Want To Smile Again
Donation protected
In 2012, I woke up with a ball on the side of my face. Unbelievably, I dismissed as swelling. The next day, my family saw the ball on the side of my face and said that I needed to see a dentist. The dental appointment was scheduled for Monday morning and this was on a Friday.
Over the weekend, things got worse. When I went to the Dentist on Monday morning, he said that it was the worst abscess that he had seen in 45 years of dentistry. I was sent immediately to the emergency room and then to a hospital where life saving surgery was performed the next day. They removed twelve teeth out of my mouth and due to a followup abscess, they had to remove two more in the months after that. There were also drains put in my neck and my jaw was shaved... but I lived.
Work did not provide any funding for me during this time other than vacation time and I was pressured to back before any disability kicked in. Later that same year, I had abdominal pains which made me unable to work. Due a poor insurance set up, I wound up missing months of work and had a surgery the following Januray. At this point, the disability determined that I should have been working all along. Work then stated that the only way I would still have a job would be to sign a document saying that my leave was never medical. Once they had that document signed, I was left without anything for the time off. Many people helped me and my family get through but I was eventually evicted and only with the assistance of wonderful people was I able to get a new place and a new job albeit out of state.
Of course, once the teeth were actually out, the surgery people considered their work to be done. This year, I decided to see if I could do something about actually getting dentures so that I could smile again. That was delayed a bit because I slipped on ice outside of my new job and broke my leg in three places. I broke my ankle in two. I dislocated my ankle and I suffered a concussion. Again, I was out of work nearly a month and spent a good month after I came back to work hobbling on a walked and one leg in a boot.
But, I remained undeterred. My leg was eventually pronounced to be fully healed and I scheduled a dental appointment. I had to cancel the dental appointment twice due to car failure. When I finally did have the dental appointment this week, my car's battery died while I was in there in downtown Baltimore. Roadside assistance actually left because they did not think it was a battery and a friend came to bail us out.
The dentist said that they would need to extract two teeth, and fix two more, and do an additional procedure for my mouth to be ready for the dentures... which my insurance did not cover. After four years of scraping together to get back on my feet and get some semblence of well enough to do this, I would like to actually be able too.
I applied for credit in order to do it even from "non-traditional" sources like Lending Club and CareCredit. I found that their 'nos' after my understandably damaged credit sounded a lot like traditional banks and lending companies. The amount represents what is necessary to get my mouth fixed so that I can smile in public and show teeth and don't have to be constantly embarassed. People have been so consistently good to me that I naturally have a large amount of guilt for asking or even bringing anything. I have been given more in this life than I can ever even begin to hope to repay. But, you never know until you try.
The worst anyone can do is ignore or say no or think "Well, they always seem to be begging." Its just been a hard road and for once I would just like something repaired by my own decision that I want rather than have repaired because my life is legitimately threatened or I have trouble standing without it. Even if the answer comes back as nothing, then at the very least I know I have exhausted the possibility.
All love and God Bless or whatever higher power or good natural human impulse you happen to believe in. I should have my mouth ready in a couple months which will give me a better idea of whether I can proceed with the actual goal
Over the weekend, things got worse. When I went to the Dentist on Monday morning, he said that it was the worst abscess that he had seen in 45 years of dentistry. I was sent immediately to the emergency room and then to a hospital where life saving surgery was performed the next day. They removed twelve teeth out of my mouth and due to a followup abscess, they had to remove two more in the months after that. There were also drains put in my neck and my jaw was shaved... but I lived.
Work did not provide any funding for me during this time other than vacation time and I was pressured to back before any disability kicked in. Later that same year, I had abdominal pains which made me unable to work. Due a poor insurance set up, I wound up missing months of work and had a surgery the following Januray. At this point, the disability determined that I should have been working all along. Work then stated that the only way I would still have a job would be to sign a document saying that my leave was never medical. Once they had that document signed, I was left without anything for the time off. Many people helped me and my family get through but I was eventually evicted and only with the assistance of wonderful people was I able to get a new place and a new job albeit out of state.
Of course, once the teeth were actually out, the surgery people considered their work to be done. This year, I decided to see if I could do something about actually getting dentures so that I could smile again. That was delayed a bit because I slipped on ice outside of my new job and broke my leg in three places. I broke my ankle in two. I dislocated my ankle and I suffered a concussion. Again, I was out of work nearly a month and spent a good month after I came back to work hobbling on a walked and one leg in a boot.
But, I remained undeterred. My leg was eventually pronounced to be fully healed and I scheduled a dental appointment. I had to cancel the dental appointment twice due to car failure. When I finally did have the dental appointment this week, my car's battery died while I was in there in downtown Baltimore. Roadside assistance actually left because they did not think it was a battery and a friend came to bail us out.
The dentist said that they would need to extract two teeth, and fix two more, and do an additional procedure for my mouth to be ready for the dentures... which my insurance did not cover. After four years of scraping together to get back on my feet and get some semblence of well enough to do this, I would like to actually be able too.
I applied for credit in order to do it even from "non-traditional" sources like Lending Club and CareCredit. I found that their 'nos' after my understandably damaged credit sounded a lot like traditional banks and lending companies. The amount represents what is necessary to get my mouth fixed so that I can smile in public and show teeth and don't have to be constantly embarassed. People have been so consistently good to me that I naturally have a large amount of guilt for asking or even bringing anything. I have been given more in this life than I can ever even begin to hope to repay. But, you never know until you try.
The worst anyone can do is ignore or say no or think "Well, they always seem to be begging." Its just been a hard road and for once I would just like something repaired by my own decision that I want rather than have repaired because my life is legitimately threatened or I have trouble standing without it. Even if the answer comes back as nothing, then at the very least I know I have exhausted the possibility.
All love and God Bless or whatever higher power or good natural human impulse you happen to believe in. I should have my mouth ready in a couple months which will give me a better idea of whether I can proceed with the actual goal
Organizer
Jim Ciscell
Organizer
Middle River, MD
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