Support Callie's Multiple Sclerosis Care

I'm fundraising for my friend Callie Kitral, one of the sweetest, strongest, bravest, most caring, most creative people I've ever met.

Callie has been dealing with confusing symptoms and neurological issues for over a decade. The first time we lived together in 2013, she was already experiencing unexplainable vertigo, fatigue, bladder problems, and strange sensations. Her symptoms continued to evolve and get worse over the next 10+ years. What started as sporadic discomfort turned into chronic pain, scary moments of brain fog, and mobility issues. Through all of this, Callie continued to work full-time, regularly pulling doubles and working the wild hours that restaurant work demands. Callie is not one to complain—to say the least—which has made her an expert at masking her health trouble. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I would even know about it if we hadn't lived together for most of our 20s.

Things escalated in 2021 when she began experiencing regular vision issues, dizziness, and seizures. It landed her in the hospital multiple times and essentially kept her bedridden during the hours she wasn't working. Her social life has taken a backseat to her health since. She expends all of her available energy on her career and taking care of her basic needs so she isn't able to spend the time that she needs with her friends and partner—never mind hobbies and art and all the other stuff that keeps people feeling fulfilled.

Without a doubt, Callie has been deeply and chronically underserved by the medical system. Because she has always worked in the service industry, she's rarely had access to affordable health insurance. She visits specialists at every opportunity that she can, and I’ve seen her leave each one more frustrated and disenfranchised. She has been told her symptoms are caused by stress, depression, her job, even her period. She has been denied testing and time by physicians more often than I can count, doctors who do not take her seriously or believe the severity of her pain.

After losing the past 2 years to her symptoms, things really took a turn for the worse recently. In early September, Callie started experiencing severe loss of vision, numbness in the right half of her body, and muscle pain like she had never before. She also started dealing with escalating incontinence—hence the URL—which ironically is the symptom that helped her finally get an accurate diagnosis.

After losing feeling in half of her body, she was worried that she had a stroke, so she ended up visiting the emergency room. This turned into a 5-day inpatient stay where she was treated with painkillers, insulin, and a ton of steroids. An MRI showed multiple lesions along her spinal cord and in her brain, and she was told unceremoniously that she has MS.

Callie was just discharged from the hospital and is beginning a lifelong treatment plan to manage the symptoms of her multiple sclerosis. She has a dedicated PCP, neurologist, and physical therapist who will be working together to help her seek relief and get back to her life. She has health insurance through her current employer which makes a huge difference but she is still dealing with deductibles and expensive specialist co-pays. With adequate care comes a huge bill, which is why I'm raising money to help Callie get through the year.

She needs about $6,000 to deal with very urgent matters—a hospital bill, medication, occupational/mobility equipment—and another $5,000 to cover her medical expenses through December. A diagnosis like MS is never going to be easy or cheap, but we’re just trying to get her through the holidays. This goal amount won't cover her usual living expenses like rent and cat food, but it will relieve her medical bills for just a few months while she adjusts to this new reality.

If you can comfortably donate anything at all, Callie definitely fuckin deserves it.

luv u pissy pants xoxo