Medical Bills

Hi, My name is Colleen. In 2009 I lost the use of my right arm. It just went dead. I thought it was a stroke. It turned out to be herniated disks in my neck. I had a triple fusion and got about 50% of the use of my arm back. In 2012 I lost the feeling in the right side of my face down into my right arm. Again I thought it was a stroke as I had not had any neck injury. I had a single fusion in my cervical spine this time. It did not heal correctly. So in 2013 both my hands and fingers went numb and tingled. I also lost all coordination in my legs. I had an emergency MRI and was in surgery again in 48 hours. So far I have not gotten back the feeling in my hands nor have I gotten coordination back in my legs. I now walk with a cane so I won't fall. I am only 55yrs young. I do have health insurance but my copay is 20% of total bill. And when your bill for just the hospital is over $50,000, that is a $10,000 co-pay. I have been making payments since 2009 so I've paid most of my bills but now we have run out of extra money to keep paying my current bills. We even collect cans to help pay bills. If I could work I would be out there working but my doctor says I have a spinal cord injury now and it's too dangerous for me to work. I have worked all my life since I was 9yrs old. I started doing babysitting and then after college I had a 20yr career as a paramedic. I was not injured on my job of 20yrs. Then I had a Family DayCare business when my husband got hurt on his job and needed someone to care for him until he could get back to work. His injury turned out to be one that he couldn't work ever again. His too was spinal cord damage from an on duty accident. For 2 years he had no salary so we used my retirement money to survive until that ran out. We had to sell our house before we forclosed. Early on in our careers we had bought property in Oregon. We had lived and worked in CA. Oregon was cheaper to live so we moved to Oregon and were able to build a home on our property but still had a mortgage. By 3 years my husbands disability Retirement was approved. It wasn't enough to support us so I went to work in retail and went to school to become a Pharmacy Technition and passed. I was about to get a job as a Pharmacy Tech when I lost the feeling in my arm(2009). After surgery the doctor said I could no longer work. My job fired me. I couldn't collect unemployment as I was "Unemployable"! I couldn't get welfare because my husbands retirement was $200.00 over the poverty limit. I applied for Social Security Disability Benefits as I had paid into Social Security all my working years (35yrs). I had enough credits to qualify. So far I have been turned down at every process even though my doctor keeps telling them that I have permanent spinal cord damage. I am on my last appeal process. My Attorney said this appeal could take up to 2 years before we hear back. So far we are now into our 5th year waiting to be approved for disability benefits. We have depleted our savings; we have borrowed against our life insurance policies; we have taken out money from our Roth IRA's in the amount that is legal for medical bills. We have nowhere else to get money to pay all my outstanding medical bills. Most doctors and the Hospital have been willing to work with us but now it's getting to be too long that they haven't been paid and our minimal payments each month are no longer enough. We have always been able to pay our bills. We were both very good workers and while we were healthy we always worked. We have never been on welfare or any government assistance. Please help us get back on our feet and help me get healthy by donating money so I can pay all my hospital, doctors, Xrays, Labs, Anethesiologists, etc, bills. If there is any money over what my bills are I would put the money in a trust account for future bills. I will still need physical therapy in the future. if there is more money than I need then I will make sure that the money goes back to the donation pool for someone else who needs the money. Thank You so much for reading my story and Thank You for any donation that you can afford in these tough times. Thanks and God Bless.