New to Group--Scared about Costs...need advice!

March 13, 2011

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this group and I'm so glad I found it. I am a 39 year old female and

live in Denver, CO.

I started noticing some difficulty swallowing in Nov 2006. Got a diagnosis of

" Achalasia " in April 2008 and a Botox treatment, which is what the doc advised.

I was basically told nothing about Achalasia except that it gets worse. The

botox worked very well, so that combined with lack of understanding of truly

what the implications were and being in denial left me pretty much untreated

except that one Botox injection. I thought maybe it was going away!

Well, the swallowing problems started getting bad again a little over a year ago

and the choking started in about May of 2010. It hit me with a vengence. I lost

my job the prior year and was without health insurance, so I just sort of dealt

with it. Ended up in the public hospital urgent care in June 2010 because I

couldn't get but a tiny bit of food or water down for nearly 3 days.

They did another Botox injection and sent me on my way. It seemed to take for

about 2 weeks and then I was back to nighttime and day time choking, not being

able to swallow foods, etc. The doctor who did the treatment himself said that

he would NOT get surgery for it at that hospital, so that ended that deal.

Well,I found a temp position a month later and was finally offered full time

with benefits which kicked in this January.

Unfortunately I had accumulated debt during the year of being unemployed (plus

before the A started I was very ill with some mysterious immune-related illness,

thought it was Lyme--put me in a major hole financially). Anyway, when I was

signing up for health insurance, I have been so backed up on bills that I felt I

could not afford to pay the monthly cost for the better-coverage health care

option--which would have prevented me from paying other monthly bills. I am

KICKING myself now over this decision. But at the time it was just so much

pressure and no one to process this with. Anyway, I'm in a situation now where I

realize that I cannot ignore this A issue any longer. I'm getting educated in

this forum and now I need to move forward with getting some expert help.

My question is this: How have you all dealt with the financial burden of having

A and all of its treatments? I'm single and do not have a 2nd income to fall

back on.

Sorry for the long story, but I want to share where I'm coming from. I feel

terribly stuck between a rock and a hard place and am fearful of the financial

hole that this will continue to put me in. I feel like I have no future because

of the financial burdens and now I just see more of that coming my way...

Any thoughts or stories you can share that may help me here?

Thank you!

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