My wife Lj and I have been carrying some medical debt for nearly a decade, but we've always managed to make payments on it, slowly, over time.

In July, we moved to Indiana for a new job because it was an opportunity to finally get ahead -- live someplace cheaper while earning a good income at a job with insurance.



During the move, Lj fell off a step and hit her face on the concrete, ending up in the E.R. Okay, we have insurance, but even so our share of the cost of her care ran $1500. But, with a good job, if we tightened our belt just a little more, we knew we could make it.



In September, I got a staph infection so serious I was hospitalized for 3 days. That was also covered by insurance, but our share of the costs came to more than $2500. Even with belt-tightening, this was going to be tight.



Less than a week later, the company we moved out here for had a round of layoffs, and the job was gone.



Since then, I have discovered a tooth I already had a root canal on (and am still paying off) has a crack at the root. My lower back molar. It has to be removed. That's not too expensive--but since it's the anchor tooth, at the very back, i can't replace it with a bridge. I need an implant, or my teeth will drift over time. Without dealing with these existing expenses, there's no way I can add that one.



Every little bit helps, and every dollar raised will go toward existing debt or getting medical care we've had to put off.



I have resisted doing this before, out of pride. But I keep telling other people there is no shame in asking for help. I've tried everything I can think of to raise the money to cover this myself, and while we're paying the rent and covering groceries, the medical debt is growing beyond our control.



Thanks for reading this far, I appreciate it.

-Owen