Please take the time and read my sister's story,  she continues to push forward in her life no matter how hard it seems sometimes! 

I am reaching out to the community for help. It isn’t an easy thing to do. But first, I think it is important to share my story.

In December of 2017, I unexpectedly lost my job. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, given my medical situation. It put me into the hardest situation I had ever endured, for as far back as I can remember. See, in 2012 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I couldn’t understand it, I couldn’t accept it, and I couldn’t envision ever being able to accomplish my dreams. I’m a makeup artist, and while there are many other symptoms, the numbness in my hands, the blurring of my vision, and the unexpectedness of my body’s fatigue scared the crap out of me. How could I continue to grow and succeed if my abilities were, for all intents and purposes, going to be degraded? I had come into this industry in 2005 as a seasonal makeup consultant at Sephora, and in just 3 years had risen to be a member of their National Pro Beauty Team, 14 people selected after several stages of auditions, out of 500+ candidates throughout the US and Canada. I traveled internationally, I did makeup for celebrity events, I was on top of the world. Then it happened. In 2009, I was in NYC with the team, and one night in my hotel room I started to feel like my vision was kinda off. My arm felt funny. The next morning, my roommate even noticed that one of my eyes didn’t look quite right. I went to our morning training hoping it was nothing. Then it began to quickly progress until I couldn’t feel my left arm, and my right eye just completely stopped tracking. I was admitted to the hospital for fear of a stroke. Of course, it wasn’t that. I was tested for various other possibilities: spinal taps, CTs, MRIs, you name it. I spent 3 days in NYC, alone with no family or friends from home. I finally made it home to UAB where I spent 9 more days. Again, more tests. I was told there were 2 visible lesions on my brain but that with this being the first occurrence, no real diagnosis could be given. It took 6 weeks to fully regain movement in my eye, and when it came time to re-up on my Pro Team auditions, I still had trouble seeing and feeling with my fingertips, and I was not selected again. MS took that from me, and at the time I didn’t even know it was the culprit. I pressed on. I fought through the pain, I became the key artist for Birmingham Fashion Week. I have been published 5 times. I refused to give up. It wasn’t until Dec. 2012 when another relapse resulted in me seeing a neurologist who performed an MRI and definitively diagnosed my MS. I remember the date. December 18, 2012. The day everything changed forever. But in a way, I was glad all my symptoms were explained, because until then, everyone though I was kinda crazy. And I am sure it did sound crazy. I was feeling frequent pain, chronic fatigue: and not just the tired, sleepy kind… the muscular kind, the kind where it’s hard to breath, and even harder to think. I was forgetting things, things from my childhood, and things I had just been told. I was running into walls because my spatial awareness and balance were completely off. I was having sporadic numbness and dropping like, 3 out of 10 things that I picked up. And the HEAT! I couldn’t spend 2 minutes in the heat without all of those things multiplying by 10! And after that, my day was shot. I would sleep for hours, and sometimes I would be so incapacitated the next day I couldn’t even get out of bed. Can you imagine living in the south and having that problem? Do I wanna go to a game, have a barbeque, go on walks, or basically any other activity done outdoors? No, I physically couldn’t. The doctor prescribed my body vests and scarves of ice packs to help, but these just became something I had to explain to every single person who saw me. And I could see the look in their eyes, “she is just such a baby, can’t handle the heat”. It was completely embarrassing. Then and now, I suffer sometimes unbearable anxiety and depression. Still… I pushed past my limits. I continued to lead makeup at Birmingham Fashion Week, because it was my passion! It was in tents, in the middle of summer, and I wanted to die on the inside, but tried to focus on my joy on the outside. I was angry that this disease was INVISBLE and that NO ONE could understand what my life was like! I started to lose friends… see, I couldn’t go out and do the things I used to, and people move on. They find other friends who aren’t such a burden. I am so lucky that I have kept some of my most sacred friends, and actually gained some new ones, who genuinely care about how I am doing. So, I am still pushing. But sometimes, no matter how hard you push, you reach a 12” thick reinforced steel wall that you couldn’t even blast your way through.

I’m there.

Now, for the reason for it all… my insurance. I have been on a great treatment that slows the progression of the disease itself (mind you, this doesn’t include those daily symptoms I mentioned which I will always battle). But not before I failed two other treatment methods. It took a couple years to get on Tysabri. And it aint cheap! Tysabri is a 70K/year drug infusion (given monthly), not including nurse administration costs. I am lucky to have been relapse free for going on 4 years thanks to Tysabri. Since I lost my job in December, I have been on COBRA coverage to continue treatment until I find another job with insurance that will pick up where my previous insurance left off. The catch? It costs about $700 a month!!! How does one pay a mortgage, a car payment, insurance, utilities, groceries, and doctor and drug copays AND $700 a month with NO JOB? I will tell you… I had no choice but to cash out my 401K and my Pension with Estee Lauder (the parent company I had given 7 years to). I lost thousands of dollars in penalties from early withdrawal, and my tax return went from $3500 to $400. I looked for months to find employment and I finally got a job at Publix part time. I like my job there, and I can see this being a good shift from the crushing stress and physical strain of my last job in cosmetics management. The challenge is I won’t be eligible for insurance until after a year of employment. I AM eligible to continue COBRA until then, but again, $700 a month is impossible for me. My hourly rate is half what I am used to, not to mention being part time. I picked up 2 other part time jobs, so now I work 3. I am getting close to being able to cover all the main bills I have, but I can’t get that extra $ to pay for insurance! If I lose my insurance, all treatment stops. I take 11 medications daily to give some relief to the side effects of MS. I’ll give a little side perspective… my pain medication is roughly $900 a month without insurance, and the medicine I take to greatly help my fatigue and mental clarity is almost $500 a month without insurance. The rest come up to almost $1000. So yeah, I really mean that ALL treatments would stop. My likelihood of having a relapse (this is a worsening or symptoms, or presentation of a new symptom that results in hospitalization) skyrockets, and can you imagine a hospital bill like that for the uninsured?! To top that off, a lapse in my coverage causes a significant setback in my authorized drug treatment allowance (the stipulation being that I have to “fail” two treatments before being put on a treatment as expensive as Tysabri). The cost of my new premium would be inflated. I could go on, there are so many reasons I have to do whatever I can to remain insured.

I wanted to share my story, and hope that anyone out there can help me in any way. Every dollar, every share counts. If I reach my goal, I can rest assured I am insured the remaining 9 months, until I am eligible to come off COBRA and enroll in an employer-provided policy costing me a fraction of the price. I need help, to break through this steel wall.

I thank anyone who has taking their own precious time to read my story, and for any consideration of help… even simply thoughts and prayers.

If for any reason I exceed the goal, I will be donating all extra monies to the National MS Society to help someone else in need.