Help Edi With Medical Bills And Life Bills

TL;DR: I need help paying medical and life bills due to an accident. I am out of work for the time being and had to unexpectedly pay for half of my surgery upfront.

Hello friends, family and whomever else might be reading this,

If you don't know me personally, let me introduce myself;

My name is Edi Tingle; I am an artist living in Atlanta, GA. I freelance doing props work for IATSE479 film union projects and am also an actor.

As some may know, I was almost hit by a car on May 28th while working on my pilot film project. I was on roller skates in a parking lot in Conyers, trying to cross to get to the other sidewalk. A truck came out of nowhere, so I scrambled to get to the sidewalk. I lost my balance, regained it, then lost it again and landed directly on my right wrist. I am right-handed.

I was rushed to the ER by my friend Zach to confirm my fears; I had indeed broken my wrist. They performed many X-rays to confirm but yes. It was true. They splinted me up, prescribed some painkillers and sent me on my way with a number to call to set up getting a cast. It was Memorial Day weekend (I fell early Saturday morning), so I had to wait until Tuesday morning to call. I called early on Tuesday morning, hoping to get the soonest appointment possible. We set one up for Thursday morning.

My friend Tony drove me to the appointment in Conyers because I was not allowed to drive. They cut off the splint the hospital had given me and x-rayed me. The conclusion from that visit was in 2 weeks I would be getting a hard plaster cast. My healing time was estimated to be 3ish months. At that point, my doctor okayed me to drive.

The following week I was scheduled to work on a pilot with a friend as the props master. I was fortunate to work on said pilot; everyone understood my limitations and were very kind to me. Doing work on said project proved somewhat tricky. The week after, I recovered swiftly from those long days on set and continued working on my pilot project on the weekends.

The fateful Thursday came when I drove myself back to Conyers, expecting to be fitted for a hard cast. A nurse cut me out of my splint and took me to get x-rayed. I was then taken back to my exam room, where I waited for about 20 minutes. My doctor walked into the room, took a seat across from me, sighed, looked at my crunchy arm and said, "You need to have surgery." It had become clear that I had completely shattered my distal radial head. After many tears on my part, we set up a time and date, a week and a half from that doctor's visit. They gave me a small wrist brace instead of splinting me up again, I was grateful for the elbow mobility.

My dad came down from Chattanooga, where he lives now, the day before my surgery to set me up and take me to surgery the next morning. Checking into the hospital and registration was swift and easy. I was surprised when I had to pay for half of my surgery upfront; this was never mentioned or discussed. I was barely able to do so but managed.

I was wheeled into the pre-op area at 8:40, given a numbing block of some kind for my arm and promptly put to sleep. The surgery was about 2 hours and everything went off without a hitch. They put a metal plate in my wrist and six screws, doing a lot of damage control and cleaning up.

My dad drove me home and let me sleep for a bit while he went out and got some groceries. I slept on and off until around midnight until the block wore off. I didn't sleep for more than 15 minutes the entire night because of the most excruciating pain I had ever felt in my entire life. It was so agonizing. My doctor called me back at 8:45 AM after my few calls during the night. He gave me a prescription for a more potent painkiller that I had to go pick up in Conyers. My friend Joe took the morning off from work to help me go and get that prescription. We dropped it off and they said it would be ready after lunch. My dad ended up picking up the prescription. He also stayed an extra day to make sure I was alright.

I am writing all of this about a week out from my surgery. I have since weaned myself off the strong painkillers because I no longer need them and they made me feel very far away from life. I am sleeping a lot because recovering from major surgery and just being a person is REALLY taking it out of me. I am not able to work until I get my hard cast on next week, July 11th. Then after my hard cast is on for 3-4 weeks they will take it off and I will start 6 weeks of physical therapy.

I am writing to ask for help. No one likes asking for help but here I am. These funds will go towards medical bills and cover lost wages from my injury.

Thank you so much in advanced. I am forever grateful.

x Edi Tingle