Stem cell transplant

Hi guys! It’s Faith. I am artist trying to go full time but having sickle cell makes that EXTREMELY hard for me. Since February 18th of 2020, I have spent TWELVE THOUSAND EIGHT-HUNDRED AND SEVENTY TWO DOLLARS on sickle cell treatments. A majority of this money went towards medications that keep my chances of crisis lower than they would be without oral/injectable drugs. Here’s a small breakdown of my usual OUT OF POCKET expenses spent on keeping myself alive

$2600 : IRON IV- I get two a month (sometimes more)
$1608- blood transfusions (I’ve had 4 this year 1 causing an infection)
$712- hydroxyurea
$1300- L-glutamine

one night in January I went to the ER around 3am and could barely talk w/out crying because of the amount of pain that I was in and I remember sitting on the phone with my mom because I didn’t have the money to pay the bills that I knew I was going to incur. I cannot stress how POOR and LACKLUSTER the options for insurance are in America let alone the options you get if you DON’T even have insurance. The fact that I will die in debt haunts me every day and most of my debt being from medical bills that I’ve racked up over the years. For something that I have zero control over. The fact that I went in for a blood transfusion last year and was told that they couldn’t complete the treatment without updated insurance information and when I told them I didn’t have it, they gave me the run around for 4 MONTHS! No, I did not get my treatment, I sat in a room for 2 hours while the nurses and billing department ran around like chickens with their heads chopped off just to be told “You’ll need to reschedule” I dnt know how to put this disorder into words, but imagine being anemic x1000. I can’t / don’t sleep at night unless I take drugs, I have migraines almost every day, jaundice because no one talks about this, the fact that I can’t stand up or sit down w/out feeling dizzy. I’m tired of living in America and dealing with their crap policies. I feel like they’d let me die before using any treatment on me without insurance or money. If I ever felt the urge to get a stem cell transplant, now would be my time. I really don’t want to die by this.