Help contribute towards Jason's Medical Debt

Hello, my name is Myka Jeffords. My Husband, Jason Jeffords Jr., and I are reaching out asking for help through the recent medical problems he has been through. I will keep this first part short in case you don’t have the time to read it all, then I will have a more detailed history and costs of everything.

We appreciate you even if you are just reading this, especially if you share it with everyone you know. We understand that with all the world events happening right now people are short on money. Anything helps, even just letting people know. Also, with the fees that GFM takes out, we have opted to include our Paypal and Venmo details here in case anyone wants to donate directly.

What we are asking: $17,000.

We know this sounds like a lot (trust us) but we are forever grateful for whatever help we are able to receive, and any donation to help us means the world. If we go over that and are lucky enough to pay off all the medical bills, everything will go towards Diabetic Supplies, and if he has Trigeminal Neuralgia, that as well. ($17,000 is actually under what we need, but we understand how hard life is right now. It pains us to ask for any money/help, but even though this huge amount won’t pay for everything it will get us on the right path.)

Paypal: paypal.me/JasonJeffordsJr

Venmo Username: @JasonJeffordsJr (https://account.venmo.com/u/JasonJeffordsJr) We believe that link works, but we're new to Venmo.

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The Short Story -

My husband, who is a Type 1 Diabetic, is insulin pump dependent and will have to pay for diabetic supplies/insulin/doctor appointments for the rest of his life. Not only is this a strain on our finances, but it is a mental strain, with the constant fear of not having enough money for supplies. Recently he had a much-needed knee surgery. He has been walking with a cane and could barely use his left knee for the last three years. He is only 27 and the doctor said his knee was so bad that it would never be the same.

After the knee surgery, he started having symptoms of Trigeminal Neuralgia and after some experiences I’d rather never relive, I made him go to the ER. We are hoping this was just a flair-up from a dead tooth, but we are prepping for the worse. He also went to a dentist who specializes in TMJ to get his jaw checked, and he in fact has TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction) - This was no surprise. What came as a surprise was the $518 bill for the exam and the $7,000 for the treatment.

Costs of everything we owe and the price before Insurance:

Knee Surgery:

Fee Prior to Surgery to schedule/have it: $500 (Insurance doesn’t cover)

Anesthesiologist - $277 (Before Insurance cost: $1628.10)

Surgeon - $5,934. The insurance still hasn’t gone through this, but once they do, it’ll be in the upper $1,000/$2,000.

Surgery Center - $1,844 (The insurance still hasn’t gone through, but had to pay upfront)

Once all the Knee Surgery is added up it’ll be over $3,000.

Knee Recovery:

Physical Therapy - $54 each visit (2 or 3 times a week)

Thus far he has had 10 appointments with all costing $54 and one costing $72.20.

(Before Insurance cost: $280 per appointment)

As of now we owe $558.

Jaw/Triamcinolone Acetonide/Tooth:

TMJ Exam: $373 (Before Insurance cost: $518)

Treatment for TMJ: $7,000 (Insurance doesn’t cover)

ER Visit: $225 (Before Insurance cost: $1,806.57)

ER Doctor - $873 (The insurance still hasn’t gone through this)

Dentist checking tooth with X-Ray: $110 (Before Insurance cost: $180)

Endodontist checking tooth with X-Ray: $53 (Before Insurance: $103)

2 Endodontist Root Canal for Dead Tooth: $3,354 ($1,677 per Root Canal) (The insurance still hasn’t gone through)

2 Crown: $3,900 ($1,950 per Crown) (The insurance still hasn’t gone through)

ETC:

If he needs to see a Neurologist if the nerve pain doesn’t stop with the Dead tooth, that will be more. Plus, if he does have Triamcinolone Neuralgia it will be a lifelong problem that will drain us dry.

Monthly Diabetic supplies are always costly and can range between $50 - $500 and these are for life.

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The Long Story -

Ever since I’ve known Jason he has walked with a cane. As he told me, he has had a knee problem for the last three years that progressively got worse after his first knee surgery in 2018. This resulted in him using a cane, as his left leg was virtually useless. At times the pain and mobility got so bad I would help him with his most simple day-to-day tasks, such as helping brush teeth, getting in and out of the car, getting dressed, etc. At the beginning of 2021 Jason made the decision to pursue another knee surgery as it had gotten so bad that his quality of life greatly declined.

Due to needing surgery, Jason started selling most of his prized possessions and collections on eBay for funds. He sold off most of his personal, prized things, such as his rare comics and videogames. He kept saying, “After surgery, our life will be different and we’ll be able to go out and do stuff for once.” The promise of having a new life after his knee surgery kept him going, and was strong enough that he was willing to do whatever to have surgery and be more active.

However, all those items sold and the funds only went so far as all the money had to go towards his monthly diabetic supplies, food, housing, and medical bills. Much like everyone else these last years his mind has been a constant place of stress due to the bills, never having money, and the fear of not having the supplies that literally keep him alive. The days leading up to surgery he learned that he had to pay $500 prior to even having the surgery. We barely had these funds, and had to not buy food, and sell stuff to make it.

