Foot Injury, Surgery, & Recovery
Hi, I'm Sean. I live in Denver, CO, where I work at the Denver Art Museum.
On September 9th of this year, I stepped on a sewing needle that had somehow found itself stuck in the fibers of my room's carpet. The needle broke and half of it became lodged in my foot.
I immediately went to an urgent care facility, where they made an incision, probed the inside of my foot, and took X-rays. Struggling to extract the needle, and after spending six hours there, they realized that the necessary procedure required more resources and equipment than they possessed. From there I went to the emergency room where I spent another five hours going through roughly the same thing, another incision, more X-rays, and more probing. When they, too, realized that they couldn't remove the needle in the ER, I was referred to a podiatrist, who then scheduled surgery for me, which I have now had on September 19th.
Thankfully the remainder of the broken sewing needle has been extracted from my foot. Unfortunately I am still not able put pressure on my foot or walk without the aid of crutches, meaning that I cannot go back to work until I am fully healed and recovered because my job requires me to stand and walk in the galleries for 8 to 12 hours each day. My recovery time will be at least 3 to 4 more weeks, during which I won't be able to work, and therefore will have no income. Since I have already missed 2 weeks of work due to my injury, I will be going without income for a total of 6 weeks minimum. And due to a recent death in the family, I have used most of my paid vacation time visiting family last month, and I don't have enough left to compensate me for lost work hours. This 6-week leave of absence will cost me about $2,180 in income.
In the ten days since I was injured, I've accrued many expenditures, ranging from transportation costs to prescriptions, from X-rays and medical procedures to unexpected doctor appointments.
Though I do have health insurance, I do have a higher deductible, so the costs of these medical bills are still falling heavily on me. Below is a list of my medical expenses so far (these are the amounts I pay after insurance):
$50 for urgent care visit and treatment
$80 in prescriptions (... so far...)
$200 for emergency room visit and treatment
$200 for four visits to the podiatrist
$1700 for podiatric surgery
Total in medical bills so far: $2,230
In addition to these expenses, I also have my normal month-to-month living expenses, which are listed below, and which I will need help with during this period of 6 weeks that I have no income.
$100 for my phone/internet accounts
$100 for household items & pet supplies
$350 for groceries
$1050 for rent
Total living expenses for 6 weeks: $1,600
All in all, given that I am $2,180 short in my income, and that I still have to pay these expenses, I am short $6,010 in total. This doesn't include money that I've had to borrow for transportation costs and food in the last 10 days.
During this extremely difficult time for me, I need help and I need it soon, because the next month could be disastrous for me financially, and anything anyone can give will be greatly appreciated.