Back in November I ended up in the hospital with a severe lupus flare, and I have been spending the months since then trying to get well and recover somewhat from the financial fallout, since I did not have insurance until the first of this year.
I had to miss a lot of work during November and December as a result of becoming sick. By the time January rolled around I was starting to get seriously behind on my bills--I had to ask for help from the Dkos community in order to keep from being evicted and having my utilities shut off.
I was finally able to get in to see the doctor about my lupus, only to learn that the hemolytic anemia had returned. Thankfully it was caught early enough to keep me from being sent back to the hospital. She started me on another round of prednisone to try to get it under control again. The prednisone did not work out too well, though, since it was causing my blood sugar to go wild. Even on a very low carb diet, my fasting blood sugars were still running well over 300—and I do not normally have diabetes. She decided to taper me off the steroids, and start me on Rituxan, a chemotherapy type of drug that treats certain forms of cancer as well as lupus. This drug is very expensive but it can often put lupus in remission. After wrangling with the insurance company for a few weeks, she got the pre-authorization approved, and about 3 weeks ago, I had my first infusion.
What I didn't expect was how sick the side effects make me--I throw up for about two days after each dose, and it causes me to have a sore throat and runny nose. The worst thing, though is the migraine headache that goes along with the vomiting. It has also weakened my immune system considerably--I have a bladder infection, plus nasty case of bronchitis--I am taking medicine for both, however. My hair is falling out in handfuls--it is starting to become noticeable, and if this keeps up I may have to start putting a scarf on my head when I go out in public. I only have one more dose on
Tuesday morning, thank Ceiling Cat. Though the side effects are awful, my labs have been improving, and certain lupus related symptoms such as joint pain have subsided--so at least it has been worth it. I hope.
The thing that is killing me though, is the fact I have been having to miss about 2 or 3 days a week of work, and that some of my out of pocket expenses were a little more than I thought they would be. Because I have been having a hard time with the infusions, they have had to load me up on drugs to help counter the side effects-- which make it impossible for me to drive myself home from the clinic. Since my nearest relative is now living about an hour away, I have had to call a cab to take me there and back--at a cost of $80 each day. I also have a $50 copay every time I go for an infusion. In addition I have to pay for things like test strips and lancets until the blood sugar issue is resolved--thankfully, the insurance covers all but $15 of the cost of the test strips, though I pay full price for lancets. The office call copay is only $10, but all of those little nickel and dime fees start adding up.
So right now we are trying to survive this month until I can get through these treatments. As a result of all of these extra expenses, plus the fact I have been having to miss work, we are starting to get behind badly behind once more.
I am trying to come up with enough money to keep us afloat this month until I can get back to my regular work schedule, and start getting full paychecks again. If everything goes well, that will be some time around the first paycheck of April because of the way our pay periods work out.
So I anticipate I am gong to need around $1400 to cover not only the costs associated with the infusion therapy, but to keep bills paid and food on the table. This includes the amount of money I will lose due to having to miss work, plus it will help me recover the roughly $600 I have had to shell out for the costs associated with infusion therapy. I had to rob Peter to pay Paul in order to afford it--I will be a month behind on the water bill and mortgage by the 15th since I had to use that money to cover the infusion therapy costs. My electric bill was also very high--$355. It will have to be paid by the last week of the month to keep the electricity on. Isn't it great that we live in a country that forces people to choose between dying and being able to pay their normal living expenses?
I had hoped to get a second job in order to avoid ending up in this situation again, and was offered a job by a company in Lexington, but due to the infusion therapy schedule, I was unable to take it since I would have to miss a lot of training time. I put in some applications for part time jobs over the weekend, and somebody I know around here told me about a full time job I could probably easily get in Winchester that pays about one and a half times what the little crap low wage job I have now pays. If I got that, I would be able to quit working the midnight shift at the hotel, and I would not need a second job. I'm crossing my fingers and toes, because a better paying job would surely relieve a lot of stress.
I hate having to ask for help, but there is nobody in my family who is really able to afford to help me out, so I am asking the community to help me raise the $1400 we will need in order to make it through this month--this will let me pay the past due amounts on some of my bills, and hold on until I can get this lupus flare back in remission so I can get back to normal. Hopefully then I will be able to get everything caught up and current, and start paying down the debt on the massive hospital bill. I hope to never be in this position again once I can get this situation under control—though I will probably die paying all the medical bills off, since it is 10's of thousands of dollars.
Anything anyone can contribute would be greatly appreciated! I hope to never be in this position again once I can get this situation under control. Any bit of help can be sent to my daughter's paypal at hotaruhana2@gmail.com Sharing and republishing are also a huge help.
And if anyone knows of any quick gigs a person with physical limitations could do to make some extra money--either online or in the Lexington,KY area this would help too—and would be preferable to having to ask for help .
Thanks for stopping by and reading.