Hello all. It has taken a lot of mental prep and swallowing my pride to even consider reaching out and asking for help. 

I've hit the lowest I have ever been in my life. I have learned how to navigate chronic disabilities (fibromyalgia, narcolepsy, chronic migraines) and life's challenges since the age of 13 but now, too much as been thrown at me and I'm drowning. In 2019, I suffered my first bilateral vertebral artery dissection that caused a mini stroke. It left me with severe neck pain, the inability to move my neck certain ways, cognitive decline, residual numbness that comes and goes in my arms and legs, and random times of slurred/stuttered speech. At the time, there was no specific cause of why it happened. After 10 months of appointments and therapies to try and get myself back to a seemingly normal person, I was able to return to work full-time during the height of COVID as I worked at my local hospital. Fast forward to October 2022 and I started suffering complications during my pregnancy with my beautiful baby girl. I was put on short-term disability and bed-rest until she arrived. The day of, things went south, had an emergency c-section and little one was sent to NICU. Thankfully, with the grace of God and the excellent medical team, little one was able to pull through and come home.
Fast forward to January 1st, 2024 at the stroke of midnight of the new year, I suffered my second bilateral vertebral artery dissection and stroke. Even with treatment, my arteries continued to dissect into the month of February. This worsened the already residual effects I had since the first dissection in 2019. No one had seen this happen once, let alone, twice to a person in their 30s who does no physical training to strain these portions of their neck. 

I've since learned that I have a rare un-studied genetic connective tissue disorder within the Ehlers-Danlos umbrella that causes stretchy arteries among everything else that comes with having a connective tissue disorder. I've also since been diagnosed with POTS, major depression, and anxiety. I've been put out of work permanently by the health team and am in the constant cycle of apply for disability, deny, appeal even with a lawyer helping because one court determined since I was in my 30s I could work at a hotel for 30 minutes a day (that is a direct quote from one of my letters). Tell me how that is fair or a sustainable income. 

My spouse works 100 hour weeks, my daughter has recently been having to go to therapies and behavioral doctors to get ahold of her recent outbursts and her struggle with being on the spectrum, and I have multiple procedures on my neck and head that I have to have but cannot afford even with having private insurance. Every day I deal with my little one having outbursts that sometimes result in me getting hurt, though its no fault of her own as she doesn't realize she has physical outbursts and sensory issues, my own chronic pain that leaves me in tears, and a migraine I cannot seem to get to break. In the last year, I have spent over $3000 I didn't have to treat, euthanize, and cremate 3 of my fur babies after they got sick. I realized I had older animal babies, but I did not realize they would all go at the same time to different random illnesses (my cat had a random severe allergic reaction that resulted in kidney failure where she died in my arms, my beagle baby had a seizure with no underlying cause and failed to thrive, and my American bully got diabetes that couldn't get maintained and her organs started failing one by one). That doesn't include the multiple ER trips my daughter has had to have. On top of everyday life, things getting more expensive, and doctors and medical creditors calling me everyday, I don't even have a dollar to my name anymore. I do not know where to turn, I've applied for help, I'm going through the proper channels, but I'm exhausted. I have medical debt I need to pay off for me and my little one, procedures that need down payments, my bills are behind, there is little food, and essentials are running low.

I use to be the one to always lend an ear, one to buy anything for anyone whether its to help a bill, food, medicines, or just donate to help get something they had be wanting. I love doing that, being the one to help and make other people feel happy and good and as silly as it may be, I harbor guilt that I can't do that anymore.

I'm asking for help, whether it is a dollar, a link, a listening ear, or just an acknowledgement of my story. I want to stay afloat, for my family but most importantly, my daughter. I want her to know her mom is fighting to try. To try to stay afloat, to try to keep her childhood fun and innocent, to try and be the mom she deserves.  

I thank you for even reading this far.