Due to his decrease in health and knowing we had a lot of bills going forward, Jason had to rehome his cat that he had since moving out of his parent’s home. Ask anyone Jason knows and they will tell you how much he loved his cat, Lucky. This was a heart-wrenching moment, but Jason said he had no right to own a cat when he has such bad health and could hardly take care of a senior three-legged cat.

When the day finally came for surgery he learned that to even go through with the knee surgery he had to pay $1,844 to the Surgery center to even be let into the room. With neither of us having close to this amount upfront he had to open up a new credit card just so he could have the surgery. Luckily the surgery was a success, but when I drove him home he kept crying to me that he felt like a burden and that we could never have a good or happy life because we would always be low on cash due to his medical problems. I told him that didn’t matter, I loved him and that he wasn’t a burden. The following days of healing were hard as he was in great pain and many days were filled with tears and he continued to say he is a burden.

After a few days, his knee was doing significantly better than it ever was, and continues to improve to this day! This as well comes with a cost. At the moment he is doing Physical Therapy 3 days a week and these cost $54 - $74 each visit, which equals over $162 per week. Luckily this is after insurance as we have met the deductible due to his diabetic supplies. Yet, he still has a few weeks of PT meaning we will owe a lot by the time he is completely healed.

On top of the knee problem, Jason has a few other physical ailments; the other that took priority was his jaw. For over a year Jason hasn’t been able to open his jaw enough to eat most foods, instead, he has to smoosh the food to fit it. The easy way to envision it is he can’t fit 2 fingers stacked on top of one another in his mouth. This has caused a lot of problems in his life and he has recently learned that it was TMJ disease. With that in mind he went to see a TMJ specialist and they quoted him at $7,000 for treatment on top of the $518 for the TMJ exams. He agreed almost instantly because his jaw had gotten so bad, even the specialist was astounded. But with this happening nearly two weeks after his knee surgery we are absolutely broke. So Jason opened a loan of $7,000 to undergo the treatments.

The day before the TMJ appointment, Jason had what he described as the worst pain he has ever had in his life on the left side of his face. This pain was so bad he would ball up into the fetal position and cry until it was over, which could last from a few seconds to several minutes. He took 12 ibuprofens that day, but when those didn’t help he took a leftover painkiller from his surgery. Still no success there. When he went to the TMJ specialist the next day he explained what had happened, and they told him his teeth looked fine, but that it could be Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is a chronic pain condition affecting the trigeminal nerve in the face. This is a disease that you have for life, and it still baffles doctors. This disease is dubbed, “The Suicide Disease”, and “The World’s Most Painful Disease.” After the TMJ appointment, we’d learn why it’s called that. That night one of the attacks was so bad I found Jason in tears on the bed with drool coming out of his mouth, screaming as if someone was repeatedly torturing him. The pain was so bad he was screaming that he wanted to die and that if this continued he had no want to live if he had this forever. He was a mess, he wouldn’t stop crying and wishing for death, this was even after a painkiller and a half the doctor gave him, along with a muscle relaxer.

The pain was so unbearable that my husband would rather be dead than suffer another second. Now his other attacks were bad, but he never screamed, cried, or asked for death as he did with this one. With that in mind I made him go to the ER even though he said, “No, it’ll go away” and that “we have no money.” I just couldn’t see him like this. Once at the ER they gave him some meds and said they think it’s Trigeminal Neuralgia, but they couldn’t really look at anything as the ER is filled with Covid patients. They gave him medication and gave him a doctor to call.

After a day on the medication, Jason could still feel the attacks, just not as bad as the night prior, so they helped a little. He did notice that the pain migrated to a tooth that would shoot pain into the nerve if it was pressed upon. Already having an appointment for the TMJ specialist, he brought it up to them and they said they couldn’t see anything wrong with the tooth. After that few hundred dollar exams, they sent him to an endodontist who said it was a “dead tooth” and that the bacteria could be getting inside the nerve. They prescribed him an antibiotic and scheduled him for a root canal for their nearest appointment. We found out that the root canal will cost an estimate of $1,677 with $419 being paid upfront, and to get the crown $1,950.

His tooth was so bad that he had to go back to finish the root canal as they had to put medicine in it to help it heal. Not only that, but he has to get another root canal on the tooth behind that one which means another $1,677, and $1,950 for the crown as well.

After getting off the meds from the ER and going on the antibiotics, Jason says he hasn’t had an attack, but can still feel an ache in his ear and feels a force near his tooth. We are hoping and praying that the “dead tooth” is the main issue here because he said he couldn’t live with Trigeminal Neuralgia and would never wish it upon anyone. That being said, he has told me that the thought of the pain still lingers and that he is living in fear of the next attack. The pain is unbearable, but the fear of it happening again is just as bad. We hope that this tooth will fix it, but are preparing for the worst by scheduling a neurology appointment (most places are booked for a while).

We understand everyone is struggling with what is going on in the world. We just ask for a little assistance if possible. If you are able to donate, even just a little, know that it helps us tremendously. Even if you can’t do that, please share so others can see. No matter what we get, everything helps and we are forever grateful for those that choose to help us. When we learn more about his health we will update everyone.

Thank you so much, Love, Jason & Myka Jeffords.