Hope for Health
Donation protected
Good Morning, my name is Ashmini Basant, I am 25 years old and this is my birthday weekend. I am currently writing this as I sit here in an all too familiar place: my local emergency room. I am writing this, after months of contemplation because although I am trying my best to keep myself afloat, my efforts have been falling short.
Anyone that knows me can you three things about me: I am a hard-working, passionate woman who let’s nothing get in her way. I have been sick almost my entire life: first pneumonia, followed by 12 years of undiagnosed, monthly, debilitating pain. Despite earning the reputation of never being in school, I graduated top of my class and headed to St. John’s University on an academic scholarship. As I prospered, my health eventually began taking a turn for the worse and after months of pain and passing out in school, I was forced to take an involuntary medical leave. I was out for more than a semester, lost my scholarship but gained much more. After several months of testing and prodding and pruning I had finally figured out that I had endometriosis and PCOS. I fought to get my scholarship back, and returned to school, only for a year later to leave again for the same syncope. My senior year, I was only in school for 2 weeks.
Fast forward after college, I blossomed into my career. I began working at a law office and was then recruited to another, with a bit more prestige. Then, I got sick again and was forced to move back home; where I got into the finance side of business. I prospered there, received many awards and promotions, however, after a year or two, my health took a turn for worse and after a few months of not being able to work, I was let go. However, once I was back again, I landed another amazing job and began quickly excelling. However, after about a year, I began becoming sick and was hospitalized. They ended up letting me go for being out as well. That was last year. Since then, I started a new job at a very prestigious bank and things took a turn for the worse:
It all started in June 2019. I started my day like any other day: get up, get dressed, kill it at work. However, on June 27th, 2019 I never made it work. I passed out while driving and woke up in the emergency room, with the doctor saying to me “Thank God you weren’t driving.” I was admitted into the hospital and within a week of that date, I had a heart monitor installed in my heart and the cycle of deterioration had started all over again.
I continued trying to go to work and function as normal, but the physical exhaustion had become apparent. I was passing out at work, couldn’t keep water or food down, my entire body was in excruciating pain, I lost over 30 pounds in a matter of 2 months. My body became frail and after months of this, I am still fighting for my mind to be strong.
Today, as I sit here, I am still fighting and discovering. Since my first episode of syncope, my health has only gotten worse. I pass out almost every other day, I cannot eat or drink without it coming back up, throughout the day different parts of my body will swell and cause pain, I get debilitating migraines, I can barely move when I am swollen but the biggest thing of all is fighting the emotional and mental pain that comes with chronic illness; living in a constant state of my mind wants to do this, but my body simply cannot. Since I can remember, as a kid growing up with a lot of health issues, my motto has been “Where there is a will, there is a way”. In other words, nothing can prevent me from doing anything I put your mind to and if you take a look at my life, you will see that I strive for nothing but world-changing. Now imagine how I feel, realizing that the only thing stopping me from doing all the things I need to do is myself is in fact myself.
I am learning to cope with the hardest part of being sick and that is learning to exist in a world, not made for you, where the simplest requirement: show up cannot even be met. Through support of my friends and family I started doing freelancing utilizing my skills for graphic and web-design as well as small business and professional consulting and I have landed a few gigs, however, for the past month or so, I have not been in any condition to even get up and complete my projects and my business, just like work started falling behind, and so did my bills.
As I continue to find my place, I hope to discover methods and programs and new strategies to help those like myself who have no choice to take care of themselves, but cannot due to health reasons preventing them conforming to corporate America or not able to work at all in a 9-5 setting and help my Status Unknown Warriors. Status Unknown is my life passion non-profit project dedicated to bringing awareness and highlighting the lives of warriors who battle and beat their chronic illness that will continue to lobby for systemic change for the ever growing chronic illness population. Status Unknown is needed because we need a voice; statistically, those of us who have chronic illness who are head of their households end up homeless at least one point in their life, not due to lack of planning but due to the costs that comes with being sick in America and based on experience, I would never want that for anyone. For example, the average cost of bringing up a child in America is about $250,000 until they are 18, to take care of a child with a disability until they are 18 climbs to $1,200.200- $2,400,000!
Take me for example, I worked at a high paying job and meet my out of pocket deductible very quickly, however, now that I am no longer working and I am undiagnosed for several symptoms, I am now looking at $2000 a month to just keep my heart monitor installed in chest without insurance. With no work, and no prospects of making my own self- better I tried for months to keep my job, holding onto familiar things. I cried for hours when I couldn’t get up for work and lost all interest when I could no longer afford to keep my non-profit site up and going. I fell into massive depression, yet no one knew it. Instead of working and seeing my friends, doctors and “how to kick depression” blogs became my normal. Today, my health is not better. Today, I am having heavy heart palpitations, I can barely walk, my stomach is swollen, I’ve been throwing up all night. Monday is my 26th birthday; would’ve been the day of my first annual Warrior’s Gala for Status Unknown, but instead I will be here.
So thank you for reading and I hope this has enlightened some of you, to not only go out there and help advocate for those of us who have temporarily lost our voice and help change the world one person at a time. As I continue to strive to figure out how to resource my energy efficiently enough to continue making this world better for us all and support myself, through freelancing, and my business, I ask that if my story has touched you in any way, please contribute whatever you can. Any donation will go a long way in helping me keep up with the demands of life, and most importantly the demands for my health when I lose my insurance this month.
