Assist Jett in Healing and Staying Afloat

Hello, most of you have known me by my legal name (listed above) but my name is Jett. I am 28 years old, have been living my life as a makeup artist, perfume "expert" and sometimes a drag queen. I have been going through a really tough time lately. I have decided I probably need to ask for community support to get through. I am in this financial predicament because of ongoing health issues that have recently come to a head last month where I also lost my job. I am asking for help with monthly expenses including rent, utilities, medical costs, bills and food. This is because of a medical problem that went on for too long, it got so bad that it will take awhile for me to recover now.

I would like to tell you my story.

This will be long, but I feel it is important to give you all the full picture.

My girlfriend and I relocated from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to pursue our respective career choices in late August of 2024. However, the beginning of August was when my health issues were amplifying, but I didn't realize it until looking back. 20/20 hindsight.

I have always struggled with my mental health. I was a seemingly happy kid, but I was deeply troubled due to circumstances placed on me that no child should ever have to go through (csa). I was no stranger to therapy as a teen and young adult. I was in and out of inpatient hospitalizations over the years because I didn't think I deserved to live. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and PTSD at 18. While I am better now, I still struggle and do require ongoing, consistent treatment for my mental health to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

In the beginning of August, I crumbled under the weight of the move. I was so depressed, I sought inpatient hospitalization again. While this helped at the time, it was the start of something much more debilitating than I ever would have imagined.

We followed through with the move, drove across the country, saw some touristy attractions (shown in photo) and all was great. We might have spent all savings on the move, but hey! We both got great jobs. I landed a counter manager position at a luxury retailer near the apartment we snagged. I was so excited to start my new life.

Over the next few months, I would become ill off and on with strange unexplainable symptoms that I would write off because my doctors would write them off as well. There would be days where I had so much anxiety that I could not give a reason for, and could not get out of bed and would cry for hours. My family thought I just wasn't adjusting to the new city. I was throwing up constantly. I was so tired all the time. My hair was falling out. I couldn't control my body temp. I got so cold so fast, and if I was even a little warm I was pouring sweat. I got my meds changed by my psychiatrist a few different times because I thought they just stopped working or I was allergic and getting sick from them despite being on the same combo for 6 years. I was missing work a little more than I wanted to be, and was asked to step down from my management position. I agreed, thinking the stress of the job was getting to me even though despite my missing a few days, I was performing well.

Anything to help me feel better, right?

Well. In Nov/Dec, my psychiatrist changed my mood stabilizer as mentioned above. I switched pharmacies due to my work insurance not covering the pharmacy I was previously using. I went to pick up my meds from new pharmacy and the pharmacist tells me I should know that I am allergic to one of the ingredients in the medication (milk) I was taking this for years. I figured that MUST be why I was throwing up all the time and feeling so horrible. She put me on a different one, and about after a few weeks my feet started to get itchy on this new one. I was still experiencing the same symptoms as before but my mood was better. The itchiness was almost an afterthought. I continued on this for a bit and was exceeding at work. However between then and my next appointment (Jan) the itchiness spread through my body. I decided to mention it. She immediately took me off of this medication and put me on another.

Within 12 hours of my first dose, I was in the ER in anaphylaxis from what I believe was the medication. Covered in hives, itchier than ever, tongue swollen could NOT breathe or swallow properly. This was my first time in a LA ER and let me tell you, it was not a pleasant experience. I was administered benadryl upon arrival, and was not seen, made to wait in the waiting room for 7 hours. By that point it was 2:30 am, and my girlfriend and I were getting cranky with one another which rarely happens. My symptoms subsided, and I left without care.

I scheduled an appointment with a doctor in Culver City and was to be seen the next day for a follow up. However, when we got there they canceled my appointment without telling me and pushed me off with another appointment with the other doctor at that practice (I should have saw this as a red flag, but I went back here for three separate visits.... ugh)

That night we evacuated LA due to the wildfires and stayed away for about 2 days because the smoke inhalation was too much for my body to handle at the time.

(After this, my antidepressant was increased and I was off of a mood stabilizer for a month following psychiatrist orders.)

My allergic reaction was on a Wednesday, we came back to LA on a Friday and by Saturday my girlfriend and I had BOTH come down with the norovirus. While she got better in 3 days, I spent 11 total days down. I missed 6 days of work. One of which in the ER again, spending the ENTIRE 10hr time vomiting blood that looked like coffee grounds. I lost 15 lbs that week. I had assumed my immune system was compromised because I just was not getting better.

