Hello world. I am a husband and father of three wonderful children that needs some help to get above water. I am a hardworking man who works full time and have since I was a kid and do make decent money, but our medical needs have recently outweighed our ability to get caught up with all of our other bills. Due to a rare ortho disease called Spondometaphyseal Displasia I received clearance and approval from my Orthopedic doctor to receive both hip replacements, both knee replacements, a shoulder replacement, and Hernia surgery (yes, all those joints are unrepairable and in horrible condition) which causes severe daily pain that I push through daily to support my family to the best of my ability.
Unfortunately, I have also passed this condition on to my son (my 2 daughters have a very clean bill of health) who just had his 4th surgery at age 9 already. He recently had a new plate put in his right knee 3 months ago and has one already one in his left knee that he received when he had his neck surgery 1.5 years ago. His road will be long and hard but he’s very strong and we will always do whatever is necessary to get him the best care possible.
My wife also has T1D that she was diagnosed with at age 7 which has made it almost impossible for her to have a job, so she does the seemingly impossible task of being a stay-at-home mother. She struggles with having the medical supplies she consistently needs due to the overpriced medical supply industry, but we do whatever we can to get her the best CGM and Insulin delivery device we can to make her life as less painful as possible. As with most Type 1 Diabetics, she fights many other side effects such as eyesight deficiencies, poor circulation, tendonitis, irregular metabolism to name just a few. She is currently holding off getting cartilage repaired in her lumbar due to the fear of more medical bills.
Paying for health insurance for a family of 5, even with an employee discount, is roughly 600/month. Then add in co-pays for doctors’ visits (seems like me my wife and son all regularly have 1-2 a month), prescription costs for pain management just to function in everyday life, my wife’s T1D supplies, and any racked up previous bills from procedures, x-rays, MRI’s, Surgeries, and assistive medical devices like braces for my son, CGM and PDM for my wife etc.. we have unfortunately fallen far behind which has the interest and late fees eating us alive and fighting just to make basic ends meet monthly with zero emergency savings at all.
I am praying that there is someone out there that has the ability to share even just a little as everything right now is a help. The stress and burden of being delinquent and always behind has unfortunately detreated both mine and my wife’s health even further. With over 15k in past due medical bills, late utility and car bills, one active garnishment, and the need for the plethora of joint replacements, we are drowning in interest fees and late fees that are literally eating up any extra money to put away or use to catch up and could really use a lifeline to get our heads above water again.
Our family is very kind, companionate, active in our community, and are not willing to break the rules either legally or ethically to make ends meet but are exhausted with fighting off creditors on a weekly basis so a helping hand would create such relief both mentally and physically. If you read to hear I really appreciate your time in hearing my story. I hope you have a great day.
Be Well!