If I have learned anything is that giving up is never the answer, and asking for help doesn’t make you weak, only pride does.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your taking your time to read this, sharing and your donation.
Anyone that knows me can you three things about me: I am a hard-working, passionate woman who let’s nothing get in her way. I have been sick almost my entire life: first pneumonia, followed by 12 years of undiagnosed, monthly, debilitating pain. Despite earning the reputation of never being in school, I graduated top of my class and headed to St. John’s University on an academic scholarship. As I prospered, my health eventually began taking a turn for the worse and after months of pain and passing out in school, I was forced to take an involuntary medical leave. I was out for more than a semester, lost my scholarship but gained much more. After several months of testing and prodding and pruning I had finally figured out that I had endometriosis and PCOS. I fought to get my scholarship back, and returned to school, only for a year later to leave again for the same syncope. My senior year, I was only in school for 2 weeks.
Fast forward after college, I blossomed into my career. I began working at a law office and was then recruited to another, with a bit more prestige. Then, I got sick again and was forced to move back home; where I got into the finance side of business. I prospered there, received many awards and promotions, however, after a year or two, my health took a turn for worse and after a few months of not being able to work, I was let go. However, once I was back again, I landed another amazing job and began quickly excelling. However, after about a year, I began becoming sick and was hospitalized. They ended up letting me go for being out as well. That was last year. Since then, I started a new job at a very prestigious bank and things took a turn for the worse:
It all started in June 2019. I started my day like any other day: get up, get dressed, kill it at work. However, on June 27th, 2019 I never made it work. I passed out while driving and woke up in the emergency room, with the doctor saying to me “Thank God you weren’t driving.” I was admitted into the hospital and within a week of that date, I had a heart monitor installed in my heart and the cycle of deterioration had started all over again.
I continued trying to go to work and function as normal, but the physical exhaustion had become apparent. I was passing out at work, couldn’t keep water or food down, my entire body was in excruciating pain, I lost over 30 pounds in a matter of 2 months. My body became frail and after months of this, I am still fighting for my mind to be strong.
Today, as I sit here, I am still fighting and discovering. Since my first episode of syncope, my health has only gotten worse. I pass out almost every other day, I cannot eat or drink without it coming back up, throughout the day different parts of my body will swell and cause pain, I get debilitating migraines, I can barely move when I am swollen but the biggest thing of all is fighting the emotional and mental pain that comes with chronic illness; living in a constant state of my mind wants to do this, but my body simply cannot. Since I can remember, as a kid growing up with a lot of health issues, my motto has been “Where there is a will, there is a way”. In other words, nothing can prevent me from doing anything I put your mind to and if you take a look at my life, you will see that I strive for nothing but world-changing. Now imagine how I feel, realizing that the only thing stopping me from doing all the things I need to do is myself is in fact myself.
I am learning to cope with the hardest part of being sick and that is learning to exist in a world, not made for you, where the simplest requirement: show up cannot even be met. Through support of my friends and family I started doing freelancing utilizing my skills for graphic and web-design as well as small business and professional consulting and I have landed a few gigs, however, for the past month or so, I have not been in any condition to even get up and complete my projects and my business, just like work started falling behind, and so did my bills.
As I continue to find my place, I hope to discover methods and programs and new strategies to help those like myself who have no choice to take care of themselves, but cannot due to health reasons preventing them conforming to corporate America or not able to work at all in a 9-5 setting and help my Status Unknown Warriors. Status Unknown is my life passion non-profit project dedicated to bringing awareness and highlighting the lives of warriors who battle and beat their chronic illness that will continue to lobby for systemic change for the ever growing chronic illness population. Status Unknown is needed because we need a voice; statistically, those of us who have chronic illness who are head of their households end up homeless at least one point in their life, not due to lack of planning but due to the costs that comes with being sick in America and based on experience, I would never want that for anyone. For example, the average cost of bringing up a child in America is about $250,000 until they are 18, to take care of a child with a disability until they are 18 climbs to $1,200.200- $2,400,000!
Take me for example, I worked at a high paying job and meet my out of pocket deductible very quickly, however, now that I am no longer working and I am undiagnosed for several symptoms, I am now looking at $2000 a month to just keep my heart monitor installed in chest without insurance. With no work, and no prospects of making my own self- better I tried for months to keep my job, holding onto familiar things. I cried for hours when I couldn’t get up for work and lost all interest when I could no longer afford to keep my non-profit site up and going. I fell into massive depression, yet no one knew it. Instead of working and seeing my friends, doctors and “how to kick depression” blogs became my normal. Today, my health is not better. Today, I am having heavy heart palpitations, I can barely walk, my stomach is swollen, I’ve been throwing up all night. Monday is my 26th birthday; would’ve been the day of my first annual Warrior’s Gala for Status Unknown, but instead I will be here.
So thank you for reading and I hope this has enlightened some of you, to not only go out there and help advocate for those of us who have temporarily lost our voice and help change the world one person at a time. As I continue to strive to figure out how to resource my energy efficiently enough to continue making this world better for us all and support myself, through freelancing, and my business, I ask that if my story has touched you in any way, please contribute whatever you can. Any donation will go a long way in helping me keep up with the demands of life, and most importantly the demands for my health when I lose my insurance this month.
If I have learned anything is that giving up is never the answer, and asking for help doesn’t make you weak, only pride does.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your taking your time to read this, sharing and your donation.
Organizer
Ashmini Basant
Organizer
Pompano Beach, FL