If you know me, you probably know that asking for help is one of the hardest things for me to ever do… I’m just the type of girl who tries to find a way—even when things are difficult, and sometimes it means I gotta just roll with the punches!

This experience, trauma, whatever it “should” be called is incredibly hard and difficult!! It took only a couple of days for everything in my day to day to to be almost unbearable at times…..

I was admitted into the hospital with an infection in my eye. I had gotten a rare bacteria that caused an antibiotic resistant infection, and developed a large cornea ulcer. So…. Within 3 days it had gone from itchy and painful to absolutely unbearable!! I had lost 90% of my sight in the left eye. I never could have imagined this would be happening to me, it’s a frightening and some days it’s a very overwhelming experience.

Hope is that the loss of vision is just temporary… since I am now able to see shapes at times instead of nothing but completely foggy brightness! Temporary or not, I have enough permanent scarring to my cornea and I am going to be partially blind for the rest of my life. I’ve had this information for a little over a week, I need a little help, and I’ll find a way to make my wondering eye a part of my personality!

There are no words to truly explain what it feels like to suddenly have to adjust to seeing the world differently. Along with the physical challenges, there has been fear, uncertainty, appointments, treatments, medications, and medical bills that continue to add up. The first bill was for only 6 days and was a little less than $23,000… and $13,700 after insurance coverage!! And this last stay was for 13 days and way more tests, medications, clinic visits, and blood work, so I can’t imagine what that is going to be for?!

Unfortunately, because of what I’m going through, I am not able to work for a while… (it’s been almost 3 hours now since I started working on this, I can’t stand to look at my screen long enough to do anything very quickly anymore)

So, with a very humble heart, I am asking for help. Josh has been working nonstop to cover our day to day expenses, he takes our younger 2 kids to and from school every day, takes me to my doctors appointments every other day across town, he is patient with me when he has to do my drops for me because I wanna argue with him about how pointless all of it is, and geez he irritates me so much….. but he really does deserve a little rest and relief. He’d never ever say so tho, the only thing I can do is change my outlook on why this situation happened to me…. It’s happening to all of us and it’s not just me who is affected, we all are!

When someone is facing a mountain of unexpected expenses, every single dollar can make a difference. Any contribution will help!

I understand if you aren’t in a position to give, and please don’t feel bad!!!!

If you will share this, even if you just send me a message and say a few things to keep in touch…. keeping me in your thoughts, or simply reminding me that I’m not alone means just as much to me. And I couldn’t be more sincere about that!!

I am deeply grateful and I have been reminded that sometimes strength isn’t about doing everything by yourself. Sometimes strength is having the courage to say, “I need a little help right now.”

***If I am fortunate enough to have some contributions remaining, I have made the personal decision to pay the kindness forward…. to help anyone in a situation like mine—someone who is scared, overwhelmed, unable to work, and still trying… I know now how much a helping hand can mean.

I never expected to be on this side of anything like this. I never want to have to ask people to help me. But I am incredibly grateful for every person who chooses to…

Thank you for reading my story.

Thank you for caring.

Thank you for sharing.

And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to anyone who is able to help.

With love and sincere gratitude,

Heather