Support Elida's disability journey

Hello community!

As some of you know, I was diagnosed in spring of 2024 with Long COVID, ME/CFS, and POTS after a series of hospitalizations. Since my diagnosis, I stopped working completely, and have spent the past year seeing doctors, learning how to live with these new life changing conditions, and embarking on the long and tedious journey of applying for SSI/DSSI and accessible housing, filing for bankruptcy, and (hopefully) acquiring a power chair.

It's been about a year since the hospitalization that led to my subsequent diagnosis. These days, I'm managing my conditions better and have embraced the new, more visible debilities of my disabled body mind.

This primary goal of this fundraiser is to raise money to cover expenses that I currently cannot cover due to the loss of my ability to work full time. This next year of my disability journey will involve me figuring out what exactly my new capacities are. With my new conditions, working and pursing high demand career opportunities full time are no longer an option. I'm hopeful with accommodating my new baselines and eventually acquiring a power chair, I will be able to pursue more formal opportunities in the near future, including possibly going back to school for a master's degree. In the meantime, it looks like self employment on a part time basis that honors my limits may be the route I'm destined to experiment with and see if it works for me and my disabilities.

With all of that said -- losing the ability to work full time has also led to a significant loss of income, and the ability to pay for my most basic expenses like my rent, electricity, gas and internet. I've been chronically late on my rent for the past year, and probably testing the good will of my landlord. Paying rent is still incredibly hard for me, as well as my utility bills and things like gas and car insurance to get to my medical appointments. It's also led to things like not filling my prescriptions for necessary medications that help me manage my conditions because I can't afford them, and going without medical supplies/resources I use every day to manage my conditions and symptoms because I have to pay for them out of pocket and I just don't have the means. I can't even afford pads ya'll - that's how broke I am!

I'm currently in the process of appealing my first SSI/DSSI denial with legal representation. I'm also in the final stages of qualifying for section 8 accessible housing. Living in accessible housing is the last criteria I need to fulfill in order for insurance to approve coverage of the power chair I very much need. After all is said and done, I expect myself to be finished with both of these processes by the end of the year. Until then, I have to fundraise in order to meet my basic needs.

Please consider donating as I continue navigating this disability journey. A little goes a long way, and any amount is deeply appreciated!

You can also send your donation through:

Venmo: @roseandscabbard

Cashapp: $bionicbattleangel

Unable to donate? Amplifying this fundraiser by sharing it with others goes a long way, and is deeply appreciated!!!! Thank you in advance to everyone who gets the word out there. You're all amazing!

You can follow me on Instagram at @chronicallydisabledbaddie for future updates about this and other fundraising activities, as well as for posts about the grassroots disability justice work I am currently doing. Organizing is still very much part of my life, and if it means cripping the hell out of it, so be it!

Thank you again!

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Current Fundraising Milestones: