Dignity for Julie

Julie once had a good job and additionally spent hours traveling and volunteering raising funds for FIP research, a devastating feline disease that kills hundreds of precious pets every year. Julie was productive and generous.

Then Julie was struck down with Ménière's disease. Ménière's is a disease of the inner ear. It leaves Julie's world pitching and spinning like an horrific, never-ending park ride, with predictable results. Julie can't keep her balance, and ends up stumbling and grasping objects for balance, but ends up falling a lot anyway. Ménière's also causes Julie to have incapacitating "drop attacks" where she suddenly falls without warning. Since Ménière's causes unbearable nausea (akin to severe motion sickness), she can't eat, and ends up vomiting if she tries. The medieval-style treatments for Ménière's Disease causes permanent hearing loss. Julie is going deaf. With the severe vertigo and projectile vomiting, Julie gave up driving for fear of killing someone.

Julie has obviously become unable to work - disabled. So, she filed for SSD with the help of an attorney. Attorneys are paid a percentage of back pay once you are awarded SSD. They have no incentive to hurry. Not only did her attorneys not file her needed medical records with her SSD application, but the paralegals working on her file resigned, causing her file to get lost in a bureaucratic black hole. Obviously, without proper medical documentation, Julie was denied, and now awaits appeal, which could take around six months.

Julie has sold off many of her belongings, including her car and heirlooms, in order to survive. She's been hesitant to ask for help, but several of her friends figured it out, and have endeavored to help. It's not enough. Julie owns her home, but rents her lot, and currently faces eviction. We want to help Julie avoid eviction, be able to afford her medications, and help her take back her dignity and piece of mind as she awaits the SSA decision on her disability.