Hi, my name is Willow. I'm 22 years old and living by myself in California. This is the first place I've lived without a parent, and I moved here just over a year ago to live with my boyfriend at the time. It has been a tumultuous year; we have been homeless together, we have had to borrow money, we have had to go without a lot of things. Over time I started to learn that he was making a lot of our problems much worse than they needed to be and I grew exhausted. We broke up but decided to remain friends.

About a week later, we got into an argument and he went out to blow off steam. When he came back, I was staying at a friend's house and he was blackout drunk. He wrecked the place and most of my things, punching holes all over the walls and breaking my guitar, my keyboard, my microphone, my external hard drive. I came here with only that guitar and what I could fit in a suitcase, so looking around at my apartment is like looking at all of my accumulated effort to build a life for myself over the past year. I can't live with anyone who I can't trust to keep that safe. I got a restraining order immediately and have been paying everything by myself since then. This was in November.

I work in fast food, part time. My mom is almost as poor as I am and helps where she can but sometimes she can't. That's been fine as my math has shown that I can actually cover all my living expenses with what I'm making until I start work at my second job--I just can't have any emergencies. Well, now there's an emergency.

I have fucked up teeth. There's no getting around it. I had a shitty childhood and I was usually too depressed to take proper care of myself. When that started to cause health problems like cavities, we couldn't always afford to take care of it and my childhood mistakes have spiralled out of control. I've had four teeth pulled. I've had two root canals and crowns. I'd say I'm more than halfway there but there is still a lot to get done, and now I have my first abcess.

My upper left bicuspid has been half gone for a few years now but the decay has mostly just been ugly. There has been no sense of urgency for someone accustomed to having to put off healthcare sometimes. It has recently started to hurt when I bite down on it, but I've tried to just take as best care of it as I can and put it out of my mind as I don't have the money to fix it right now. However, I've had exposed dental nerves before and I know what they feel like. This isn't it. What I actually have is an infection trapped above the root of the tooth, and no way to stop it from spreading. I can't even afford antibiotics.

I have dental insurance through work but this is going to require a specialist, and a higher copay. If I get this done now, I will not be able to afford any of my bills next month. If I just keep paying my bills, the infection could spread to my eyes or my brain and I COULD FUCKING DIE. 

I'm fucking terrified and I need help. Please help me and if you can't donate, share with anyone who will listen. I've been busting my ass to try and keep everything together and I'm about to pull it off but I'll be damned if I go blind because this fucking idiot decided a violent rampage is an acceptable response to a breakup.