Greetings, my name is Ant. Born and raised in Arizona. For the past year since the start of covid. I was experiencing a domino effect where one bad event led to another, I am still in that bad effect. At the start of early 2020, I had a job with medical benefits everything was all fine till my Dad was on his way to his death bad. He was diagnosed with stage 3 lung rejection. So, I dropped everything to go see my father and spend some time with him. What about my job? I quit due to a lot of my coworkers that I know was getting infected with covid at the time and I am at risk if I ever caught the virus since my company didn’t enforce the rules at the time. A few months ago they have gotten better with it. Anyway, during the time my father was slowly fading away, I was slowly breaking mentally since I never really communicated nor visited my father since I spent a few years working 5 to 6 days per week since I was 19 to provide for my family. 2014 my father had pneumonia then it got serve enough to the point that my father needed a lung transplant. I dropped out of college to get a job to aid my family. During those few years, I was the only one in my family helping my mom and dad. My aunts, uncles, grandma, grandpa, and my father’s side of the family. No one helped….just me. I had filled in my dad’s shoes till the day he died. I did grieve for him very much. I even did a drawing for him. Nothing can bring back my dad and I had to accept it. As time passed since his passing. My health got affected or so I thought since I went to go to the hospital to get myself checked, but granted I couldn’t afford to go since I lost my medical benefits. So, I went on as usual then one day I got extremely nervous cause I woke up with pain in my chest. Feeling really weak. I thought I got covid so I immediately rushed to the hospital. Got myself checked. Waited for a couple hours for the results. I was sweating really hard since I watched a lot of people get taken into a medical room in a wheel chair. The doctor approached me with the results. Turns out I was fine physically. Perfect in health. A huge sigh of relief, but then I asked,” What caused me to be like this?” Their response, ” Mentally, you are going through extreme stress and anxiety that is making you ill.” We chatted for awhile. They sent me a social worker to chat with me about my current problems and what not. After that discussion ended. I was discharged and ready to be sent home, but I was met with the bill. Originally, I thought the fee was small. I paid 875 dollars which I thought was not too bad. I paid it upfront and went home. A month later I was greeted with a bill that was way too expensive. Around 8,000 dollars or so. I called the hospital and told them that I couldn’t pay for it nor afford it. They assisted me or so I thought cause they told me that there is a slim chance of being paid 100% full through a medical program if I was eligible. I quickly found out that I wasn’t eligible with given false hope . Thanks to this bill. I am on the verge of being homeless, couldn’t find any jobs available in my area . I am at the end of my wits here. I couldn’t afford the medical bill nor get the help I need to take care of my mental health issues.
It hurts my pride to ask for aid, but I am struggling to continue like this. I won’t give up, I won’t quit, I won’t default. But if covid didn’t happen, I would still have my job and my company was already questionable since they treat their workers poorly and I had to put up with it for the past couple of years. I am not going to give up my life for my job. It is not worth it. Part of being a man is by sucking up of doing stuff that you don’t want to do.
If I can eliminate this debt, I can begin to save for a brighter future, I can be more focused on my passion for the arts. When I journey out, I will be making very good money, and any help I receive, I will be able to pay it forward and help someone else in their struggle. Donate to help others. Getting back on track cause I am fairly young still and I got to get back up even though times are tough. I am subverting my expectations, but here’s hoping.
Thank you to whomever is reading this. May you take care of yourselves, and of course, please have yourself a damn good one.
paypal.me/tostartagain