Ryan's Path Towards Hope: My Fight for Disability

We hit our goal!! Thank you so much to everyone for everything!  I am pushing forward to get the 2nd testing done now. It is completely optional and not necessary at all. This is the icing. I am already eating my cake on Dec 15 now (the main/first test). Except ir could confirm all of my symptoms.

I'm reaching out for help once again during a tough spot in my life. I've been hit hard by CFS/ME (essentially long-haul COVID), and it's turned everything upside down. I'm dealing with a bunch of symptoms like serious fatigue, sleepiness, insomnia (go figure), dizziness, distractibility, unmanageable anxiety, and depression, plus new health issues, like severe asthma and IBS.

My sole mission right now is to get approved in this round of my Disability application. The approval rate is super low, only about 14%, and my application is on the examiner's desk as we speak. If I don't get approved this go around, it could be a year or two before I can even get a hearing. I can't afford to wait that long without any income.

My social worker (and pretty much everyone who knows anything about the process) has suggested that I get neuropsychological/neurocognitive testing. This testing is crucial because it's one of the few pieces of objective evidence I can get for my application, as they otherwise are stuck relying on doctors' subjective notes, which rarely have the type of info required (especially since I've had to switch docs so often here in Vegas).

Here's what I need: $1,350 for this test and the report. It's the last big piece of the puzzle to prove the cognitive issues I'm facing every day – stuff like memory loss, confusion, and just not being able to think straight or get stuff done. I have the physical issues and mental health issues covered, but with these conditions (and my younger age), I need to cover all of the bases.

I feel like my brain's aged decades in just two years, and it's scary. There are even more new diagnoses I deal with every day, too, but they're too embarrassing to even talk about.

I found a place that can get the neurocognitive testing and report done fast – like 3-4 weeks fast – which is unheard of, especially in Vegas. The normal wait is 6+ months across the country, and the normal cost is $2,500-$5,000.

This isn't just about money; it's about getting some stability back. Getting on Disability won't solve everything, but it'll lift a huge weight off my shoulders and let me focus on what matters.

If you can chip in – even just a little bit – it would mean the world to me. Every dollar gets me closer to relief from this constant stress.

Thank you all for everything!

PS - If you want to go extra crazy, above and beyond, more than the norm, I would use any additional funds toward this newly-released autoantibody testing confirmation as seen in the extra photo!