Medical Expenses and Bills

Hello all. My name is Michael Smalley and this is my Fund Me page. I'm trying to raise money to pay for my medical bills and time off from work due to two debilitating illnesses, plus a host of other things that have come up over the past year.

This time last year I became ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. It took almost a year for my PCP and I to find a combination of meds that enabled me to function at something approaching my normal state but during that time, I ended up missing so much work that I used up all of my sick and annual leave and had to go in FMLA which is what I've been doing for months now. Last year I also ended up in the ER twice for various things which resulted in more lost work and medical bills. I was hoping this year would give me something of a break but in February I ended up in the ER again after two days of vomiting and other assorted nastiness and ended up having my gallbladder removed. This in addition to being almost septic, being dehydrated, and having a massive UTI all of which...meant more work lost.

Right now I'm behind on all of my medical bills and scrambling just to keep a roof over my head, a car to get back and forth to work in, and utilities turned on, and all of those are months behind. I'm making deals and robbing Peter to pay Paul but even that's running out. My Fibromyalgia pain was under pretty good control with weekly massages but I haven't been able to afford those in a long time and I'm often struggling to buy meds. I'm hoping that my health improves so that I can go back to work full-time but every time I say that something else comes up and, barring the unforeseen, I still have the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia to deal with.

Any funds raised through this will go to my medical bills and general expenses, allowing me to get caught up and, hopefully, stay caught up. Having the stress of money issues taken from me will ease up on stress-related exacerbations of the fatigue and Fibro and allow me to, hopefully, get back to work fulltime and build up sick and annual leave so any days missed won't have to be without pay.

If I can do this, I have no doubt the impact on my overall health would be enormous. My stress would go down, my health would improve and I may able to get back to my plans of furthering my education and becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner.

I am truly grateful to anyone who took the time to read this and to anyone who donates, you have my sincere thanks.