Help Katie stay out of the hospital!
Donation protected
Dear friends, family, and beloveds:
I’ve spent a long time putting off asking for help, but my back is against the wall and I have run out of time to prioritize my pride over my need for assistance.
As many of you know, I spent a great deal of the last year and a half in the hospital – when I wasn’t in the hospital I was recovering, and usually before I even had a chance to recover fully, I would bounce right back in. The reasons are complicated - as many of you know, my medical situation is complex - but the bottom line is that this has all been driven by a few fairly rare disorders (chiefly, Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) that have had me out of the mainstream workforce for the last couple years.
I’ve been making do on a fixed income of $1100 a month as well as gigging as a photographer when I’m not in the hospital, but what I can contribute to paying my medical bills is a tiny fraction of what I owe. Many of my bills are either in collections or are within a month of being sent to collections, and just keeping up with the minimum payments required to continue to be allowed to see my doctors, many of whom help me to stay out of the hospital as much as possible, has kept me from being able to pay other essential bills. I have been treading water for some time now with the assistance of family, but even collectively, we have all run out of resources to keep making the payments required to allow me to continue to see my doctors. Every month, I make difficult choices in deciding whether to pay for groceries, medications, or ongoing visits and procedures with my doctors, and every month, it has become harder and harder to cover the absolute minimum when it comes to all three.
For those of you who are interested, I can go into greater detail about the disorders that have ravaged my body, but the bottom line is that while I am hoping to rejoin the workforce sometime soon, I cannot do so without the help of the specialists I see who help me stay balanced with a combination of expensive medications and procedures. I have worked with countless medical office personnel and hospital relief programs to reduce my costs as much as humanly possible, but even with the assistance programs available to patients similarly strapped for resources, I am no longer able to cover even the minimum payments that allow me to continue treatment.
The amount I am requesting may seem ludicrous to some, but for those of you who have had to navigate our country’s labyrinthine health care system, it will likely seem all too familiar. I am still trying to catch up on all the bills I owe to every specialist who has treated me - my hospital costs, for example, are owed not only to the hospital itself, but separately to emergency room physicians who have treated me, lab work performed while I was inpatient, imaging specialists who bill separately, and so on. Untangling my costs alone has been a full time job for me, and my ability to pay them has reached its limit. The final straw, as some of you know, was the concussion I suffered in a car accident a few weeks ago, which has necessitated the pursuit of even more specialized care to treat it as quickly as possible in order to prevent long-term damage. Obtaining this treatment has made it impossible to continue being treated by several of my other specialists, and my health is already suffering as a result.
Coincidentally, I’m making this request right before my birthday, which is on Saturday, March 9th. One of the things I appreciate about Facebook is that it allows each of us the opportunity to request donations to a charity of our choice as a birthday gift; as difficult as it is for me to ask, I’d like to ask for donations myself in order to keep myself afloat. As much as I want to be able to work again, I am unable to do so in my current situation, and so I’m asking for your help in allowing me to get that much closer to being able to care for my body long enough to bring me back into the working world.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to any of you who might be able to contribute; every little bit counts, no matter how small. Whether you are able to contribute or not, if you have the opportunity to signal boost my request, I would deeply appreciate that as well. I am fortunate enough to be a part of several communities who take excellent care of each other, and you all have already done so much for me in so many ways and provided all kinds of support; in turn, I have tried to do my part when others are in need. No matter the size or scale, I promise that anything you are able to give will be life-changing to me. Thank you for your consideration and support - it truly means the world to me.
I’ve spent a long time putting off asking for help, but my back is against the wall and I have run out of time to prioritize my pride over my need for assistance.
As many of you know, I spent a great deal of the last year and a half in the hospital – when I wasn’t in the hospital I was recovering, and usually before I even had a chance to recover fully, I would bounce right back in. The reasons are complicated - as many of you know, my medical situation is complex - but the bottom line is that this has all been driven by a few fairly rare disorders (chiefly, Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) that have had me out of the mainstream workforce for the last couple years.
I’ve been making do on a fixed income of $1100 a month as well as gigging as a photographer when I’m not in the hospital, but what I can contribute to paying my medical bills is a tiny fraction of what I owe. Many of my bills are either in collections or are within a month of being sent to collections, and just keeping up with the minimum payments required to continue to be allowed to see my doctors, many of whom help me to stay out of the hospital as much as possible, has kept me from being able to pay other essential bills. I have been treading water for some time now with the assistance of family, but even collectively, we have all run out of resources to keep making the payments required to allow me to continue to see my doctors. Every month, I make difficult choices in deciding whether to pay for groceries, medications, or ongoing visits and procedures with my doctors, and every month, it has become harder and harder to cover the absolute minimum when it comes to all three.
For those of you who are interested, I can go into greater detail about the disorders that have ravaged my body, but the bottom line is that while I am hoping to rejoin the workforce sometime soon, I cannot do so without the help of the specialists I see who help me stay balanced with a combination of expensive medications and procedures. I have worked with countless medical office personnel and hospital relief programs to reduce my costs as much as humanly possible, but even with the assistance programs available to patients similarly strapped for resources, I am no longer able to cover even the minimum payments that allow me to continue treatment.
The amount I am requesting may seem ludicrous to some, but for those of you who have had to navigate our country’s labyrinthine health care system, it will likely seem all too familiar. I am still trying to catch up on all the bills I owe to every specialist who has treated me - my hospital costs, for example, are owed not only to the hospital itself, but separately to emergency room physicians who have treated me, lab work performed while I was inpatient, imaging specialists who bill separately, and so on. Untangling my costs alone has been a full time job for me, and my ability to pay them has reached its limit. The final straw, as some of you know, was the concussion I suffered in a car accident a few weeks ago, which has necessitated the pursuit of even more specialized care to treat it as quickly as possible in order to prevent long-term damage. Obtaining this treatment has made it impossible to continue being treated by several of my other specialists, and my health is already suffering as a result.
Coincidentally, I’m making this request right before my birthday, which is on Saturday, March 9th. One of the things I appreciate about Facebook is that it allows each of us the opportunity to request donations to a charity of our choice as a birthday gift; as difficult as it is for me to ask, I’d like to ask for donations myself in order to keep myself afloat. As much as I want to be able to work again, I am unable to do so in my current situation, and so I’m asking for your help in allowing me to get that much closer to being able to care for my body long enough to bring me back into the working world.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to any of you who might be able to contribute; every little bit counts, no matter how small. Whether you are able to contribute or not, if you have the opportunity to signal boost my request, I would deeply appreciate that as well. I am fortunate enough to be a part of several communities who take excellent care of each other, and you all have already done so much for me in so many ways and provided all kinds of support; in turn, I have tried to do my part when others are in need. No matter the size or scale, I promise that anything you are able to give will be life-changing to me. Thank you for your consideration and support - it truly means the world to me.
Organizer
Kathleen 'Katie' Brown
Organizer
Fairfax, VA