IN CRISIS MODE and going through dressings much faster due to heatwave causing infections to spread rapidly during summer months. also the start of a very traumatic CPTSD time for me. everything is so raw it hurts to move. please help spread the word.

++ EMERGENCY CALL FOR AID : MEDICAL DRESSINGS ++

thai needs to raise funds for hydrocolloid medical bandages and supplies that are critical for their survival. They are currently experiencing unmanageable full-body infections and persistent fevers while their body is under immense stress, putting them in an even more precarious position while being unable to safely access medical care amidst the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.

The skin is the body’s largest organ, outward-facing and volatile, and an indicator of internal stressors & illnesses that are so often ignored in the scope of western medicine and medical industrial complex.

These specialized bandages are the only supplies that provide thai any relief from their skin infections, and are extremely costly and cannot easily be accessed. Recently, the manufacturing company that supplies bulk quantities inflated their prices even further, and no longer provides free shipping– making medical supplies that should be free even more inaccessible. thai is enduring agony from an extended profoundly painful reaction to topical steroids that has stretched over SEVEN years, not counting their former life experience with this. Their infections are yet to be properly diagnosed or treated despite previous interventions with multiple medical specialists. Their long-anticipated appointment to address these concerns continues to be canceled and rescheduled due to both specialists having contracted Covid. Now they will not be available til next year. This is DETRIMENTAL to thai's survival. They needed this appointment years ago, since before pandemic. Every day is filled with precarity.

thai uses roughly 10 boxes of these dressings [sometimes more] to cover and relieve the pain of full-body and facial skin open wounds; this means 70 boxes = $1500 per week. The larger dressings they have been using cover more surface area, but are even more costly. they need both sizes for different areas.

We are imploring you to let our friend live, and to fight for their living, as the medical-industrial complex and the conditions of capitalism attempt to immiserate them day after day. Their current experience is the direct outcome of medical neglect, the failures of the medical industrial complex, and ableist systems at large replicated on an interpersonal and communal level.

More information about thai’s medical history is outlined in detail below:

thai is a cancer survivor with multiple chronic and autoimmune conditions. They are severely immunocompromised and—due to the Covid-19 and MPX crises that they cannot safely receive vaccination for—cannot risk seeing doctors, therapists, or specialists in-person, and so has not been able to receive any consistent hands-on treatment. thai's care has been on hold since the start of the pandemic, which has left them to fend for themselves however they can, usually through continuous crowd-funding efforts online.

thai does not qualify for state or federal financial aid and is therefore forced to sacrifice any sense of privacy in an effort to raise funds for their survival, a constant performance against social media algorithms. In an era where GoFundMe stands as health insurance, this is unsustainable without consistency in community mutual aid.

thai is a first generation Vietnamese American from a family of refugees, an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and a community organizer centering their practice on the social, cultural, and physical effects of chronic illness. They are also a disability justice advocate and a founding member of Sick In Quarters (SiQ), a disabled-artist led mutual aid project supporting patient advocacy and care work in and for communities in en/forced marginalization..

Remember: one of the main tenets of mutual aid is consistency over time. Please directly ask those you are in community with to support and share this fundraiser continually. Thank you in advance for your solidarity, and please share this fundraiser with as many people as you can.

TW : wounded skin

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