore.
Please consider this brave young lady as a candidate for your stimulus package. She deserves it. She finally was given hope after traveling to mayo and I don't want to see her lose this hope. Her case is truly a unique case and I being a doctor, have never seen anyone with this amount of medical problems, she puts a smile on everyone's face. I could be having a bad day, and I see her and she makes my day and puts a smile on my face. I know she would love to be on your show, you and her both have something in common, you are both cheerful! She would love to see you in person. The only trips she has been on is for medical, you don't have a white coat or a needle in your hand! I know you would put an even bigger smile on her face and I hope you consider her for your stimulus package.

Hi Ellen,
This is my story. During the past 2 years, my husband and I have tried to do everything right financially but the economy doesnt seem to be helping us. We have four children and we have always planned to have a big family and we have both worked hard to maintain our lifestyle but about a year ago, my husband side business collapsed. We didn't anticipate this, our income together is not enough to suppoprt us. In daycare alone, we pay over 1,000 a month and theres' no relief for us. I know, I should not complain, we still have jobs but we have seen our income decrease. Sometimes we don't have enough to cover our expenses, we're 2 months behind in our mortgage and hoping to get a loan modification.
Last week, our car broke down, we had to borrow against our next paycheck to cover the costs. We cannot afford any emergency right know, we have cut expenses but there are cost we need to make, like childcare. Now, school starts in a month and we dont have any money to buy school supplies and uniforms. The way things are going, we would probably going to have an austere christmas.

Dear Ellen I am 53 disabled with a 16 year old who is also disabled we are victims of sever domestic violnence. We rented an apartment and its full of mold, I do not have a housing voucher. We are both very sick and have been told to go to a hotel. The doctors called the building inspector and he couldnt even breath in the apartment. He got in touch with the landlord and I havent heard a word. Now I have to not only pay 1195 in rent but I have to go to a hotel and pay 950.00 a month until he fixes the problem I only get 1324 per month. Who can help me. The landlord hasnt responded. We are really sick from this and nobody rents to people like me I should have known something was wrong I got this place to easy

