Chelsea's Medical Expenses

Chelsea's Message

My name is Chelsea Eastin and I have an auto-immune disease called Ulcerative Colitis. Its a disease that has sent me into the hospital at least 136 days in the last 4 years. (The first stay was January 16, 2012 in New Iberia, LA and the most recent stay was August 8, 2016 in Houston, Texas.)

I asked my sorority sister to help me create this page because I'm finally admitting to myself (and the world) that I need some assistance.

To those with a generous heart and the ability to comfortably donate any amount: this money is going directly to my parents to pay for the health insurance I need to be able to get my next life or death surgery on September 13th.

If you would like to read Chelsea's full story, please continue reading below:

My mom, Tanya, is a licensed LVN and gets our family's insurance by working at an HCA facility. (she started work at this facility when I was 9 months old; meaning she'd been there for 23 years). All the members of the Eastin household are covered under her insurance policies.

The last 2 years our coverage was with Cigna and, even though Methodist Medical Center was out of network, they approved me to go there because one of the top 5 colorectal surgeons operates there.

The decision to cover the cost of going to Methodist was how I was able to get the emergency surgery I needed on my abdomen April 16th. (I had been taking the maximum dose of chemotherapy every 6 weeks to try to keep it at bay but, 4 years after starting on the chemo regimen, it stopped being effective).

EMERGENCY SURGERY- APRIL 16, 2016: The surgery was supposed to be 2 hours to remove my colon; it turned into a 5 and a half hour surgery where he removed both my colon and gallbladder [because it was inflamed and engorged and adhered (stuck to) to my colon wall]. The surgeon was so appalled at the state of it he even took a video of it for research purposes and presented it to other coljob'sorectal surgeons and Gastroenterologists, the type of doctor that treats issues in the GI tract.

SEPSIS- MAY 2016: According to recent studies of patients treated in Intensive Care Units with sepsis, over 1/3 of them died from it. So, if I wasn't at one of the best hospitals in the medical center, I probably wouldn't be typing this. Again, thanks to my mom's insurance, I was able to get the top-notch care that was required. One night my pulse was way too high, SVT 180/190 and my BP was way too low 40 over 30. When the Cardio floor couldn't get either one cooperating they rushed me to the ICU where it became apparent that I had had an untreated infection that had become so bad that it caused me to become septic and then, just a couple hours later, my body went into multi-system organ failure. I had fainted from the pain on the CV floor but the doctors still put me in a medically induced coma to make sure I stayed sleep and let my body recuperate. This was around the time the doctors finally got in touch with my emergency contact (my parents). My mom and dad got dressed and drove to the hospital as fast as they could so they could see for themselves and be there with me. I was out for over 4 days and they were there at 4am and not leave till 7/8pm just to be able to go and see me breathe for 2/3 hours (as parents they struggled with that because the normal floors had to limits on when they could come visit but the ICU visiting hours were strict and preselected by the staff. They had scheduled 2-4 hour visits every couple hours) During the time my Ejection Fraction (a way doctors can rate the severity of heart failure based on how well your heart is pumping blood to the rest your body) was down to 40%, my lungs kept filling up with fluid so they had to be drained, I had a tube down my throat to help me breathe, my liver was on its last leg along with all my other organs around day 3 when everything turned around; the first sign my body had won the battle was that I had made some urine (it meant my kidneys had come back even though they were the first to fail).

After the emergency surgery and the sepsis, I still had to stay in the hospital until my lab work was stable which took another 2 weeks, I was discharged from that stay on June 2nd.

My trauma didn't end once I got out; that would be too easy! According to my favorite physical therapist, I needed to expect/plan to need a week of recovery for each of the 84 days I spent bed-bound in the hospital because laying in the bed for hours, not being able to truly use them, causes the muscles to atrophy. (84 weeks, btw, is 1.6 years). So, needless to say, I have a long road to recovery. It doesn't help matters that I still need 2 more surgeries so I'll have to add those bed-bound days to the tally for it to be accurate.

The cardiac surgeon who had seen me during one if my many bouts of SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) was concerned about my high heart rates and recommended I get what's called an Electrophysiology Study (EPS) and an Ablation before he would give me cardiac clearance (something you need to have before you can have surgery). The EPS and Ablation were both done in July 1st and successful. This meant that he could give me cardiac clearance for the next abdominal surgery I need which is scheduled for September 13.

Here's why I'm asking for help:

Less than a month after my 12 week stay and all of the above happened, my mom was let go from her job of 23 years.
She was justifiably disappointed but now, as we believe in God's will, she considers it to have been a blessing in disguise. She has been able to take care of me when I'm having spasms or black outs and drive me the 45 minutes to my surgeons office every week (since my heart's EF is still low I get lightheaded & faint at random times and we can't risk that happening to me whilst driving). These things she does would have to be done by someone so I'm blessed it can be someone who cares for me the way she does.

We got the insurance through my mom's employer so, after the unfortunate event, my parents had 2 options to choose from: (remember that I needed coverage for my September 13th surgery).

We could either:
-try to find another policy that would take us, (all my pre-existing conditions could play into their decision and prevent us getting coverage).
OR
-choose to stay with our existing policy. This option is called the COBRA option (for those who don't know: whenever you're employed with benefits, you get a percentage of the policy charges taken out of your paycheck and your employer pays the rest that's owed to the insurance provider. The COBRA option means you pay your regular payment amount [that's been taken out of your check every month] AND also pay the portion your ex-employer used to pay.)

This means my parents went from getting a certain amount of money taken out of my Mom's paycheck every month to having to come up with a $2000 sum every month; at least until I don't need any more surgeries (which, according to my surgeon, won't be until December, at the earliest. So I still need 2 more surgeries even if there are no complications with the surgery on the 13th)
September 1st marked the day that they have to start paying the COBRA payments themselves.

Speaking as their child: I can't ever fix the mental and emotional damage seeing their child go through sepsis, multi-system organ failure, a coma and almost dying did to them. I'm not a parent so I can't possibly know what getting a call at 1am saying to get to the hospital as fast as they could drive does to a parent.

I may not be able to tell you how a parent feels but I can tell you, as their child, how it feels to know that you being sick is why they didn't eat or sleep during my coma days they didn't leave my bedside empty ever. They wanted me, even unconscious, to know I was never alone.

I also can't give them any financial relief because the little bit of savings I had went to the copays for my many doctors visits and trips to the ER.

So I'm asking for stranger's help to ease the financial burden that comes with having a sick child who requires numerous hospitalizations.
My parents never gave up on me even though my body wanted to give up(and part of it did)& and then supported me [physically, emotionally, financially, & psychologically] through my recovery journey. And, to be perfectly honest, I would like to be there for them the same way they were there for me.

Oh and, just as an example of one of the hospital costs no-one everthinks about: "a little piece of home". Since my parents have bosses who are also parents they were usually flexible so they were able to come at least once a day during my 12 week stay.

In the Houston Medical Center, where Methodist is at, valet and parking garges both cost about 10-13 bucks a day. So my parents had an extra bill of $870 during my April-June stay; that's not including the $160 we paid to park for the 16 weeks of weekly surgeon visits I've required since I was discharged.

I want to thank Lainey Gonzales who gave me the confidence to swallow my pride and ask for help.

I hope that reading my story will empower someone who sees it to be spiritually generous, by sending a prayer up for us, and/or, if they can afford to, finacially generous.