Jacobs family drowning in medical expenses
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Hello, I'm Tony Jacobs, and I'm trying to raise money to keep my family afloat this month. That's them in the picture: my wife Emily and our daughters Cora (4 years) and Ellie (18 months). We've had an unusual amount of difficulty this year, and our finances are finally worn down to the last thread. I'll try to keep the story from getting too long...
- In January, I landed in the Intensive Care Unit for diabetic ketoacidosis. My blood glucose was measured at 1200mg/dL, which means I was close to slipping into a coma. I've now learned that I have late-onset Type 1 diabetes – that's the kind that is an auto-immune disorder. My treatment (monitoring blood sugar, watching my diet, and injecting insulin) seems to be working quite well, but there are expenses. Significantly, insulin is not entirely covered by insurance. I don't know whether the latest device ordered by my endocrinologist will be covered, either.
- In February, Emily fell in the kitchen, acquiring a concussion and a fracture in her 7th cervical vertebra. Since then, she's been walking around with a broken back. That's going to need surgery sometime soon. In fact, the only reason we haven't addressed it is- well, keep reading.
- When Ellie was born in December of 2020, our obstetrician performed a tubal ligation along with the C-section. Our reason for locking up the factory is that Emily's doctors have made it clear that her body can not survive another pregnancy. After the tubal failed, we agreed that locking the factory wasn't enough and that we needed to remove it completely. Thus, in April, Emily had a hysterectomy, also to deal with the Mandarin-orange-sized ovarian cyst that had been leaking infection into her body for some weeks. Despite the high stakes, this was considered "elective" surgery, so we had to pay for it.
- Since that hysterectomy, Emily has experienced complications, the worst of which might be ulcerative colitis. She's been to the hospital twice for that now, and it looks like it will require an operation of its own. Just the other day, an ulcer ruptured in there.
- Did I say that colitis "might be" the worst complication? That's right. It has to compete with the blood-chemistry roller coaster that is currently jerking her around. Her potassium and sodium levels helped bring about a heart attack in May. Of course, those chemical levels didn't act alone.
- Emily has POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), a heart condition that causes fainting, palpitations, and various other unpleasant symptoms. Her POTS caused her fall in February, it contributed to her heart attack, and it's why she fell and broke her nose and orbital bone the day of the first heart attack.
- How does one get POTS? In this case, it's comorbid with Emily's EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome), a fairly uncommon genetic disorder that causes a protein in her connective tissue to be slightly malformed. Of the different forms of EDS, Emily has the "hypermobility" type, characterized by loose joints. Her shoulders and hips on both sides have each dislocated hundreds of times, leaving bone splinters floating around. This is, as you might imagine, unbelievably painful. All four of those joints need surgeries, but those operations are postponed until we can get her back taken care of. Back surgery is postponed until we can get her colitis taken care of.
- Also in April, I fainted in rush hour traffic on my morning commute. When I regained consciousness, my foot was still on the gas pedal, and I was tearing through the strip of grass alongside the freeway at about 60 miles per hour. I can't explain how I escaped injury that day; the car did not. The ER doc called it a "vaso-vagal episode", and the ambulance driver called me "very lucky". Now I have to document my lucky health history for the State of Texas, so they can decide whether or not to revoke my drivers license. I have to see a cardiologist. I have to see a neurologist. None of this is free.
- The kids are great, anyway :)
- On that morning commute, I was a short way into the 35-mile drive from Denton to the northeast corner of Dallas, to teach Trigonometry and Calculus. I'm a math professor at a community college, and I'm looking for a new line of work. I simply don't make enough money in this job to support my family, and there's no work/life balance. Over the summer, I'm teaching online and sending my resume to anyone who will look at it. At least I'm home with the kids when they need me, and not on those freeways.
So that's the story. We've held on for this long, but this month, we're really broke. The bills are paid, so we have our home, with electricity and water, for now. What I don't know is how we'll feed the kids throughout June. I don't know how we'll afford copays at all of the appointments. I don't know how we'll keep gas in the car. It's looking scary.
Please help us, if you can. It's not easy to ask, but it's also not easy to look at the numbers. Whatever we can raise through this GoFundMe will put food on our table and fuel in our vehicles, and it will go towards all of the gaps in our health coverage. It might help ensure that our little girls can grow up with two parents. Please help.
Organizer
George Jacobs
Organizer
Denton, TX