Help Cassie While She's Sick

Hello visitors! I'm Cassie and I am very sick.

I am also many things besides very sick:  I just finished my masters degree and became a real librarian, I'm engaged to that stud in the picture with me (his name is Matt and he's the best), I'm the food provider for two adorable kitties:

Yeti is the fluffy one, Jinx is the batman one.

Most of you coming to this page already know about what's going on.  But for the rest, here's the story:

I am having a relapse of Granulomatosis with Polyangitis (GPA).  This is a very serious, inflammatory, vascular, auto-immune disease.  When I was first diagnosed (about 13 years ago) it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me and it literally changed my entire life.  This time is a little different - I'm not quite as sick, and I'm not quite as young, so I can handle it better.  I do have a little PTSD from the first time, which makes things hard.  I also am not 17, so I have adult responsibilities to worry about.  There's a lot more to the story, and I've been writing about it all along here on this blog.  I encourage you to go there and read as much or as little as you want.

The reason you are here now, is that life doesn't stop even when I have to.  At this point in time, I'm too sick to work.  I have FMLA to save me from losing my job, but I am facing a fairly large chunk of time off without pay.  Because I've been sick for a while (it takes time to diagnose these nasty things), I've burned through most of my PTO.  I'm asking you, my friends, family, friends of friends and family, kind strangers from the internet, for help.  Money is stressfull, and I need to focus on getting healthy so I can get back to my life.  There are children at my library who need their storytimes!

Here's what your money will be used for:

Bills and food and the normal stuff that my paycheck would go to.

Medical expenses.  I have very good insurance though my job, which I'm very thankful for.  My plan is a high deductable with an HSA.  I've met my deductable for this year, and am close to meeting my out-of-pocket.  However, I'm likely going to be still dealing with expensive treatments and doctors next year, and my HSA is fairly depleted.  I'd love to at least have my deductable for next year completely covered.

Miscellany - I'm on prednisone right now, which is a terrible drug.  One of the side effects, which I'm trying to avoid, but it's pretty much inevitable, is weight gain.  That means I'm probably going to need new clothes because society is all like "you have to wear pants!"  I don't have the energy to cook or clean, maybe we could pay someone to do that sometimes.  I might also need a new nose... well, I'd like a new nose.  GPA has eaten the bridge of my nose: If I need a new nose, insurance will cover it, but it's questionable.  Technically, my nose does currently work with the bridge collapsed like that, so fixing it might just count as purely cosmetic.  I've gotten increasingly self-conscious about it and would really like to fix my nose.

Unexpected life expenses.  Like the plumbing emergency we had the day of my big important doctors appointment.

Anything beyond that... Well, there are lots of good things we can use the money for.  There are improvements we need to make around the house.  We have a wedding to plan and pay for.  Matt and I both have student loans that we could stand to get rid of.  And you know what, when life deals you terrible cards like this, sometimes it's really really nice to be able to go out and buy nice things.   

Here's a picture of me with a snake.  It's a transition.

I have been so blessed so far by the outpouring of support from everyone I know.  It means more than I can put into words to have the security of so many people rooting for me and sending me good thoughts and offering to help.  Thank you in advance for anything you can give.  Having people like you in my life make these rough times infinitely more bearable.