Musician Needs Your Help

Dear friends,

What was supposed to be an all-expense paid working vacation with my band, turned into an expensive nightmare. After two years of being rescheduled, our Irish music cruise in the Mediterranean was happening. I had visited my doctors and had my labs before I went and passed with flying colors. However, a few days into the trip, I became very sick and ended up in the ship's infirmary. Despite eating and drinking as normal before developing symptoms, I ended up being treated for dehydration, but they didn't know what else was wrong. I was transferred via ambulance from the port the next day to a hospital in Turkey. They diagnosed me with life-threatening ketoacidosis and said I was almost in a diabetic coma. My blood sugar levels had been fine, but my ketones were way off and causing all the symptoms due to dehydration. They don't know what caused the dehydration that led to the ketoacidosis, but I had an infection of some sort that may have been the cause and treated me with antibiotics. I had this condition last year due to food poisoning when I then found out I was diabetic. I went through hell last year with daily nausea and vomiting from May to October. I had been doing better, but now I've been set back again and I won't be able to eat or drink normally for a while. The ketoacidosis does some damage to the stomach and nerves because you are vomiting acids and bile that irritate the system. The hospital in Turkey wanted money up front for treatment and I ended up paying them over $7000 to treat me. I can’t recommend three days in a Turkish hospital. They said they don't deal with international insurance and I could get reimbursed once back in the US. Unfortunately, that's not true and my insurance won't reimburse. Celebrity Cruises has charged me about $3500 for a night in the infirmary. I then had to book a flight and taxis to get back from Turkey to Athens to catch up with everyone to get my scheduled flight back. Luckily, I got a release and approval to fly just in time. To add insult to injury, our connector flights from Montreal to Boston were canceled and we had to scramble to get back home. Overall, this trip was a whirlwind of trouble. I had just received a pandemic cultural grant before I left and all that money and more went to medical bills. That put any future projects on hold and has left me in a rut. I am slowly recovering and will still be doing gigs when I can. I'm thankful for that. However, this big dent has been a major upset and anything you could contribute would be most helpful. Thank you.