Help catching up & taking care of my health

My name is Diana, I'm a freelancer in need of your help.

This campaign started with a need to ask for help catching up on a few bills as well as raise enough for urgent dental work. I'm now updating this because the first has been taken care of -- but I still need your help raising the funds for dental surgery. Without insurance, it's entirely out of pocket. But I just can't afford the $2500+ in dental work that needs to be done, and if I don't get it taken care of soon, it could wind up costing me a lot more. The longer I wait, the higher the chance I need more work done (or the risk of more teeth breaking).

How did I get here? The last few years have been increasingly difficult for me and my health. I've been immunocompromised my entire life, but summer 2019 I found out I was also severely anemic. It's now been 3 years since we started treating it, and I've gotten worse instead of better. Doctors still haven't figured out what's causing it. There are periods where I feel worse than ever before, and over time it's affected to my dental health. Anemia causes teeth and gums to be more vulnerable.

In 2020, I lost about 75% of my income due to the pandemic. While I felt I made it through 2020 somewhat okay (and at the time, optimistic that things would be better in 2021), throughout 2021 I dealt with several emergencies (including emergency dental surgery) and  unexpected bills (like emergency vet visits) over the summer, as well as surviving multiple extreme weather events that affected my region (the heat dome that hit us, and the catastrophic atmospheric river storms and flooding of Nov-Dec 2021). All of these contributed delays to my work, which in turn meant a delay to my paycheques. The cost of food and other essential supplies also rose as pandemic-impacted supply chains to my region were made worse by the BC floods (the few major land routes out of the region were either destroyed or severely damaged). This cost has continued to rise beyond what other regions have been seeing.

 

It gradually became more and more difficult for me to keep up with everything. I've been trying to catch up, but I'm at the point where it feels impossible. I've been working, as well as selling everything that I can, but it just wasn't enough. I also can't take on any more work right now, although when my work on my current gig wraps I will have to find a new job, limited to work-from-home (and as a freelancer, I don't qualify for unemployment assistance). It's left no room for ANY emergency expenses, including anything health-related.

 

The funds raised in December went towards helping with bills, groceries, medications and other supplies that I need to stay healthy (especially considering the increased costs we're seeing due to the supply shortages). Funds raised in the new years went towards to first of several dental treatments. But I still need your help to fund the rest of the dental work that I urgently need so that I can avoid more complications there in the future. I am in constant pain, and at risk of losing teeth if I'm unable to get things fixed. As time goes on, I've had to return to cutting back on groceries, medications, etc again.

 

I understand that I'm not the only one out there in this kind of a position, and even sharing helps. Hopefully things will get better for all of us.