Help Me Let My Brain Recover Safely

Hello, I'm Matt. I'm an autistic adult male that works full time doing Instacart and shopping for people in my community.

Last week, October 24th, I went to the ER after having a headache for 3 days, something I've never experienced before. I was released last night, October 29th but that was because nothing else could currently be done there that I couldn't do at home - Rest.

The backstory -

After some trouble convincing the ER this wasn't an anxiety issue I finally got a CT scan of my brain and they found that the blood vessels in my brain were inflamed for an unknown reason.

Had I not gone in, I very likely would have had a stroke or brain bleed that would have altered my life forever or ended it.

The good news is I've been diagnosed with Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome (RCVS). I've been started on medication called Verapamil to help me get through this.

The bad news is it can take weeks to months to fully recover. The pain in my head isn't going away any time soon. I have to take opiates just to take the edge off. This means I should not be working or trying to work as it's dangerous to operate a vehicle on these painkillers and just being on my feet is incredibly painful.

Because I do Instacart, I don't have sick time or vacation pay. I don't have insurance either (but I'm trying to afford with open enrollment coming up).

I'm not asking for help with my medical bills. I'm not looking for sympathy because I didn't have insurance.

I'm just looking for help surviving the next few weeks while I let my medicine do it's job. I normally make $4000-4500 a month doing Instacart so that's how I set my goal.

I make too much to qualify for help from the state and country. Adults with autism aren't considered disabled in my situation either, making finding support exceptionally difficult.

I just need to make sure I can pay my monthly bills, feed myself and take care of my dogs, Hades and Persephone.

I'm trying to ask for the absolute minimum to get by.