Help Pay for Bubba’s Surgery

Hi sweet friends, family, and social media buddies the world over.

 

Friendly neighborhood Mitchell over here asking for some neighborliness from those who can.

 

The short version? I'm very ill, my company's policies are preventing me from collecting future paid time off, medical bills and others have been piling up as I wiped out my savings to pay for hospitalization and specialist visits; I need this money to pay my rent, not go into more personal debt, buy myself increasingly specialized food for my diet with my new condition, and I don't know who else to turn to. Your help would be appreciated more than you could ever know. My goal is currently set at $5,000, and this is not something I take lightly, this is not some dream amount of money to magically fix my problems but a very conservative number that I think will allow me to get on top of the medical and personal debts I've incurred dealing with my illness and will allow me to get back to work next month.

 

Please consider donating, and if you have questions- stick around and read on, hopefully I've answered some.

 

You can also donate to me directly on paypal [email redacted] or on Venmo @Mitchell-Hansen-2

 

The long version? Stay with me here, friends.

 

Diagnosis

As many of you may know, I've been tremendously ill over the past few months. Diagnoses so far include Ulcer, Gastritis, Esophagitis, Disruptional belching, GERD, Excess Bile, Major Depressive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Inflammation of the bowels, IBS, and more. While POSSIBLE diagnoses continue to stack up and have included things like parasites, bacteria, and other more severe conditions like Cancer, the latest diagnosis doctor's seem to have been sticking with is Crohn's Disease.

 

Day-to-Day Life for Me

For those unfamiliar with Crohn's the symptoms can be quite extreme, and flux between flare up's and remission. I won't go into detail when you're more than likely already performing a google search. (haha) However, it severely limits my abilities to do day-to-day tasks, even so much as typing this message took me hours- as my body may very well be attacking itself, giving me inflammation and pain everywhere. Things like migraines, joint pain, stomach pain, nausea, and more- I'll let google take it from here but needless to say, it's tremendously difficult. I have good and bad days and have a cornucopia of medications I take several times a day, every day, and will probably do so for the rest of my life. They help me eat so I don't lose weight, and they help with a variety of my symptoms. This, however, is only the context of why I'm reaching out.

 

What I've Done So Far

I looked into my options for Disability and my current employer entitled me to 3 weeks at 2/3 my rate of pay to be paid out when it was approved by a third party insurance company. Luckily, I was approved for that. However, since the new year, my company has given us something called discretionary paid time-off, or DPTO for short. Now that I had this information, I thought I could come back to work, take some time off, get paid for it and resume normal work schedule at the end of the month after I undergo an outpatient procedure to confirm my diagnosis. My company however, denied my claim at paid time off, telling me I needed to extend my unpaid leave as long as I was "Disabled"... Not even touching the insensitive and ableist language used in my discussions with my HR department, this means that I will have had no income whatsoever since Mid-November. Meaning by the time I return to work and receive my first paycheck on February 11th, I will have gone 13 weeks with no income whatsoever. A missed $17,604 in gross income, or approximately $10,000 net income.

 

I have paid close to $5000 already in medical bills regarding my doctors visits, hospitalization, over 15 different new prescriptions that my insurance only partly covered, new dietary restrictions and eliminations etc. I still have 5 more visits and procedures in January alone and unfortunately because of the new year, my deductibles and out of pocket max- just reset.

 

Stakes

By my current estimate, without any help, I am looking at racking up close to ten thousand dollars in personal debt to simply pay for my medical treatment and provide food and shelter for myself and my cat until that next check arrives on February 11th. I'm in the midst of renewing my lease and could be evicted, I could default on loan payments, not receive the medical care I need, and this is why I've come to you today.

 

The Ask

This is where you all come in. It is my plea, my hope, my moment of getting on my knees to beg and say please, if you could spare 5$, 20$, 100$, I would appreciate it more than anything as we build to our goal. This goal represents the income I would've made in one month working. It's not everything, it won't magically solve my problems, but this is the amount that I think could help me get back under my feet again and make decisions knowing I will at least not have to deal with moving, missing medical care, or more severe outcomes.

 

You can also donate to me directly on PayPal [email redacted] or on Venmo @Mitchell-Hansen-2

 

Personal

You all know me, and if you didn't, now maybe you do a bit more. I love to help. I love to come to the aid of others, but these past two years have been so incredibly hard on me. From grieving family members, toxic relationships, COVID, Family illness, and now to be going through one of the most medically challenging parts of my life- sometimes it feels impossible. And I hate asking for help when I know I could work hard to find a solution myself, but i'm finally at the point that I can't. I can't do it alone, i need help and so I humbly ask you if you can give, give, if you can't share. comment. anything. And know that I will return the love and kindness and generosity as much as I can whenever I can.

 

Thank you for considering donating, and if you have any questions please just reach out to me. <3 Much love to all of you.

 

Mitchell