Benefit for Christa De Mayo's Heart Failure

I have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. The diagnosis was given at the tail end of our national tour this summer (the full story follows) 2,700 miles from home, in Everett, WA. Thankfully I am insured, but the urgent & emergency care costs and being hospitalized out of network so far from home has left us with overwhelming out of pocket expenses. We are seeking support in covering these expenses as we return home, with this serious and life changing diagnosis. Thank you for your time and consideration.



While traveling with Morgan and Leon this summer, I started to feel very drained. I thought it was the nature of just being on the road: eating lots of prepared foods at restaurants and not cooking my own home meals, not getting enough sleep or water, working remotely, being a mom, navigating the Tetris of traveling etc.  We were at the end of being on the road for almost 3 months, it was understandable that I could get sick, have picked up a virus or just simply drained. But the last week of the tour while we were in Portland OR,  I went downhill fast. I began to have difficulty breathing and had a racing heart. Two days before we were to leave Portland to go up to Seattle, I could not walk half of a city block without having to stop to catch my breath and have my heart beat out of my chest. We drove up to Seattle for Morgan to play a festival and then we were going to go to the Washington coast for three days of shows. I was just holding out that If I could just get to the beach and rest, I’d get better. Then I had a panic attack at the festival. I was alone with Leon in the van, trying to lay down and rest my body while he watched a movie. I started the internal conversation that I needed to ask Leon to go get Morgan. I resisted it because I knew something big was wrong and if I couldn’t go get Morgan myself, I was probably worse off. Moms aren’t supposed to get sick, we take care of our children, we don’t ask our 5 year olds to take care of us. I finally asked him to go get Morgan and I remember telling him be careful around the cars since he was small and to run. Morgan came and we saw that all of the Urgent Care places were closed on Sundays, so we considered the ER. He found a medical professional at the festival to come check me out. He talked me down from my panic and suggested we check into a hotel and get a good nights sleep, reevaluate in the morning. We went to the Urgent Care first thing the next day.

Thinking that I maybe just had a virus or pneumonia, I went to an urgent care so that they could check me and give me some sort of diagnosis or direction to make me feel better. They did an X-ray to look at my lungs, they took my vitals and saw my blood pressure was too high, they gave me an EKG and the PA said “It looks like you’ve either had a heart attack or you’re having one right now.”

Leon and Morgan were in the room and Leon said “Mom, are you having a heart attack?”
I told him that I didn’t know.

Pretty quickly I was being put on a gurney by three firemen and waving goodbye to Morgan and Leon through the ambulance rear window. I was rushed to the ER and began my four day stay of lots of scary meetings with dozens of specialists and many tests including an angiogram which was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. They wanted to understand what was going on and why.  My hospital room white board was full of the tests scheduled for me.
I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I did not have a heart attack, but there is damage to my heart.  They put me on multiple medications to drain the fluid that was causing the difficulty breathing & to lower my blood pressure.  That’s where I am now, I’m out of the hospital. I’m home, cooking my own meals, trying to reduce stress and get more rest. I’m eating a low sodium diet (1500 mg a day) and staying active. I have a great cardiologist here in Asheville that is monitoring my heart and I’ll get another full round of tests in January to see if my heart has improved. It’s in my hands now to manage it and I’m doing what I can to crawl out of this. 

I am insured and the majority of my stay at the hospital is being covered by that insurance. But the out-of-pocket cost for out of network tests (and they did a lot of tests) are incredible. I am thankful for my insurance that the bills aren’t 10 times higher than what they are now. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve got a lot more bills than we’re able to cover without maxing out new credit cards and diving into debt. If you’re able to donate any amount of $, we are so incredibly thankful for it. Every little bit helps, and it means so much that our family and friends are gathering around us to help us through this. My heart may be injured with this disease, but it feels full from all of the love. 
Thank you 

Christa Joy

*UPDATE

I got a surprise letter from one of the billing departments that one nearly $2000 bill was mysteriously approved to be 100% funded. I've paid over $500 on this bill and they're even refunding me the money that I've paid toward the bill! So, I've lowered the goal to $6000 since $2000 is now not owed! I don't fully understand it, but I'll take it!