Angel Twins

My Family Story My name is Zenobia Olivier, my husband (Cois) I am married now for 34 years and we have 3 boys. Waldo is the oldest he is 31, and then we have the twin boy’s Jacques and Heinrich they are turning 28 in May. Our twins where born prematurely at 27 weeks and because of shortage of oxygen they suffered brain damage at birth. They both are quadriplegic cerebral palsy (meaning can not walk or do anything for themselves have to have 24hr care), they don’t have speech either which classifies them as severely disabled. Jacques is the sicker one of the two, he gets tube feeding as struggles to swallow and choke very easily on even purified food. Heinrich is the charmer and he loves visits from anybody. We love our boy’s and in all these years we have made it our life’s work to look after them, and to give them the love and care they need. We can give our love for free but the care come at a cost, and there care has really drained us financially. The twins are both on adult nappies, the special feeds for Jacques as well as the feeding tubes we have to buy. Then there is the medicine, we had to appoint a carer to help look after them as these two are now young men, and it takes two people to pick them up. Then there is the specialised equipment like wheelchairs, hoist and hospital beds, and one day a kombi (they are mainly house bound now as we have a bantam bakkie and have to ask people when to help with cars when we want to take them out) these things will make life much easier. We have a specialised wheelchair for Jacques which cost us R26 000.00 as it was custom made for him, but it needs some care new padding etc. Heinrich’s electrical wheelchair is not working at all, so he does not see the point to get out of bed at the moment. The hoist was bought in 2015 as there is times that I am alone and then the twins can not be picked up from their beds, although we look after it the battery is deteriating and we will have to buy a new one. But know to get to the sad part of the story. In January 2014 my husband got ill went to the Dr and was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure. While in hospital they could not understand why he was losing blood and after 7 blood transfusion, lots of test and a bone morrow test, he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. This was such a shock to us, as there is not a long future for us left anymore. Multiple Myeloma is a bone morrow cancer, which is in you blood and effects your bones. Dr has explained to us that there is no cure for this, but with treatment his life expectancy will be increase, he was given 6 months to two years and if all goes well, it can be up to five years. But because Cois has already have kidney failure and anaemia and his calcium is giving some problems, which is already 3 of the 4 legs of this decease they can only try. We have started with chemo in February 2014 year, but our medical aid only gives us R200 000.00 for oncology, so needless to say we incurred a lot of medical bills, then the Dr has suggested a stem cell transplant as he is reacting very well with the chemo which we did in March 2015 which depleted our medical aid immediately and more medical bills was added. This treatment might give him a change to be there for me and the boys for a little longer. We have now come to the final stretch of the road and we know that God has Cois’s path worked out for him and that he gave him more time with us. As Cois cannot work anymore, I do not have the means to save any more money from my salary, to buy anything that the Boys need and all the additional medical expenses.