Medical treatment help
Donation protected
I never thought I would do this, and I've put it off for a long time. I've put all of my money into my medical treatment. I have so many medical bills that still need to be paid. I've put off paying other bills to pay for medical treatments. I've borrowed money from my 401k (multiple times), but I'm out of options.
I've been dealing with headaches my entire life. I had my first migraine in college. Shortly after graduating college, my headaches and migraines became increasingly worse, to the point of being considered chronic. I also began to develop chronic body pain, chronic fatique, and chronic brain fog. All of this has just been getting worse over the years, and no doctors have been able to help me (or have even really tried to help me).
Until last year, when I finally received a diagnosis that seemed like it could be treatable. Lyme disease. Specifically, chronic Lyme disease. Unfortunately, most of the treatments for chronic Lyme disease are not covered by insurance. To date, I have done everything that I could do that was covered by insurance, and I've done some of what I could do that wasn't covered by insurance. However, due to the financial toll of all of this, I've only done the minimum of what could be done, because I just don't have the money to do everything that the doctors recommend. For six months, we tried various oral antibiotics because they were covered by insurance. Unfortunately, they didn't make a difference, and just made me feel about 10x worse (I don't react well to oral antibiotics). The IV antibiotics actually seemed to start to make a little bit of a difference, but I ran out of money, so we stopped them. My veins were also rebelling, and I started getting scar tissue build up. It's been a few months since then, so I think my veins are mostly healed. We did discuss possibly getting a PICC line put in if I was going to continue with IV antibiotics. Ozone was another treatment that I had started but couldn't continue (and has good reviews from others). There are also other treatments that were discussed but ultimately pushed aside because they were too costly for me. Over the last year and a half, I've easily spent at least $30,000 out of my own pocket trying to treat this disease and its coinfection (Bartonella). I'm out of money, I have so many medical bills waiting to be paid, and my other bills are suffering (which in turn is destroying my credit).
I need help. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate. I need to be a functioning person again. I'm not sure how much longer I can do this. And I'm not sure how much longer my job is going to put up with me barely functioning.
I put my initial fundraising goal as $10000, but to be honest, I don't think that will be nearly enough. That being said, obviously every little bit will help. If by some miracle I meet that goal, I will raise it, because I know I will need it. It's already cost me at least 3x that, I have no doubt it will cost me even more.
Thank you to anyone and everyone who is willing to help me, I will be forever grateful! <3
I've been dealing with headaches my entire life. I had my first migraine in college. Shortly after graduating college, my headaches and migraines became increasingly worse, to the point of being considered chronic. I also began to develop chronic body pain, chronic fatique, and chronic brain fog. All of this has just been getting worse over the years, and no doctors have been able to help me (or have even really tried to help me).
Until last year, when I finally received a diagnosis that seemed like it could be treatable. Lyme disease. Specifically, chronic Lyme disease. Unfortunately, most of the treatments for chronic Lyme disease are not covered by insurance. To date, I have done everything that I could do that was covered by insurance, and I've done some of what I could do that wasn't covered by insurance. However, due to the financial toll of all of this, I've only done the minimum of what could be done, because I just don't have the money to do everything that the doctors recommend. For six months, we tried various oral antibiotics because they were covered by insurance. Unfortunately, they didn't make a difference, and just made me feel about 10x worse (I don't react well to oral antibiotics). The IV antibiotics actually seemed to start to make a little bit of a difference, but I ran out of money, so we stopped them. My veins were also rebelling, and I started getting scar tissue build up. It's been a few months since then, so I think my veins are mostly healed. We did discuss possibly getting a PICC line put in if I was going to continue with IV antibiotics. Ozone was another treatment that I had started but couldn't continue (and has good reviews from others). There are also other treatments that were discussed but ultimately pushed aside because they were too costly for me. Over the last year and a half, I've easily spent at least $30,000 out of my own pocket trying to treat this disease and its coinfection (Bartonella). I'm out of money, I have so many medical bills waiting to be paid, and my other bills are suffering (which in turn is destroying my credit).
I need help. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate. I need to be a functioning person again. I'm not sure how much longer I can do this. And I'm not sure how much longer my job is going to put up with me barely functioning.
I put my initial fundraising goal as $10000, but to be honest, I don't think that will be nearly enough. That being said, obviously every little bit will help. If by some miracle I meet that goal, I will raise it, because I know I will need it. It's already cost me at least 3x that, I have no doubt it will cost me even more.
Thank you to anyone and everyone who is willing to help me, I will be forever grateful! <3
Organizer
Colleen Behrman
Organizer
Saratoga Springs, NY