Hey Ellen,

How are you? My name is Yev. From watching one of your shows, I recently discovered you were doing the stimulus package giveaway again. I told my mom about this because she really needs help. The bills are piling up and it's not getting any easier for her. I can hear her crying at night when she says she's going to sleep, even though she will never admit it. I asked her to write me her story of all the difficulties she overcame and since she is not that good at English, I translate it for her. I apologize in advance for it being so long, but please read it; it is truely a remarkable and inspiring story:
It’s hard to wait, hard to catch up, yet even harder to begin.
I was very intrigued with one of your shows on which you helped people out with your stimulus package. I simply wanted to share my story with you in the hopes that you might be able to help me like you have helped many others.
My story has a happy beginning. I was born in an oversea country into a pretty wealthy family. I grew up with a very happy childhood having many friends, loving parents, and receiving a good education. As the years passed and I had to go out on my own, my life still remained, to me, unbelievably good. My many friendships continued on into my adult life, I had the job of my dreams, was financially stable, had a loving husband, and two amazing children who were my angels and my whole world…
One sunny morning that turned my beautiful life into gloom, the pediatrician brought out a diagnostic report that turned my world upside down: my four year old daughter had cancer and in this country there was nothing that could save her.
Houses, money, friends, work, laughter, joy, feelings of total bliss, all disappeared from my mind faster than they ever arrived into my life. All my bubbles of happiness and joy popped, but life still went on. That’s how began my gloomy morning after which followed foggy days, weeks, months, and years.
It was a dreadful morning, but after all it was simply a morning, the day has to eventually end and a new one will begin; a better one, a brighter one. This was my hope. If there is hope that means there is life. To live you have to fight; so my family’s fight to save my little girl began. With every fight however, comes sacrifice.
The first and least important sacrifice was the liquidation of all property, assets, and finances; everything went to cover the medical costs of my daughter’s battle with cancer.
The first place I traveled with my daughter was to a hospital in Germany. For two months the best doctors in the best hospital fought to save my child’s life. The doctor’s operated on my little girl and removed her entire right kidney which was completely infected with the tumor. But the cancer didn’t stop; the fight was not over, the tumor metastasized to my daughter’s lungs.
The clouds got thicker and the morning foggier, but the hope we had did not die.
The second sacrifice was work, friends, and family. My husband was a professor in psychology and I, a vice principal of a school.
America was the only country who was willing to help my daughter in her grave circumstance. It’s unusual that Wilm’s Tumor spreads from the kidney to another organ, in this case the lungs.
Through the heavy clouds came a ray of sunshine.
My husband received and signed a contract to work in America. We left everything behind and moved to America. And thus began our gloomy days in America; chemotherapy, ten cycles of radiation, two major operations on the lungs where the doctors removed one-third of the right lung and trimmed the sides of the left lung. Two days home, two weeks in the hospital, and on top of all that paralysis developed in both my daughter’s legs.
And yet I still had a second child; a four year old boy. Thank you to my son for all the patience he had. Staring at the clock on the wall, he counted down, each day, the time until his dad would come home from work. And thanks to the people who babysat my son during those days.
By this point almost two years had dragged on and my family was struck with another grief; the hardest days of my life. My husband could not handle any longer all that was going on and lost his mind. No, this is no understatement; this was the thunderstorm with lightening strikes on top of my foggy mornings.
Everything was in his name: our legal status in this country, our belongings, our lives, everything, but most importantly our health insurances, most importantly my daughter’s health insurance!
My husband began drinking his own urine as if it were medicine. He would collect it in jars and store it on our porch. He would forbid the kids and me (very faith oriented people) to attend church. In an extremely heated attic, in a rented house, he would create circles with lighted candles and pray to his own god. In addition, he would forbid the children to drink milk. There were many other things but I won’t discuss more because it is too painful and disturbing.
All my attempts and pleas to discourage and stop this behavior ended in physical beatings following which I was locked in the basement. This was just a general picture, but actually living day to day, hour to hour with a mentally disturbed person is terrifying. The most dreadful thing about my situation was that I couldn’t call the police or turn to anyone for help because our stay in America depended on my husband and his work visa. After all the radiation, chemotherapy, and operations, America remained the only place where my child, my daughter, could survive. I had to endure everything.
Separation came on its own. During one of his crazed episodes, my husband declared that we all were to return back home even if he has to break my arms and legs and take me back in a wheelchair.
The airline tickets were already purchased for September 19th, 1999. All our belongings were packed, including the dirty laundry and the children’s bikes.
At ten in the morning arrived the car with representatives from my husband’s work. Everything was packed into the car. I, with my daughter by my side, went over to my neighbor, a lawyer and an extremely good and polite person. I informed him that in order to save the life of my daughter we have to remain in America, so we were not leaving. As a lawyer relying on the law, he relayed my decision to stay to the representatives who arrived from my husband’s work to escort us home.
My daughter and I were safe but I had another child to worry about, my son; my seven year old son. He had the last word; would he stay or would he go?
Those thirty-two steps to my car were the most excruciating and nerve-racking steps of my life. Thirty-third step and I would reach my car. I could not do it; I could not take that thirty-third step. I’m a mother; to save one of my children’s life I can’t sacrifice the other. I can’t abandon him for her.
All of a sudden the sun comes out. All of a sudden a miracle. I hear my son’s voice, “I want to go with my sister and my mommy,” and then the padding of his tiny, soft footsteps, the greatest sound in the world to me.
We got in the car and didn’t stop till it ran out of gas. With no money, no work, and not much knowledge of the language, this began a new period in our lives in which those foggy, cloudy days seemed to be getting brighter with time.
Approaches September of 2009, almost ten years since the day our lives took a turn for their new beginning, and we are proud to finally be American citizens. My daughter has been ten years in remission and runs as fast as the rest of them. She recently successfully finished her first year at Towson University and will begin her sophomore year. My son successfully finished high school and will start college very soon. I am a school bus driver. We live in our trailer with our growing debt, our debt collectors, and our hope and happiness that we are together; our hope that everything will work out.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read her story. I understand if you can't help because there are hundreds of people out there who are struggling. It means alot that you at least took the time to listen. Again thank you.