Let me begin with big words of gratitude to all our friends and family, near and so very far away! Your support of John and me through our cancer journey has been so uplifting. We appreciate every view, every comment, every thought, every prayer, every note, every message - thank you everyone!! So many people have reached out asking how they can help and although I put a small list on the blog, we have bumped up against a big lift we have impending...

As you will know (from my blog: https://marthamarieblog.wordpress.com/), John and I are working through my recent 'upgraded' diagnosis of metastatic (or stage IV) breast cancer. Part of this process is the realisation that living in our home is not a sustainable option for my continued treatment - we need to be close to my treatment hospital and team for emergencies as well as regular treatment (which took us to the hospital some seven times in the last three weeks, as I write this).

 

The conundrum

Moving costs money - our hospital is in downtown Chicago and rents there are not cheap (slightly more than double what we pay now, for less space). Also, our income will drop significantly as my disability payments move from 100% of my salary to 60% soon. John, too, is in a precarious position as he will increasingly need to take more time away from a job that doesn't have paid time off. So, all told, we will be looking at a drop in monthly revenue of about the same amount as an increase in our living costs (plus the one-off costs of the actual move). I've done a little spreadsheet (you know I did, didn't you?!?!) - there are lots of costs with the primary drivers being a more than the doubling in rent and a substantial loss in income, resulting in a total of some $72K for 12months.

Medical costs

I am lucky in that I have good medical insurance coverage (thanks to my work at the American Bar Association) - and John is old enough for government-provided healthcare, called Medicare here. So, unlike many Americans, this is less of a concern for us. Although we still have ridiculous out-of-pocket costs for uncovered medical expenses and exhaustive co-pays. All of this is doable on our income level as it is now, but it strains. Blue Cross Blue Shield gets the fuzzy end of this lollipop, though, because my healthcare costs are more than a million dollars annually! (Sorry - not sorry!)

 

Our future funding prospects
I am working with a friend and my medical team to get my pension funds early and without penalty, but this takes time and is not guaranteed (and it has added attorney costs). We are requesting the funds to pay me out because my life expectancy will never get even close to their actuarial estimate of what they would pay me if I lived to a normal old-age death. A positive result on this will end our financial needs, when/if it does come. But our immediate needs cannot be met with our current financial resources - hence this appeal.
 
 Keeping up with us and the ongoing news

We have a blogsite (https://marthamarieblog.wordpress.com/) so you can keep up with the medical and other news about our life with the big "C" - we try to keep that current so friends and family are up-to-date. It also has other suggestions for ways to help us out (a friend recently had dinner sent to us after we spent 11hrs at the hospital for my gamma-knife treatment, for example). Everything helps, so thank you for whatever you can do!