Cassie's Medical Journey Needs Your Help

My name is Dan. Pictured with me is my wife, Cassie. We have been married since July 7, 2007 (7/7/7). We have two children and a bunch of cats and dogs.

Why am I asking for your assistance? Well, this has been a horrible year for my family. But I will start with what is going on with Cassie. Our joke is that she never does anything the easy way. Her conditions include hypertension, hypothyroidism, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and celiac disease. And every new condition seems to add more complications.

She started off her new medical issues last year with a bout of Bell's Palsy. Nobody could help her down here, and she had to drive from New Orleans to Washington, DC, to see a specialist up there. While we finally got some answers, that trip added expenses for us, and her palsy still exists to this day.

She had been taking Taltz for her psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis. It is believed that this may have had something to do with some of her initial issues that she is dealing with now. That gave her some issues with her mouth that have since turned into dysgeusia (altered taste in a negative way). Everything she has eaten since about mid-December tastes either excessively salty, bitter, or rotten. This has made it hard for her to eat or drink anything. Even water tastes like rotten eggs. A lack of hydration and caloric intake has obviously caused other issues. But we still don't know what are causes and what are symptoms. She has been to the hospital four times in the last few weeks. She is currently still in the hospital at the time I am posting this with more tests and potential treatments.

Her maximum out-of-pocket (assuming everything charged is "in network") is $4,000. She has already made it to $2,650 with a lot of claims not having yet been processed by our insurance. This will likely use up all of the money we had set aside in our FSA and will leave that empty for the rest of the year for other expenses for the rest of our family.

What else happened this year? Her mom passed away in April. This has led to at least $1,000 in added bills per month, plus additional one-time expenses, since around June because of added car/mortgage notes. We are trying to sell her house, but the amount of debt that has piled on since June has just about become crippling financially.

Take into account all other expenses that have come, and will come, (including but not limited to missing pay, added costs for additional travel, etc.) and you will probably figure out why we are asking for assistance from anyone who can afford even the smallest of donations. I cannot know at this point how much we will ultimately need. However, whatever we get will help us climb out of this hole that we are in. If we raise more than needed, I will definitely help pay it forward as well.

Edit: I just wanted to thank everyone who has already contribited. I also want to add that GoFundMe is a little weird about how it lists the total goal. While I don't know exactly how much we will need, the number I put in (which won't fully being us out of the hole we're in) is higher than what is currently listed. Apparently it automatically adjusts.