Hello!

I'm going to start this by just being very straightforward…

If you're reading this, I am begging you to please read to the end. My mental health and my little family need help.

I'm Bailey. I am almost 37 years old. I married my high school sweetheart at 19 in 2006. I had worked all of my adult life until now to help provide for my little family. Neither of us have ever had a family to depend on to help us out. It's always been us against the world!

I had a job I loved, that I fully planned to eventually retire from. In 2018, I got laid off. A month later, I found I was pregnant with our first (and only) child. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. We went over numbers and decided the most logical decision would be for me to just stay home and raise our baby. We knew it would be tough at times and money would probably always be tight but we could manage.

As you know, Covid hit in 2020 and it didn't miss us. We all 3 had it, myself having it the worst and almost not making it. We recovered and kept going. Shortly after, my husbands work hours changed due to Covid. To limit his time around co workers, he got cut down to 4 days a week. This is when it gets bad. We slowly started falling behind on bills. We'd go without things here and there to double up some months. But we were making it.

Fast forward to February 2022. I got Covid again but this time with double pneumonia. After recovering, I was left with permanent asthma and severe hearing loss. I had hoped the hearing loss was temporary but after a couple months, it was only getting worse. I'm September 2022, I finally got in to see an ENT. He confirmed what I had feared. Covid took my hearing and it wasn't getting better on its own like it should have. I was then referred to a specialist.

they called and made an appointment to see me, though they couldn't get me in until May 2023. So we wait…

during that wait, in April 2023, my 4 year old daughter was playing outside with her cousin and tripped on a tree root. She hit her mouth pretty hard and broke her 2 front teeth. I rushed her to a dentist and he says an extraction will be required because the teeth will rot and cause infections otherwise. He schedules the surgery for July 2023 but informs me that we have to pay what insurance will not cover before he will do the surgery.

reminder, we are already on a tight budget- our part for her surgery is right at $1950. Obviously, we don't have the kind of money laying around. I sat in that dentist office and cried to them. What do they expect someone to do if they can't pay what insurance doesn't cover? They didn't have an answer for me.

now we are back to today, May 22, 2023. I go to my appointment with the specialist about my hearing loss. He says I need ear drum reconstruction surgery in both ears but he will do one at a time to make sure it will work. Mind you, tight budget and this specialist is 4 hours away. I had to budget for a hotel stay and gas there and back.

When we go to leave, I'm informed that my visit for the day would be $176.73… my heart sank. I have never had to pay out of pocket for an office visit but I learned specialists are different. I wasn't prepared for that. We have $1187 in the bank and the mortgage payment has not come out yet and neither has electricity. Those 2 together total $1106. I was told the $176.73 could not be billed because they do not do that there, it had to be paid.

I had to use our money for electricity to pay it. The $220 for electricity is due on the 25th.

so to sum it all up, we need $1900 for our daughters dental surgery, $220 for electricity ASAP, and what will be due out of pocket for my ear surgery will be due.

i am begging you! If you read this far and find it in your heart to help us out at all, I would be forever grateful! We aren't lazy, we work hard. We are just barely getting by but we are just over the threshold to qualify for any kind of assistance. I don't know where else to turn. My hearing loss got to me so bad that I was put on anti depressants in December. The thought of never hearing my daughters voice again got to me that bad. The stress of knowing she and I both need these surgeries but can't have them without help doesn't help my mental health either.

now you may ask why I don't get a job, it's because we don't have family that would babysit our daughter and daycare would be $1100 a month. I'd be working to pay someone else to raise my child and I can't justify that.

we appreciate any and all help we may get! There's no way I could ever repay it but I will always pay it forward anytime the opportunity presents itself!