WolfCryer Medical Fund (James McDermott)
Donation protected
In March of 2020, my life completely changed in a domino effect of events. On March 2nd I stepped off my front steps but misjudged my footing. I suffered an ankle injury that took me out of work for over 3 months. My ankle injury slowly improved but there would be a new problem. Within 3 weeks of wearing the brace meant to help support the tendon which was injured by my fall, that brace would cause a wound on my ankle. I, unfortunately, have a condition with my veins that I have fought with for over 20 years. My veins don’t work like they should. Wounds that appear on my ankles don’t heal properly and the process is lengthy and in many cases quite painful. I have had medical procedures several times that help (for a few years.) I, and my doctors, try to heal the wounds through wraps and non invasive treatments. This doesn’t always work.
I returned to work about 7 months ago, a new job with less hours in preparation of the upcoming school year. We offset my loss in wages by removing our children from daycare. I have my good days and my absolutely horrible days when it comes to pain. But I was still working. I’ve tried to apply for some type of disability but do not “qualify”. In order to qualify I would have had to put my family in a financial position that I was not willing to consider. So I worked through the pain.
My wife and I have spent the past few months attempting to prepare our family for the inevitability of a future procedure that I longed to avoid. We had started to bring down the majority of our debt and have been working to add to our savings when we can, but I also see my doctors at least once a week since the wound showed up. Insurance covers some but not all of the costs of these visits so I get weekly medical bills that have hindered our savings. This procedure will undoubtedly put us back into massive debt due to its costs and the fact that I will be out of work for at least several weeks. We were trying our best to prepare for this inevitability.
This week unfortunately everything came crashing down. The pain become so overwhelming that I could barely stand at work and had to leave early. The next day at my weekly visit my wound doctor told me to go into the ER for 24 hours to get IV antibiotics as the ones I was taking were not stopping the infection that was causing the immense pain. That 24 hours turned into 4 days, 17 needles and tons of medical tests from X-rays to EKGs to blood and wound cultures. Each day I was given the hope of being able to be released, only for that hope to be taken away by the infection’s hold on my body.
Finally on the fourth day I was allowed to leave the hospital, providing I let them put an IV picc into my arm and took on the responsibility of giving myself antibiotics twice a day from home. There were no longer any pill options available as the infection has grown immune to them. I was almost, once again, denied my departure due to the fact that my insurance did not cover the medicine that I would need. A cost that I could just put on a credit card and pay off over the next year or so… until they explained that the hefty price was PER week.
I have a date already set to get the preliminary tests done in preparation for my procedure but now that is up in the air until this infection can be eradicated. Now, all of our preparation might not even come close to covering these last few days. And I am already out of work again, most likely until the procedure which is now on hold. My wife is contemplating a second job on top of her 50 hour full-time job she works now to cover us while I’m out. I am against it but I also know we might fall too far behind without something to help cover my time out and the unknown costs ahead in terms of hospital bills, which are now probably at least double what we were already falling short of preparing for.
In my life I have never failed at providing for my family. Until now. Mentally and emotionally I’m pretty devastated. It took some convincing from some of the amazing people that I’ve met over the last few years of my doing YouTube and streaming to ask this of anyone... but I need help. I’m scared and beaten. I do NOT want anyone giving anything if they themselves cannot afford to. We ALL have our problems and roadblocks that life throws at us and I fully understand that my problems are not worse than others. If you would like to help me out please feel free to do so… but if you cannot, please know that I still appreciate you all!
I returned to work about 7 months ago, a new job with less hours in preparation of the upcoming school year. We offset my loss in wages by removing our children from daycare. I have my good days and my absolutely horrible days when it comes to pain. But I was still working. I’ve tried to apply for some type of disability but do not “qualify”. In order to qualify I would have had to put my family in a financial position that I was not willing to consider. So I worked through the pain.
My wife and I have spent the past few months attempting to prepare our family for the inevitability of a future procedure that I longed to avoid. We had started to bring down the majority of our debt and have been working to add to our savings when we can, but I also see my doctors at least once a week since the wound showed up. Insurance covers some but not all of the costs of these visits so I get weekly medical bills that have hindered our savings. This procedure will undoubtedly put us back into massive debt due to its costs and the fact that I will be out of work for at least several weeks. We were trying our best to prepare for this inevitability.
This week unfortunately everything came crashing down. The pain become so overwhelming that I could barely stand at work and had to leave early. The next day at my weekly visit my wound doctor told me to go into the ER for 24 hours to get IV antibiotics as the ones I was taking were not stopping the infection that was causing the immense pain. That 24 hours turned into 4 days, 17 needles and tons of medical tests from X-rays to EKGs to blood and wound cultures. Each day I was given the hope of being able to be released, only for that hope to be taken away by the infection’s hold on my body.
Finally on the fourth day I was allowed to leave the hospital, providing I let them put an IV picc into my arm and took on the responsibility of giving myself antibiotics twice a day from home. There were no longer any pill options available as the infection has grown immune to them. I was almost, once again, denied my departure due to the fact that my insurance did not cover the medicine that I would need. A cost that I could just put on a credit card and pay off over the next year or so… until they explained that the hefty price was PER week.
I have a date already set to get the preliminary tests done in preparation for my procedure but now that is up in the air until this infection can be eradicated. Now, all of our preparation might not even come close to covering these last few days. And I am already out of work again, most likely until the procedure which is now on hold. My wife is contemplating a second job on top of her 50 hour full-time job she works now to cover us while I’m out. I am against it but I also know we might fall too far behind without something to help cover my time out and the unknown costs ahead in terms of hospital bills, which are now probably at least double what we were already falling short of preparing for.
In my life I have never failed at providing for my family. Until now. Mentally and emotionally I’m pretty devastated. It took some convincing from some of the amazing people that I’ve met over the last few years of my doing YouTube and streaming to ask this of anyone... but I need help. I’m scared and beaten. I do NOT want anyone giving anything if they themselves cannot afford to. We ALL have our problems and roadblocks that life throws at us and I fully understand that my problems are not worse than others. If you would like to help me out please feel free to do so… but if you cannot, please know that I still appreciate you all!
Organiser
James McDermott
Organiser
Warwick, RI
