Dear friends and all of you who may or may not know me (yet).. My name is Eefje, I am 39 years old and I've been living in NYC for the last few years. I moved to the US in 2013 for a job opportunity and have been living/working here ever since. I'm originally from the Netherlands, where I was born and I'm very much still (and probably always will be!) a Dutchie at heart!

I'm currently in urgent need of some support (and time is of the essence here!) to get out of the very messy situation I'm in, which I unfortunately can no longer fix doing it solo, as much as I still wish that could be the case. I'm not used to being in this position and admittedly I don't like it AT ALL, but my friends and pup (he's my whole world!) gave me the push that I needed to just ask for help (Thank YOU.. you know who you are)!! I'm forever grateful for the support and I'm planning to pay back all of my friends who have contributed.

Let me explain my situation a bit more in detail below, without going into too much detail, because I really don't enjoy talking too much about my own struggles. I've always been a very independent person, who never had to ask for help from anyone. However, for the last two plus years I've had to deal with debilitating health issues, which left me in excruciating pain for most of the month (sometimes the entire month or even months in a row). Last year was probably the hardest year of my life dealing with all these physical health issues, which not surprisingly, also had a major impact on my mental health. It just took complete control of my life; there were 5 months this year where I was pretty much bedbound. Even walking the dog just for a block took everything out of me! I also had to quit my job last year as a result. Unfortunately, they never figured out was actually causing all of this despite numerous visits to the doctor, it started with what I thought was PMDD, but I think there was definitely more at play. However, I eventually had to let go of my health insurance as well due to financial reasons; I've also incurred a lot of medical debts as a result of all of this.

To make things worse, although the outcome surprisingly is a good one.. I recently fainted on the stairs in my apartment building, which left me unconscious, not sure how long for, because everything around that incident is very blurry! The days after that were very scary and I wasn't even sure if I was even going to survive, but I'm certainly very glad I did. What happened after that is just a miracle to me, I'm honestly very still in shock/disbelief about all of this. After the fall and subsequent concussion, all of these physical health issues (and also mental health issues) totally vanished for whatever strange reason! I wish this would have happened months ago, so I could have fixed things myself, but the universe had other plans, I guess. I have not felt this "normal", healthy, and happy in over two years. I've so much energy too, way more than ever before it feels like, which is good because I've 2+ years of lost life to catch up on.

I'm currently in the process of moving out from my place in NYC and moving in with some friends in Boston to help me save money (I need to make some first), so I can figure out next steps in life and get back on my feet again. Let's hope these health issues will leave me alone moving forward; they just have/need to, I can't even think of another scenario right now!

Anyways, I appreciate any and all the support I can get!! I want to thank everyone who has offered any form of support already!

Smiles,

Eefje