Living in the U.S. here, so non-American advice may not be the best thing for me, not sure.
I am living with an undiagnosed serious illness (haven’t eaten for 45 days.) I am off work on FMLA, which is a thing businesses in the U.S. offer to their employees where you can taker time off and they will keep your job for you, but you don’t get paid. We are not exactly poor, but we are going to be surviving for at least a month on a single income. That will be hard, but we’ll make it if we cut back.
HOWEVER.
I have $1000 in medical debt, which will just keep climbing, and I also have a cousin who says that he can get me into the best hospital in New York- I’m in Indiana and we’re not exactly at the forefront of medicine- to get thoroughly tested. I cannot afford either of these things. We do not have temporary disability insurance.
I have a lot of friends and relatives who might donate, but I feel like such an asshole asking for money. Especially when my wife is working and has a decent job. I’ve done everything I can since I was 18 to make it on my own and, while I have had to take handouts in the past, it was at the ‘this or starve’ level, and my doctor hasn’t run out of tests to do on me yet, so I wouldn’t quite put it like that. And what if the money isn’t enough to go to New York and pay for all of this testing? Do I give it all back?
So should I do a GoFundMe? What do you think?
Please, please, please, please do not give me medical advice. I really really do not want medical advice from strangers on the Internet. I leave that to professionals. But I would love this bit of AITA advice.
TL;DR - Very ill, not working, in debt, possible solution in another state. Should I do a GoFundMe?
Oh, I would never pressure them! I’m kind of afraid to even ask in the first place which is why I posted this, so pressure isn’t even a possibility.
Yeah, I figured you’d be a person who also doesn’t like to pressure people. I just said it because for me that would be the factor that distinguishes a noble thing from a bad thing. And since you’re not doing it, I cannot see it being bad per se. It’s just an invitation from your side.
I think it would make me very uncomfortable too. Asking for help isn’t something I do. And asking for money makes it even more uncomfortable.
But sometimes things just suck. And I’d say familiy and friends are supposed to stick together and sometimes help each other out.
And judging by how many people I’ve seen on Reddit who suffer with some kind of mental struggles and don’t talk about it (to real-life people) or ask for help, I think most people aren’t good at asking for help. But they should.