Following this illness, I went my PCP three times between the middle of Jan, to when I lost my job in the middle of Feb. I was going home early quite a bit from work due to how sick I was getting. Management was concerned for me and told me I should take a leave of absence to "make sure I had time to recover from whatever was happening to me before the Valentine's events." I took the leave of absence and all of my claims were denied thru Sedgwick because I was not employed for long enough, and I did not take the leave for long enough. I returned to work but only got sicker.

I was only eating white rice, toast, applesauce, bananas and canned bland chicken soup. Even then, I still had trouble keeping food down. I was so fatigued all the time. I noticed my ears were hurting and felt full. My tongue swelling never went down. I was SO itchy at night still. My feet and hands were falling asleep often. I had NO appetite but when I did get hungry I would be STARVING and then eat 2 bites and be full.... Then throw up later. I had migraines that wouldn't go away. I was still COVERED in rashes. I craved soooo much sugar and was always thirsty. I started having bad acid reflux, and diarrhea. I told my PCP about this while visiting her for the appointment for my leave of absence, where I had asked her to go over everything with me, see what we could do, and asked if she could fill out a drs note and/or Sedgwick paperwork for my job. Instead she asked me if I participated in CA's legal .. gardening. I told her occasionally. She told me I needed to stop immediately, no reason as to why. Opened the door to the exam room, walked me to the lobby and at the receptionist's desk, told me that she does not think I need a drs note and she will not fill out any paperwork. I cried right there. Told her I was suffering and would lose my job. She shrugged and said she would look at the paperwork when she had time and left. The receptionist told me they'd call me when it was ready. They never called.

I went back to work. My bosses seemingly understood where I was coming from. I told them everything, almost too much, like I'm sharing with you right now. They said my claims being denied wouldn't be a problem and they'd accept the leave I already took on the contingency IF I didn't need to miss more work. However, things. only. got. worse.

Not even a few days later, I'm feeling extra bad, extra sluggish. I'm googling why it feels like my body is giving up on me. I feel like I'm dying. I'm crying ALL the time. My anxiety is through the ROOF even though I'm RELIEVED I get to keep my job. I garden just a tiny, little bit to calm down, and fall asleep relatively early. 9pm I'd say.

At 1am, Thurs, I wake up from a dead sleep and I feel an impending sense of doom. Everything feels wrong. The inside of my body feels like it's on a rollercoaster in the worst way. My nerve endings felt like they were going absolutely haywire. Going in waves up and down my body. Like pins and needles but spread out across the whole body, and it was moving intensity up and down my legs and arms. Then the entire right side of my body goes numb. No more pins and needles on that side. I can't feel anything there, but I can move it. I can physically feel my fingertips touch my leg but I can't feel anything else. The waves of what feels like electricity are still going through my body and it was uncomfortable, a little painful, and scary. I could talk, I was coherent but as it moved through the left side of my body I would involuntarily raise my arms trying to find relief. My speech slurred in these moments.

I started to cry and panic because I did not know what was happening to me.

My girlfriend panics, she thinks I'm having a stroke from what I'm describing to her and I think she may be right and I panic even more. I beg her to call someone to take me to ER. It does not stop. The paramedics come and take my blood pressure, ask me what is happening, and immediately tell me it's just anxiety and I am probably just under a lot of stress and should go to "my happy place" and go back to sleep.

If you remember from before, I've been struggling with my mental health almost my whole life. I've had anxiety attacks. This was not one of them. I knew my body and I knew something was not right. However, every single health professional I've been talking to about my symptoms has been dismissing me so far, so (mind you, I'm not on mood stabilizers still) I allowed myself to be gaslit into believing it was probably just because I gardened every once in a while and it's all in my head and I'm crazy. I'm making myself sick.

That episode, or whatever you want to call it, continued for another hour or so. I had completely calmed down and eventually went to sleep while what felt like electric currents continued to wave through the left side of my body. I thought I wasn't going to wake up. However, when I did wake up later that Thursday I immediately made an appointment to see a new doctor in Glendale that came highly reviewed.

I went to work the next few days and by Saturday, I had no energy. I was forgetting why I was walking into rooms. I forgot what I was talking about mid sentence. When I was walking, I felt like I was going to pass out often. I struggled with balance, the floors felt like they were moving. I felt drunk but I don't drink anymore because of my meds.... so it was impossible.

