Emma Carbone

Update for 2026: Hi everyone. I stopped updating this page when things calmed down at the end of last year and had wanted that to be the end of it (you can read the original info for this fundraiser below this update). Unfortunately with things like chronic illness and eldercare and any kind of recovery, progress isn't linear and I've been struggling for the last few months. I had wanted to be past needing help but as I stare at a nearly empty bank account and nearly depleted savings, I have to admit that I could use some help if you are in a position do so comfortably. If you're not, I understand but after urging from a couple of friends I decided it was worth sharing this update. When we left off in my last update my mom was recently home and recovering well after her hospital treatments and sub-acute rehab. Then we hit the new year and had to push back my mom's next infusion because of the blizzard. That set off a chain reaction where her autoimmune condition flared up quite badly leading to new sores all over her skin and a lot of pain. After being in communication with her doctors and trying to wait for the scheduled infusion, the dermatology team told us that Mom had to come in for an emergency check. I had expected a quick appointment where Mom received a new prescription for Prednisone (a corticosteroid that is often used to treat infections and autoimmune issues in the short term). Instead, the dermatology team was incredibly alarmed at the state of Mom's skin and that the sores had spread to her mouth (this had alarmed us as well and is the main reason we went in). After consulting with the attending and the infusion center, they were able to set up the infusion to happen the same day. The dermatologist on call walked us from the dermatology office to the infusion suite which thankfully are in the same building. After being at the hospital from 8am to 3pm, Mom was sent home and started a new course of Prednisone to help get her skin back in check because the infusion takes time to start working. It actually needed so much time that the prednisone treatment needed to be extended an entire week to finally get things under control. Waiting for the infusion, follow up appointments, and the recovery all led to additional time off from work which meant more unpaid time off for me. (I am out of sick time and vacation time and have been using Family Medical Leave—which is unpaid—in tandem with Paid Family Leave—which pays 2/3 of my usual pay for days I have to use—to cover this time. It's time that employees are legally entitled to in New York City but has a lengthy application process and because of my place of employ processes it requires a lot of labor from me to code properly and track with many of the deductions for unpaid time taking me by surprise because they are not taken out of my paychecks with any predictability.) Then it was tax season. Which involved paying my regular taxes and paying taxes on the money I received for my Paid Family Leave (because of an application glitch by HR, taxes were not pre-deducted from my payments as I requested and instead I had to pay it myself with my taxes) which ate up $1200 from my savings. In March and April between the infusion and follow up appointments my mom had a barrage of doctor visits and I had to take many days off from work to care for her and accompany her to those appointments. As a result I haven't had a paycheck for my full salary since early March and won't have one again until June. I have been staying on top of bills but only barely and only because I've exhausted the Paid Family Leave funds I had been trying to hold onto for future emergencies (which wound up being March and April's emergencies). At the same time I have been dealing with my own mono flareup and chronic fatigue symptoms that have made staying on top of day-to-day tasks challenging even as I remind myself rest is the only way to get past this. Right now I'm counting down to my next (partial) paycheck and the summer when my vacation time will reset so I can use some of it for sick days instead of unpaid time. Any donations received here will continue going toward paying down bills so that I can try to get ahead of ongoing care expenses and get on a better financial footing. Thank you for reading and donating or sharing if you can. *** Originally in 2025: Last year my mom was diagnosed with an autoimmune skin condition called pemphigus vulgaris which causes her skin to break out in painful blisters. Right when she was about to start the infusion treatment needed for it, she broke two ribs during a fall and suffered a severe loss of mobility. The pemphigus was brought under control with prednisone while she spent six months in two nursing homes for sub-acute rehab to regain her strength and mobility. She was able to come home in October but, unfortunately, at the start of this year her skin condition flared up again. This time it was unresponsive to prednisone and caused her severe pain. I had to take my mom to the ER on July 16 because she had not been eating or drinking and couldn't move from the pain. She was admitted in the ER and from there she was moved to Lenox Hill Hospital and then to their ICU. The Lenox Hill dermatology department thought her skin was severe enough that she needed to be moved to a burn center to receive more intensive wound care. She has been at the burn center in New York Presbyterian's Weill Cornell Medical Center since July 18. I have been told that upon admission 15-20% of her body had open wounds. While the ideal would be having Mom at home, she is definitely where she needs to be and, finally, getting the comprehensive care she needs. She is receiving extensive wound care, has started the infusion treatments she needs for the pemphigus, and is being seen by palliative care for pain management among others. She had a setback on the 25th when she had a seizure in the hospital but having been dealing with seizures for years I'm hoping she'll finally get the treatment she needs for that as well. We are both taking it one day at a time and I'm giving our dog Bella lots of extra hugs and pets to make sure she doesn't feel too bad while missing my mom at home. Getting to the burn center to see Mom is hard. I have to travel uptown and cross the entire island to get to her, but I'm making it work. At the end of the month after using two weeks of vacation time (the only absence time I currently have), I tried starting to go back to work which has been hard in its own ways. My last July paycheck shorted me for 28 hours of work time. My library system migrated to a new payroll and finance system and the rollout has been riddled with problems. Everyone agrees I will get the money I am owed. No one can agree when. I am trying to work with HR to restart FMLA (family medical leave) so I will at least have more time to use to be at the hospital, but that will also see a reduction in pay whenever I'm able to start it. I recently went through my expenses for 2024 and between food, medical equipment, and medical supplies not covered by insurance I spent $10,000 in emergency expenses in 2024--most of which I am still carrying as credit card debt. Every time I try to budget to plan ahead this year I have run into setbacks including the payroll issues at work with delayed checks and work time that was not paid out properly. And now that my mom is hospitalized again, I am anticipating more emergency expenses coming through. I am trying to get Mom all of the support she needs and manage her care while also taking care of Bella, the apartment, and myself. But it all takes time and so much of it costs money whether it's transportation to the hospital, groceries, supplies Mom needs at the hospital, or figuring out how to make up this missing work payment. Whenever I talk about everything I am dealing with for my mom's care online, people have expressed concern and some have asked how to help. It feels weird to be asking for anything when there is so much worse happening in the world, but if you are able and inclined I have started this Go Fund Me to try and offset some of these emergency expenses. I currently have $15,000 in credit card debt--mostly from these emergency expenses. I'm hoping to raise $7,000 here to be able to pay off one of those credit cards so that I can have one for future emergencies and to also save $300 a month in minimum payments and interest. Any money raised here will go toward paying down my debt so that I will be more financially stable for future emergencies. If you have ever asked me how you could help, if you've ever appreciated one of my reviews, blog posts, or social media posts, if you have ever been grateful for one of my tarot readings and wondered how to support me, I would so appreciate you donating or sharing.  Other ways to help: Paypal: www.paypal.com/paypalme/missprint Venmo: http://venmo.com/missprint