Fundraising Fun

The last year we've had to swallow our pride and admit that we need financial help. 2 1/2 years ago we were fine. Then my husband got sick and we had tons of medical bills thrown at us. We've always had insurance, and up until then we never thought twice about what they would or wouldn't cover.

That all changed in July 2009. He got sick and we ended up finding out just how good or bad our insurance really is.

$136,000. That's how much we owe the hospital so far. $128,000 of that is from March 1 - March 8 2010. March 1st he went and had his teeth extracted. (his cardiologists and dentist decided that it was the best thing to do because of bacteria after he has the transplant.) That simple surgery had to be done at the hospital in case he had complications. That simple surgery landed him in the hospital for a week and almost on a ventilator. He handled the surgery no problem, but waking him from the anesthetic caused his heart to freak out.

So now, 18 months later we are still fighting with the insurance company to pay that. They are refusing to pay it because they claim its something that should have been done in a dentist office. So we continue to fight because I don't have that much money lying around.

Plus all of the post transplant medical expenses we will have.

So we had to swallow our pride and admit to ourselves and everyone else that we need help.

This is where the fundraising comes in. We've had several fundraisers between Dining for Dollars at different restaurants and the quilt that Warrior's class made and raffled off.

We have 2 Dining for Dollar fundraisers coming up in the next 2 weeks and several others in the works.

The worst part about this is trying to get people to return phone calls. One of the upcoming fundraisers is at IHOP. We called and had friends calling and the manager never returned phone calls We did this for 2 months. Finally we posted something on IHOP's Facebook page and within a week we had it all set up.

We've also had friends tell us that they want to help, or know this person or that person but then never follow through on anything. Then we've had one person rip us off. $3,000 that he made selling car magnets and took off with. Needless to say that made us rethink a lot of things.

I've been left with having to set most of the things up, but between taking care of my husband, his doctors appointments, the kids and school and their activities, its become a strain on me. Plus we've only lived in this area for 3 years so I'm having to track down the info on who I should call for what. That takes a lot of time and energy. Something of which I am running very low on.

I'll be glad when life returns to normal, whatever that is.