Jude's Medical Bills
Donation protected
Asking for help is not easy for me, so I've waited way too long to do this, but here goes nothing...
On Christmas Eve 2016, I got sick. At first, I thought I had just overdone it with the holiday treats (I admit, I had eaten my weight in stuffing that day!), but within hours it became obvious that there was something very wrong. Back then, I was working full-time at a photographer's studio and running a side hustle with my crochet, but I still couldn't afford health insurance (not a priority for my very successful employers), and I was scared to go to the ER and end up with a $10,000++ bill just to find out I had overeaten. So I waited.
After a week, I accepted that the relentless, excrutiating pain wasn't going away (not to mention the other Exorcist-type symptoms), and I decided I needed to see a GI doc. On the eleventh day, I went to that appointment and was sent straight to the hospital where I was told I had a ruptured appendix, diverticulitis, and a raging septic infection which, they said, would have killed me had I waited another day or two to get help. And that was just the beginning.
Over the next 9 months, I had four hospitalizations, three surgeries, and lost two organs and part of a third to the infection (nothing I needed, thankfully). They finally got the appendix out of me in July ... SEVEN MONTHS after it ruptured ... a delay caused by the myriad complications of the sepsis.
Now, thanks to daily physical and occupational therapy sessions, I am finally getting some strength back, but I am still unable to work like I used to, and I'm scared every month that I won't be able to pay for my health insurance (yes, I'm now insured), let alone rent and food. In May, while out on disability and between surgeries, I was let go from my job. Two weeks later my mom passed away... so yeah, it's been a hell of year.
If I could be working right now I would. My husband, who works as a freelance chef, has been doing his very best to make up for my lost income, but we are truly drowning in the medical bills and having trouble covering the absolute basics. We don't have family to fall back on and I am constantly worried that something else will happen to either one of us... and that stress and fear is not helping me heal any faster. I really don't know how or when I'll be able to start working again, and it's a pretty scary situation to be in. I imagine some of you can relate.
I waited too long to seek medical help and it almost killed me. I admit, with all this financial stress, sometimes I wish it had. Now, I've waited so long to ask for financial help, I am in a dire situation... and if I wasn't afraid of losing my insurance, I probably still wouldn't be asking. But I can't wait any longer and I don't know where else to turn for help.
If you can spare anything to help us, every cent will go toward health insurance premiums, medical bills (currently being negotiated down from $370,000), medication and other absolute essentials. I know there are a lot of families struggling out there, and it's hard to think I am as deserving as most of them, but I have to put those thoughts aside and admit that I need help too. I hope to get back to full time work as soon as I possibly can, but for right now, whatever you can spare to get us through this dark time will be so greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading. Best of health to you and yours.
xxoo - Jude
On Christmas Eve 2016, I got sick. At first, I thought I had just overdone it with the holiday treats (I admit, I had eaten my weight in stuffing that day!), but within hours it became obvious that there was something very wrong. Back then, I was working full-time at a photographer's studio and running a side hustle with my crochet, but I still couldn't afford health insurance (not a priority for my very successful employers), and I was scared to go to the ER and end up with a $10,000++ bill just to find out I had overeaten. So I waited.
After a week, I accepted that the relentless, excrutiating pain wasn't going away (not to mention the other Exorcist-type symptoms), and I decided I needed to see a GI doc. On the eleventh day, I went to that appointment and was sent straight to the hospital where I was told I had a ruptured appendix, diverticulitis, and a raging septic infection which, they said, would have killed me had I waited another day or two to get help. And that was just the beginning.
Over the next 9 months, I had four hospitalizations, three surgeries, and lost two organs and part of a third to the infection (nothing I needed, thankfully). They finally got the appendix out of me in July ... SEVEN MONTHS after it ruptured ... a delay caused by the myriad complications of the sepsis.
Now, thanks to daily physical and occupational therapy sessions, I am finally getting some strength back, but I am still unable to work like I used to, and I'm scared every month that I won't be able to pay for my health insurance (yes, I'm now insured), let alone rent and food. In May, while out on disability and between surgeries, I was let go from my job. Two weeks later my mom passed away... so yeah, it's been a hell of year.
If I could be working right now I would. My husband, who works as a freelance chef, has been doing his very best to make up for my lost income, but we are truly drowning in the medical bills and having trouble covering the absolute basics. We don't have family to fall back on and I am constantly worried that something else will happen to either one of us... and that stress and fear is not helping me heal any faster. I really don't know how or when I'll be able to start working again, and it's a pretty scary situation to be in. I imagine some of you can relate.
I waited too long to seek medical help and it almost killed me. I admit, with all this financial stress, sometimes I wish it had. Now, I've waited so long to ask for financial help, I am in a dire situation... and if I wasn't afraid of losing my insurance, I probably still wouldn't be asking. But I can't wait any longer and I don't know where else to turn for help.
If you can spare anything to help us, every cent will go toward health insurance premiums, medical bills (currently being negotiated down from $370,000), medication and other absolute essentials. I know there are a lot of families struggling out there, and it's hard to think I am as deserving as most of them, but I have to put those thoughts aside and admit that I need help too. I hope to get back to full time work as soon as I possibly can, but for right now, whatever you can spare to get us through this dark time will be so greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading. Best of health to you and yours.
xxoo - Jude
Organizer
Jude Forman Shapira
Organizer
New York, NY