I still clocked into work, had an interaction with a coworker that immediately made me cry and took that as a sign to request a meeting with all three of my managers. There I had explained to them how I was feeling, and that I had a new drs appointment coming up, and asked them if there was absolutely any way in hell I could have a little bit more time available to me to take to get tests ran and figure out what is wrong. They instead told me I needed to really consider resigning, that they would not give me any time off because I did not qualify, and it would essentially not go well for me if I continued to show up to work and not be well. They also said if I wanted to return to said company, I should resign, because that would be the only way they would take me back. I told them I needed time to consider my options, and did not work the following day Sunday. I had my dr appointment on Monday where my new dr listened to every symptom and concern I've had, and said he wasn't sure what was wrong, but would run some bloodwork and go from there.

I really was at a loss. I loved the company I worked for. I was grateful I was getting tests done, but had no idea what was on the other side of them. My general anxiety and depression was at record levels. I felt like no matter what I did, it was going to be the wrong choice. I was SO sick. In my heart, I knew I needed to take care of myself though because if I just continued to try to pretend like I was ok while my body was painful, depleted of all energy, and overall felt so wrong to be in while dealing with SO many awful symptoms... I would make things harder for everyone and I didn't want to do that. I resigned the next day, Feb 18, and sited medical for the reason of my departure.

Between the 18th and the 25th all of my symptoms continued and worsened. I did get my bloodwork done, and that took SO much out of me. I was sleeping 15-20 hours a day with ease. I had trouble with speech, my joints were painful. I just felt like a sad, deflated 3 month old helium balloon someone left in the corner and forgot about. I still couldn't control my body temp. Woke up soaked every morning. I couldn't walk any faster than a snail pace. I couldn't lift anything even relatively heavy... Like my chunkyish knit blanket is too much to carry. I have to drag it accross the floor. The headaches got worse. I was bruising like a peach. A tote bag not completely filled with light-medium weight groceries and a simply orange juice container left bruises on my shoulder. Plus the waiting game of getting my test results back put my brain into a panic like no other.

I looked into applying for unemployment and disability and found out I did not qualify for either assistance programs. I was able to obtain other means of insurance, but it hasn't kicked in yet.

I went in to discuss my test results on the 25th of Feb. It turns out my body is severely deficient in vitamin b12, which aligns with every single thing I have been experiencing, from the neurological stroke-like symptoms, down to my worsening anxiety/depression/mood. It also explains why I went through so many meds thinking they'd help, but they didn't, because a psych med isn't going to absolve a vitamin deficiency. Despite b12 deficiency being an "easily correctable" medical condition, the body stores b12 for 2-5 years. it takes a long time for symptoms to show up once you start becoming deficient and your body only absorbs what it thinks it needs, and you pee out the rest. because i was so deficient, they're saying it could take a month before I see any progress, and 6-12 months to recover, and i'll probably have to continue supplementing through the course of my life because the symptoms WILL return when levels fluctuate. and if not treated promptly the neurological damage can be permanent… i also have this thing called pernicious anemia which means that my body cannot absorb b12 like most people through food in the stomach. which means treatment cannot be a simple over the counter b12 tablet. i will be getting an injection once a week until my level gets to a "normal" range, and then we can adjust to see how fast my body depletes, symptoms return, and i need to inject again.

thankfully, my dr has been giving the shots to me at a discounted cost so far, sans insurance. they are $25 a pop. I have gotten 2 already. I do not feel better at all actually. while I have a little bit more energy about 2 days after injection, all the other side effects and symptoms have been making it hard to live and function normally day to day. my nose bleeds now. my joints hurt worse than they ever have. i am still nauseated and vomiting nearly every meal. I’m having trouble walking, moving around normally. i have brain fog and neuropathy. i am still so fatigued. its like no matter how much i rest or sleep i cannot even take a short walk around the block without needing a 6 hour nap afterward. i am in so much pain all over my body, and my anxiety and irritability.... i do not even recognize myself personality wise anymore. i am a living, breathing ball of unexplained anxiety and anger... sigh

it's been really taking a toll on me. my girlfriend is doing everything she can to support us through but with the cost of living right now, we'll completely drown and lose everything if i don't ask for help. with my last pay, we were able to pay march rent. I currently cannot work with what my body is going through right now, but I am *hoping* to have enough stamina to find a wfm job at LEAST by may. i also currently had to let go of my psychiatrist and my therapist because of the lack of insurance and funds... i am having to pay for my 5 mental health prescriptions out of pocket for the time being. all of these expenses add up when you're unemployed and trying to survive off of one income in an apartment you can't afford on just one income... and also can't afford to break your lease on bc of funds/credit.

that being said, if you could, please share this if you read through it, and consider donating any amount to help us stay afloat during this difficult time. $10 puts gas in the car to get me to my drs appointment. $25 gets me my next injection treatment. $30 feeds us both for the day.

thank you all so much for giving me the space to tell my story, and giving me the opportunity to ask for help from my community. <3