In early August 2022, my mom was laid off from her job. In the following months, she attempted to get Medicare and unemployment benefits while continuing to apply for new employment, but she was unable to get anything finalized.By the time Thanksgiving came, she had become a shell of herself. We (my family and I) thought she was going through a depression spell due to being laid off so close to retirement, but then she started to show worsening symptoms. She rapidly lost weight, trembled so bad she couldn’t type, had major memory issues, and had begun falling frequently. After a particularly scary fall, I decided to take her to the emergency room. She couldn’t wait for her insurance to get sorted - she needed care.After some imaging and testing, the emergency department discovered a baseball-sized mass in her brain and blood clots in her lungs. The pressure from the mass was causing most of her motor and memory issues, which explained her inability to complete tasks in the months leading up to that day. She was immediately admitted and would go one to spend 28 days in the hospital. She underwent two major surgeries - one craniotomy to remove the tumor and a second to remedy some complications from the first operation. As you can imagine, spending 28 days in the hospital including two major operations and two stints in the ICU can rack up quite a bill.After she was admitted, I went to her house to gather her mail and paper and began to try to fix her financial situation. I was able to secure her Medicare Part A quickly but I am still waiting for her Part B to be added. We had to complete a special enrollment application and the process has been murky and frustrating. Unfortunately, without Part B coverage, all of her specialist visits (radiation, oncology, neurosurgery, vascular surgery, etc.) remain uncovered and will be billed as “self pay.” I was able to get Part D prescription coverage as well, but her medications are still very expensive as there are not generic forms available due to their specialized nature. One of her prescriptions is $500 for a two month supply and we still don’t have an approximate cost for her chemo pills.In addition to working on her insurance, I also helped her apply for retirement and disability benefits. I am also working with an attorney to get her unemployment back pay. Unfortunately, none of these will be immediate fixes. Social Security’s own application tracker states the average turnaround for benefit review is 272 days. I am currently managing her household expenses with her savings. With a daunting diagnosis and no income, you can imagine the amount of stress my mom is feeling knowing what expenses have already accrued and what lies ahead. Her official diagnosis is glioblastoma multiforme, which is an aggressive and sneaky brain cancer. It requires a gauntlet of treatment due to its complexity and likelihood to recur. She has agreed to let me open a fundraiser on her behalf to help us with her initial medical expenses while we work to get her insurance and benefits sorted. All of our friends and loved ones have been so generous already. Your words of love and encouragement inspire her to fight each day. Anything you are able to donate is much appreciated.