We have raised the entire amount! Thank you, dear Kossacks!
Storage Unit Gets Auctioned Friday — Please Help Me Save My Lifelong Possessions
Need: $807 580 330
Deadline: Thursday (tomorrow) at midnight!
Paypal: karlekonsultants (at) cs (dot) com
I hate to ask, but a lifetime of possessions could be lost if I cannot pay these fees. Many are priceless and of sentimental value. I would also appreciate being able to keep my things, so that when I can live on my own again, I have something to move in! The full story is below.
Thanks in part to a matching fund challenge that has been met, last evening we raised $220 — and today with Dixiecollie’s Helping Humpday diary, $250 so far. I have the $7. So we now need $580 $330. If you could help, it would be much appreciated! Since the time is so short, I can either take it as a loan and pay you back, or of course when able I will pay it forward to others with need once I am back on my feet. Just let me know in comments!
Recs, tips, comments, and sharing is also a great way to help.
Why a Storage Unit? To Save Money
Many folks here know the saga of my two years of sudden health emergency and recurring problems; it is detailed below. I am staying with my parents during all this, so I don’t have rent and bigger bills, but one of my recurrent bills is for the storage unit hundreds of miles away with my belongings from my old townhouse. As my health periodically improved, I could keep up. But during the health downturns, the storage fee mounted, as it did recently. Despite saying that they would work with me on the arrears, the storage facility is suddenly playing hardball. I just found out that the bill is due all at once, with additional fees, and I have not been able to work nearly enough. In fact, what I made this last month mostly went to take Ginger to the vet and to get Oreo some insulin. Now I need to pay storage $807 by 8 AM Friday morning or the stuff goes to auction immediately. Or if you prefer, consider it paying the pooties’ vet bills!
Paypal: karlekonsultants (at) cs (dot) com
How I Got Here: Two Years Of Health Setbacks
Unfortunately, my last procedure left me fatigued and in pain.
Many of you are familiar with the continuing saga of my health problems. In brief, I had multiple health problems, was in the hospital most of December of 2017, but somehow despite a million tests and even open abdominal surgery, they missed a hiatal hernia and esophageal stricture. When that was discovered in January of 2018 after an outpatient barium swallow, all they could do was endoscopic esophageal dilations because they couldn’t re-operate in the same area as the previous surgery until months had passed for healing. The hernia was finally repaired in October of 2018, but when they put the stomach back where it belonged, they found that it had crushed about half the esophagus, necessitating a new length of esophagus made out of stomach tissue. Meanwhile, as the new esophagus heals, it forms constricted scar tissue, putting us right back to the need for repeated esophageal dilations to treat recurrent strictures. All this has been done under general anesthesia. Finally, they scarred my vocal cords, I can only talk hoarsely, and I now need endoscopic surgery for that. Meanwhile, they always seem to do something to me during these procedures, a little different each time, and last time they apparently wrenched my neck. I have what I hope is just pulled muscles in my neck, but have needed to take pain medication that leaves me loopy.
So illness and medication leave me loopy, but I’m trying to get back to work, which is editing academic texts. For which I need to be alert, as you can imagine sometimes even a struggle for a healthy person. I have managed a few small jobs that happened to have long time frames. Otherwise, they put me to sleep and I miss deadlines.
What Comes Next, Medically & Financially
I do have a couple plans for things to improve: My ENT doctor thinks my thoracic doctor is being overly cautious using general anesthesia and he could do esophageal dilations without anesthesia in his office. Sounds grim, right? But when I was in his office the other day for him to look at my vocal cords, he used lidocaine, stuck a camera up my nose and down my throat, and put my cords on video. It was fine! I felt the initial insertion into my nose, but nothing else. Didn’t feel like I was choking or anything. So I do plan to explore this option further. I will need anesthesia for the vocal cord repair, but after that maybe I can do dilations with just lidocaine. I will if I wouldn’t feel any more than I did with the camera scope.
Another thing is, my thoracic surgeon did my dilation differently last time — rather than expanding to the maximum and then it contracts back in a few weeks like a stretched rubber band, he expanded less. I haven’t been able to eat normally since, but pretty close, and the size has remained stable over the past few weeks. Next week, he will be dilating again from a wider starting point. So we may be reaching the point where I won’t need more dilations anyway.
Third, I am working on drawings again. If I can interest one or more political groups in drawing T shirts and other swag for them, I can have a second and hopefully more lucrative source of income.
Fourth, if I can stay healthy and alert long enough, I can save enough money to rent a UHaul and go get my things. I will have to sell some, but can pile the rest in the spare bedroom at my parents’ house. This is probably more of a long-term plan, but I have been exercising, lifting weights to get in shape for moving at least the lighter-weight stuff.
So hopefully this is the last time I will have to come to the group asking for help with my bills. Meanwhile, I would appreciate being able to keep my things! It would take forever to repurchase what I need for an entire household. Thank you all very much.
Thank you, again.