Bailey Cancer Crisis
Donation protected
It's been over a year since Robert's health issues began. 9 months ago we started traveling to Cleveland clinic for weeks at a time seeking answers. 7 months ago we flew to MD Anderson for a consultation and were told we couldn't go home or he would die. He finally got a diagnosis, but not the one we were hoping for... inoperable Stage 4 Urothelial cancer. 6 months ago we moved into our camper in Houston, where we lived for 4 months. 4 months ago, Robert's job cut his pay by 70% because of his "decreased abilities" due to his cancer treatments and time spent in the hospital. 3 months ago, we got our last paycheck.
After 4 rounds of hard core chemo and week-long hospital stays, Robert was too sick to continue working. Living in the camper became too hard as he continued to get sicker, and we decided to come back home to continue his treatment locally. We moved back home and he applied for disability. We finally got an approval a little over a week ago. Finally! After a year of scraping by, never-ending medical bills and copays, travel expenses, simultaneously paying for our house and RV campsite, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Disability wouldn't cover all of our bills, but it would allow us to make the little bit of retirement money that we had left last us a while and give us some time to breathe. Some time to focus on Robert's health and not stress 24/7. We thought we had made it.
We were wrong.
Just a few days ago, we got a letter in the mail from Disability stating that Robert would not be eligible for any disability money until JULY 2020. We won't receive a dime until August 19th. So because Robert continued to work until the end of January, making peanuts, refusing to give up, utilizing every bit of effort and strength that he had to try to continue to support his family, he wasn't disabled enough. Even though his diagnosis is terminal, even though his tumor is inoperable, even though he couldn't possibly work if he wanted to. He isn't sick ENOUGH for them to help.
Then there's medical insurance. When Robert had to leave his job, we lost insurance. Robert would literally die without medical coverage, so we painfully signed him up for the $480/month COBRA coverage. We couldn't afford coverage for Parker and I, so we haven't had insurance for a few months now. We thought we had finally figured that out and would qualify for coverage through the healthcare marketplace, but then today we found out that won't work either. Apparently since we paid for COBRA to make sure Robert didn't lose coverage and could continue treatment, he now can't get coverage through the marketplace??!! So yeah, now we're stuck paying almost $500 a month for his insurance that he needs to stay alive. The hits just keep on coming, I tell you.
And here I am, helpless again, spending all of my time and effort to take care of him and our toddler, unable to do anything to help. I had ramped my design business back up, then this pandemic reared its ugly head and no one wants design work. No one is advertising. I had planned to start nannying and pet sitting when Robert's immune system bounced back after chemo, hoping to at least help cover some of our bills. Thanks to this virus I can't even grocery shop for our family in fear of bringing the virus home to my immunocompromised husband, let alone watch someone else's kids or animals for money.
The cancer has taken a huge toll on Robert physically, mentally and emotionally. Getting up and out of bed is a huge task for him most days. The added financial stress that has come with his cancer diagnosis is too heavy a burden for him to carry. So here we are.
Our retirement money is gone. We have about a month's worth of bill money left. We're putting groceries on credit cards. We're ignoring the pile of medical bills. We've deferred all of the bills that we can, but we're still going to fall short. We just need to make it until mid-August when we start getting at least some money coming in again.
We did not want to have to ask for help. Again. We've done our best to stretch our funds as far as we can, but we can only stretch so far with no money coming in for another 4 months. We've been blessed with help along the way from some amazing family and friends and we are eternally grateful. We were really hoping that disability would kick in soon so we could do this on our own. We're even talking to Robert's life insurance company about pulling funds from his policy. We've exhausted all of our options, so here we are, asking for help. We know a lot of people are having tough times themselves right now, but we don't really have a lot of options left.
Any little bit helps. God willing, Robert will beat this and a year from now we will be in the position to pay it forward.
Thanks for listening, for caring, for wishing and praying, for loving our family through this last year. Hopefully we're almost to the finish line. We can only take so much more.
After 4 rounds of hard core chemo and week-long hospital stays, Robert was too sick to continue working. Living in the camper became too hard as he continued to get sicker, and we decided to come back home to continue his treatment locally. We moved back home and he applied for disability. We finally got an approval a little over a week ago. Finally! After a year of scraping by, never-ending medical bills and copays, travel expenses, simultaneously paying for our house and RV campsite, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Disability wouldn't cover all of our bills, but it would allow us to make the little bit of retirement money that we had left last us a while and give us some time to breathe. Some time to focus on Robert's health and not stress 24/7. We thought we had made it.
We were wrong.
Just a few days ago, we got a letter in the mail from Disability stating that Robert would not be eligible for any disability money until JULY 2020. We won't receive a dime until August 19th. So because Robert continued to work until the end of January, making peanuts, refusing to give up, utilizing every bit of effort and strength that he had to try to continue to support his family, he wasn't disabled enough. Even though his diagnosis is terminal, even though his tumor is inoperable, even though he couldn't possibly work if he wanted to. He isn't sick ENOUGH for them to help.
Then there's medical insurance. When Robert had to leave his job, we lost insurance. Robert would literally die without medical coverage, so we painfully signed him up for the $480/month COBRA coverage. We couldn't afford coverage for Parker and I, so we haven't had insurance for a few months now. We thought we had finally figured that out and would qualify for coverage through the healthcare marketplace, but then today we found out that won't work either. Apparently since we paid for COBRA to make sure Robert didn't lose coverage and could continue treatment, he now can't get coverage through the marketplace??!! So yeah, now we're stuck paying almost $500 a month for his insurance that he needs to stay alive. The hits just keep on coming, I tell you.
And here I am, helpless again, spending all of my time and effort to take care of him and our toddler, unable to do anything to help. I had ramped my design business back up, then this pandemic reared its ugly head and no one wants design work. No one is advertising. I had planned to start nannying and pet sitting when Robert's immune system bounced back after chemo, hoping to at least help cover some of our bills. Thanks to this virus I can't even grocery shop for our family in fear of bringing the virus home to my immunocompromised husband, let alone watch someone else's kids or animals for money.
The cancer has taken a huge toll on Robert physically, mentally and emotionally. Getting up and out of bed is a huge task for him most days. The added financial stress that has come with his cancer diagnosis is too heavy a burden for him to carry. So here we are.
Our retirement money is gone. We have about a month's worth of bill money left. We're putting groceries on credit cards. We're ignoring the pile of medical bills. We've deferred all of the bills that we can, but we're still going to fall short. We just need to make it until mid-August when we start getting at least some money coming in again.
We did not want to have to ask for help. Again. We've done our best to stretch our funds as far as we can, but we can only stretch so far with no money coming in for another 4 months. We've been blessed with help along the way from some amazing family and friends and we are eternally grateful. We were really hoping that disability would kick in soon so we could do this on our own. We're even talking to Robert's life insurance company about pulling funds from his policy. We've exhausted all of our options, so here we are, asking for help. We know a lot of people are having tough times themselves right now, but we don't really have a lot of options left.
Any little bit helps. God willing, Robert will beat this and a year from now we will be in the position to pay it forward.
Thanks for listening, for caring, for wishing and praying, for loving our family through this last year. Hopefully we're almost to the finish line. We can only take so much more.
Organizer
Debbie Bailey
Organizer
Hendersonville, TN
