♥︎ Uplift the Pilling Family in 2023

A medical tragedy knows no season. It can strike when you least expect it. This is exactly what’s happened to my family.

My name is Thomas Lincoln Pilling. Some of you know me as the author of the SAFE Amendment (and the administrator of the SAFE Amendment group on Facebook), who advocates passing this proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution as as a means to clean up politics and safeguard voting rights. Others know me as the dedicated N-scale model train enthusiast on YouTube, the ATSF Venta Spur Nscaler, who loves encouraging others in the hobby.

Many also knew me as the hard-working trucker who felt great pride supporting my family by pulling refrigerated goods down America’s highways on 18 wheels of rubber, steel and sweat. Yet in my role as trucker, I and my family faced unimaginable adversity. This medical predicament pushed my family to its limits and strained our hopes. I, my wife Alicia, my 10-year-old daughter Nicole and my 15-year-old daughter Natalia have found ourselves completely overwhelmed.

Our hardship began October 17, 2022, when a painfully debilitating medical condition forced me to take a short-term disability leave under FMLA from my trucking job. I haven’t earned a paycheck since. Like many Americans, I lived from paycheck to paycheck, so, when my paychecks stopped, my family’s economy plunged to the bottom fairly quickly. My leave under FMLA expired on January 8, 2023. Soon thereafter, I lost my job with my employer in Lincoln, Nebraska, because the carrier was no longer obligated under federal law to save my position for me. Alas, by late March 2023, my surgeons finally diagnosed and surgically repaired my condition: 4 abdominal/groin hernias.

I feel grateful that at least my former employer provided short-term disability insurance through Mutual of Omaha at no cost to me or to any of its employees. Nevertheless, I had to wait approximately 5 weeks — that is, until November 22 — before this insurance benefit finally kicked-in (but without retroactive pay to October 17 when my disability began). It paid me a weekly $500.00 cash benefit, minus $38.25 automatically deducted for federal taxes, which equals less than 50% of my regular gross wages driving a truck. These cash benefits finally ended on April 17, 2023. I’ve had no new income stream since.

We’ve obviously had to tighten our belts. During Thanksgiving, we couldn’t afford a turkey. Today we eke out a meager existence as we struggle to survive day by day. My wife also works full-time, but we need both of our full-time employment incomes to make ends meet in our household. While my disability benefits represented a blessing to my family when they existed, but they never came close to making up for what I would have normally earned driving a semi-truck.

I am a proud, hard-working man. I took pride in my independence to support my family by driving a tractor-trailer 70 hours a week across the USA. But that's only a memory now. Trucking can no longer holds a place for me. I just want to work again. Asking for a hand-out from anyone remains unthinkable and an anathema to my strong work ethic. But the unthinkable has happened. When I look into the desperate eyes of my wife and daughters, I feel my heart break. Now I must humbly swallow my pride. If you would like to help my family get through this challenging time, then please consider sharing your kindness through this Go Fund Me campaign. We appreciate every donation made. The amount does not matter.

Originally in early October 2022, my primary care physician diagnosed my debilitating pain as coming from an inguinal hernia or perhaps a parastomal hernia. He referred me to a surgeon to repair the problem. I consulted with the surgeon on November 4, 2022, in the first available appointment that he had.

I assumed that hernia surgery would get me back to work in just 6 weeks after the operation. Boy was I wrong! In fact, the operation never occurred. After carefully reviewing my case, the surgeon disagreed with the hernia diagnosis. He didn’t see clear diagnostic evidence that an inguinal hernia was causing my pain, but he didn’t fully rule out a parastomal hernia. Instead, he proposed that the source of my pain could be an inflamed nerve in my groin. He referred me to see a pain management specialist first before considering any surgery.

I followed the surgeon’s advice. Almost a month later on December 2, the pain management specialist finally got around to injecting cortisone directly into my inguinal nerve. But it didn’t stop hurting. Almost any kind of physical activity — standing, walking, crouching or even prolonged sitting — still exacerbates the pain. Only lying down calms my extreme discomfort for short spells. On December 19, the pain specialist conceded this his targeted treatment didn’t produce the desired results, so he has altered course. He ordered an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of my spine to check if my groin pain radiates from vertebral compression. I expect to undergo the MRI sometime in early January 2023.

But such medical diagnostics and any medical procedures that they indicate to treat my condition will not happen soon enough to save my job. My employer will fire me after my FMLA expires on January 8. My job loss will leave me to struggle alone to pay the entire cost of what was my employee Blue Cross health insurance under COBRA. I need to keep this insurance to continue this extended medical process until it reaches its end result: my full recovery (hopefully by or before the end of April 2023). Unfortunately, my cash disability benefits will not provide enough to cover the COBRA insurance premiums while at the same time paying for my family’s food and housing. I pray for a miracle to this dilemma every day.

Twenty calendar days after losing my job (plus a few more banking days to process the transaction), federal law will finally let me withdraw the entire sum of my 401k retirement account, which contains approximately $19,000.00 USD (but will reduce to around $15,000.00 after taxes get immediately deducted). My 401k payout will happen around the beginning of February 2023 and should help tide us over long enough for me to overcome the short-term disability. Your donation now can make all the difference in getting me and my family through the end zone to the finish line. We can’t count on much else to help us in our unique situation.

Since I live as an American expatriate in Mexico just south of the border from San Diego, California, USA, I remain ineligible to receive Medi-Cal (California’s version of Medicaid), food stamps, housing assistance or any other state social service despite having paid my state and federal income taxes for years until this temporary disabling condition removed me from the workplace. We live only 25 miles from downtown San Diego, but for my daughters and I — all U.S. citizens — the distance might as well be a million miles away from such stateside government aid. Our government will not help us.

We live in Mexico primarily because we cannot afford the high cost of housing in California. Thousands of U.S. citizens live in Mexico for the same reason and commute across the border every day to work in their American jobs. Another reason that we reside south of the border is that my wife, a Mexican citizen, works in Mexico. What once seemed like advantages living in Mexico have turned into disadvantages leaving us blocked from many resources that could otherwise help us. We will run short of funds to even cover our upcoming January rent for our home (even at Mexico’s affordable rates). This Go Fund Me campaign will help us pay for our house rent, too.

We personally thank you for caring enough to take the time to read about our family’s situation. We also thank my friend Richard Ojeda who suggested that I launch this campaign in Go Fund Me. Above all, we thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes. May the good Lord bless you always. We wish you a happy New Year!