Urgent Gallbladder Surgery
Donation protected
Two years ago my entire life ended.
My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and within months passed away. In the wake of his death I had to leave home in Chicago and move to Mississippi where I could inherate his small business and keep life afloat for my mother in his stead. At the same time, I developed a strange pain in my stomach that I naturally assumed was stress and just kept moving forward.
As time went on the pain grew and grew. I tried diet changes, hydration and stress management. Which was nearly impossible while juggling the responsibilities of my father and his small business while coping with his death and coping with the sudden shock of uprooting my entire life amungst those circumstances.
My dad was my rock
About a year later the pains grew into heart attacks. Three heart attacks, three ER visits and two EKG’s showed there was nothing actually wrong. But the attacks still came. Now however, they came with panic attacks and terror because the professionals say there is no apparent cause.
Anything I eat. Anything I drink. Any way I stand, or sit and any way I sleep causes immediate sharp pain that is now taking over one whole side of my body, my back and my chest. Massive attacks multiple times a day until the last few weeks when it’s all grown into one constant state of immeasurable pain.
All the same things my father went through before finding out it was cancer.
Finally last week and ONLY with the help from a dear friend in the medical field, telling me the SPECIFIC vocabulary to legally obligate the hospital to run specific tests on me, did I find out that I have been suffering from Biliary Colic and that my gallbladder absolutely needs to come out. It’s too far gone to be healed with a diet change but according to the doctor, since I don’t have insurance, it isn’t life threatening enough yet for them to do the surgery with out a guarantee of payment.
By the time the doctor left the room it was laid out plain as day that the only options I have are to either develop a massive infection or my gallbladder has to rupture for them to move forward without that payment guarantee.
Ironically, when the pain originally started I was still insured but as times changed my premiums went from $300 a month to $700 a month and I can’t afford to pay a second rent that is essenctially on my own body.
Now the only ways to schedule the surgery are to be approved by vocational rehab (which the doctor and staff already said I don’t qualify for since I am actually ABLE to make payments but apparently not able enough to gaurentee the payments) or paying outright (which requires at least an $8000 down payment upfront).
The payments, I can make. The down payment, I can not.
Since my dad died all my life has been is taking care of the living expenses and wellbeing of my mom by maintaining all the stresses of a business I wasn’t mentally prepared to take on while also managing a mysterious excruciating pain.
This link tells the story about what was once my fathers small Italian restaurant but is now top 50 in the country
But with everything I’ve done so far, it’s still only enough to keep the roof over our heads. Now though, I’m unable to work because of the mounting pain.
I admit that the stress, pressure and fear are closing in on me.
I have no idea where to turn and no idea what to do. I’m afraid I’ll have to wait until something truly terrible happens inside of my body before I can get any help but I can’t even work enough to live that long anymore. All I can pray for is this somehow makes a dent in that down payment . Any amount of it I can bring down gets me that much closer to being alive again.
I hope to take the steps to get myself better now and continue to work hard for my family with my full energies, concentration and spirit. I hope to find a solution while it’s still “easy” to fix. Before it turns into something I only *might* survive.
I want to give my mom the life she’s always deserved.
Thank you for spending a moment learning my story. Any help you can give, even just sharing my story, will be a blessing for me, my family and my working family.
PS: I’ll personally give my vintage Alf and Harry Potter memorbelia to random contributors if that’s REALLY what it has come down to!
My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and within months passed away. In the wake of his death I had to leave home in Chicago and move to Mississippi where I could inherate his small business and keep life afloat for my mother in his stead. At the same time, I developed a strange pain in my stomach that I naturally assumed was stress and just kept moving forward.
As time went on the pain grew and grew. I tried diet changes, hydration and stress management. Which was nearly impossible while juggling the responsibilities of my father and his small business while coping with his death and coping with the sudden shock of uprooting my entire life amungst those circumstances.
My dad was my rock About a year later the pains grew into heart attacks. Three heart attacks, three ER visits and two EKG’s showed there was nothing actually wrong. But the attacks still came. Now however, they came with panic attacks and terror because the professionals say there is no apparent cause.
Anything I eat. Anything I drink. Any way I stand, or sit and any way I sleep causes immediate sharp pain that is now taking over one whole side of my body, my back and my chest. Massive attacks multiple times a day until the last few weeks when it’s all grown into one constant state of immeasurable pain.
All the same things my father went through before finding out it was cancer. Finally last week and ONLY with the help from a dear friend in the medical field, telling me the SPECIFIC vocabulary to legally obligate the hospital to run specific tests on me, did I find out that I have been suffering from Biliary Colic and that my gallbladder absolutely needs to come out. It’s too far gone to be healed with a diet change but according to the doctor, since I don’t have insurance, it isn’t life threatening enough yet for them to do the surgery with out a guarantee of payment.
By the time the doctor left the room it was laid out plain as day that the only options I have are to either develop a massive infection or my gallbladder has to rupture for them to move forward without that payment guarantee.
Ironically, when the pain originally started I was still insured but as times changed my premiums went from $300 a month to $700 a month and I can’t afford to pay a second rent that is essenctially on my own body.
Now the only ways to schedule the surgery are to be approved by vocational rehab (which the doctor and staff already said I don’t qualify for since I am actually ABLE to make payments but apparently not able enough to gaurentee the payments) or paying outright (which requires at least an $8000 down payment upfront).
The payments, I can make. The down payment, I can not.
Since my dad died all my life has been is taking care of the living expenses and wellbeing of my mom by maintaining all the stresses of a business I wasn’t mentally prepared to take on while also managing a mysterious excruciating pain.
This link tells the story about what was once my fathers small Italian restaurant but is now top 50 in the country
But with everything I’ve done so far, it’s still only enough to keep the roof over our heads. Now though, I’m unable to work because of the mounting pain.
I admit that the stress, pressure and fear are closing in on me.
I have no idea where to turn and no idea what to do. I’m afraid I’ll have to wait until something truly terrible happens inside of my body before I can get any help but I can’t even work enough to live that long anymore. All I can pray for is this somehow makes a dent in that down payment . Any amount of it I can bring down gets me that much closer to being alive again.
I hope to take the steps to get myself better now and continue to work hard for my family with my full energies, concentration and spirit. I hope to find a solution while it’s still “easy” to fix. Before it turns into something I only *might* survive.
I want to give my mom the life she’s always deserved.Thank you for spending a moment learning my story. Any help you can give, even just sharing my story, will be a blessing for me, my family and my working family.
PS: I’ll personally give my vintage Alf and Harry Potter memorbelia to random contributors if that’s REALLY what it has come down to!
Organizer
Chris Drake II
Organizer
Biloxi, MS
