Healing Journey
Donation protected
First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking your time to stop by to hear my story. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Yuki Kubota Simmons. I’m a proud single mom of two beautiful children. I’m originally from a beautiful tropical island called “Amami Oshima” in southern part of Japan but have been residing in Los Angeles County since 2005. Just for disclosure, the photo is a few years old but it’s still my favorite. My son now goes to college in San Diego and my daughter goes to high school in South Pasadena. I have enjoyed working for two wonderful not-for-profit organizations in Los Angeles - Keiro (formerly Keiro Senior HealthCare) from 2005 to 2015 and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group from 2015 to now as an Executive Assistant. It has been my passion to give back to the community whenever/wherever I could and during my free time, I’ve enjoyed volunteering, giving free hugs and posting free smiles at local coffee shops.
My health started crumbling down last year in August 2016. Before then, I was severely anemic due to fibroid in my uterus but I was still functional. When it came down to blood transfusion or surgery, I decided to have hysterectomy in hopes to recover from severe anemia. Within a week after my surgery in August, I developed an infection (abscess). The infection and antibiotic treatment triggered so many things in my body. Since then, I have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, auto immune disease(I’ve had it since pre-teen but it was manageable until the infection triggered it), chronic pelvic pain (possibly from nerve damage from the surgery) and vestibular neuritis. My white cells continue to be elevated and I also started having minor cognitive impairment. I always feel exhausted and I just have not had much social life as weekends and weeknights have been allocated to my recovery time even though I have been only working half day in the office, half day at home for the last 4 months. Unfortunately, due to all the health issues piling up, I have been hospitalized 5 times since the surgery.
The final wakeup call was last week (11/28, 2017) when I was hospitalized with colon inflammation caused by antibiotic treatment. I started my chemo treatment (dose is so much lower than those for cancer patients) for my auto immune disease. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well for my body and I had to stop the treatment and start antibiotic treatment. Ironically, the antibiotic caused an infection and I was in the hospital for 5 days. I felt like my body was giving up on me as my high fever kept returning, my blood pressure kept dropping and my stomach could not tolerate any food. I finally realized that my body needs to rest and I need to give it enough time to recover. My doctor agreed and I decided to apply for disability insurance so that I can focus on healing. My tentative return to work date set by my doctor is April 2, 2018. I’ve been seeing hematologist, neurologist, nutritionist, neuro psychologist, rheumatologist, and dermatologist and my primary doctor has been acting as my care coordinator. After the colon inflammation, now I’m scheduled to see an infectious disease specialist and GI as well.
As you might already know, disability insurance does not cover your whole paychecks, and with my on-going health conditions for over a year, I exhausted all my savings, sick leave and paid time off. As a single mother in Los Angeles without any family members, I always rushed to go back to work even though my body wasn’t ready because of the financial situation. If I can raise the funds, it will allow me to keep my current health insurance coverage, help me pay my rent, food, utilities and regular & medical bills without any worries for 4 months while I focus on healing. As I'm determined to put my health first, I would greatly appreciate your support and help with my healing journey. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
My health started crumbling down last year in August 2016. Before then, I was severely anemic due to fibroid in my uterus but I was still functional. When it came down to blood transfusion or surgery, I decided to have hysterectomy in hopes to recover from severe anemia. Within a week after my surgery in August, I developed an infection (abscess). The infection and antibiotic treatment triggered so many things in my body. Since then, I have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, auto immune disease(I’ve had it since pre-teen but it was manageable until the infection triggered it), chronic pelvic pain (possibly from nerve damage from the surgery) and vestibular neuritis. My white cells continue to be elevated and I also started having minor cognitive impairment. I always feel exhausted and I just have not had much social life as weekends and weeknights have been allocated to my recovery time even though I have been only working half day in the office, half day at home for the last 4 months. Unfortunately, due to all the health issues piling up, I have been hospitalized 5 times since the surgery.
The final wakeup call was last week (11/28, 2017) when I was hospitalized with colon inflammation caused by antibiotic treatment. I started my chemo treatment (dose is so much lower than those for cancer patients) for my auto immune disease. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well for my body and I had to stop the treatment and start antibiotic treatment. Ironically, the antibiotic caused an infection and I was in the hospital for 5 days. I felt like my body was giving up on me as my high fever kept returning, my blood pressure kept dropping and my stomach could not tolerate any food. I finally realized that my body needs to rest and I need to give it enough time to recover. My doctor agreed and I decided to apply for disability insurance so that I can focus on healing. My tentative return to work date set by my doctor is April 2, 2018. I’ve been seeing hematologist, neurologist, nutritionist, neuro psychologist, rheumatologist, and dermatologist and my primary doctor has been acting as my care coordinator. After the colon inflammation, now I’m scheduled to see an infectious disease specialist and GI as well.
As you might already know, disability insurance does not cover your whole paychecks, and with my on-going health conditions for over a year, I exhausted all my savings, sick leave and paid time off. As a single mother in Los Angeles without any family members, I always rushed to go back to work even though my body wasn’t ready because of the financial situation. If I can raise the funds, it will allow me to keep my current health insurance coverage, help me pay my rent, food, utilities and regular & medical bills without any worries for 4 months while I focus on healing. As I'm determined to put my health first, I would greatly appreciate your support and help with my healing journey. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Organizer
Yuki Kubota
Organizer
South Pasadena, CA
