Hi! My name is Eleanor and I live in Chicago with my fiancé Sasha and our (darling) cat Luna.

In late April I got a major surgery, one I’d been wanting for basically as long as I knew it was an option and for which I had been preparing for the better part of 2 years. Despite my best preparations, some of the country’s most experienced surgeons and a robust support network, my surgery came with severe complications—ones faced by only about 1% of surgery recipients. These complications were life-threatening, and necessitated 2 emergency surgeries in the month of May, after which I was placed in a multi-month holding period until early October, when I was told I would need to have at least 2 more reparative surgeries. I had the first of these in mid-November; this week my doctors and I confirmed that it was not successful, and I will need even more surgery. Because the injury and repairs are internal, there’s a lot of unpredictability and uncertainty in my continued recovery and/or need for more procedures down the road, and I have very little certainty with regards to the future of my health and level of disability in the coming months and years.

My initial FMLA request would’ve had me back at work in late June, but my protracted recovery forced me to max out my yearly FMLA allowance of 12 weeks, during which I (thankfully) received approximately 50% of my regular full time wages. For the first few weeks I was back at work I couldn’t squat for fear of my knees buckling; I’d lost that much muscle mass in the 18 days I’d spent hospitalized and the some 3 months I’d spent either on bedrest or slowly recovering. I’ve mostly recovered physically since then, but this most recent surgery and the need for more surgery represents a significant setback in that process. With no protected/paid leave time left to take at work and an unspecified amount of further surgery/hospitalization in my future, I feel it’s crucial that I ask for help now, so that I’m not on the ropes if my health gets quickly worse or my employment is unexpectedly compromised in the future.

The goal I have set is based on the wages I will be missing out on in the 4 weeks I took off work for this most recent surgery and the at least 10 more weeks I will have to take off in the future. The goal is non-inclusive of the 6 weeks of wages lost during my initial recovery, or those lost by my fiancé in the 10 weeks they took off work for my initial recovery. All funds will be put towards rent, utilities, groceries and living expenses/post-surgical needs. Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you so much for your time.