Why the fundraiser site?

Maybe I have some 'splanin' to do. You might have noticed on Facebook and Twitter that I put a medical fundraising site up.

First of all, it was hard for me to do it and I feel weird about doing it. But it is what it is.

To put it bluntly, even after Teresa's Medicaid insurance, her bills are out of hand. I would guess that when she gets out of the hospital in Denver -- and she will get out -- between her medical bills, what it costs for me to go down and visit for a couple of days each week and our constant car repairs in doing so, we'll probably hit the six figure amount in debt. We're not there yet, but I see it in the horizon.

The problem with Wyoming Medicaid is it is Wyoming Medicaid and the hospital is in Denver. Her bed is covered and the medication, but nothing else. Every time a doctor -- she's probably had over a dozen docs see her this year -- comes into her room, it's around $150.

Counting just prior to her admittance in Denver last December, we have 19 medical bills of some sort directly connected to the past year or so.

Also, we'll need to do some major remodeling at the house for when she comes home to make it disability-ready.

I've made a short story long, so I'll conclude it by saying, yeah, times are tough.

As I said, I hate doing it, asking for help. My wife, on the other hand, has no problem in doing so. She even asks the doctors and nurses themselves that we are trying to raise some money to offset all of the bills and would they like to contribute to the fundraising.

Surprisingly, many of them say yes, even though we might owe them thousands of dollars.

I'm beginning to think that Teresa has bigger .... uh, you know what I mean, than me. She's not shy, to say the least. I originally had a problem with her asking people for help, but now I just let her go. I couldn't stop her if I really tried. Besides, I'm not so sure that if I was in her place, I might have given up by now. By her doing this, it just proves to me more how much she wants to get better.

Somebody did tell me to set up a website account, so I have. It's also a good way for people to see what is going on with Teresa. I put down a goal of $30,000 just because I needed a number. I told Teresa today that if all we raise is $3, that's OK. The $30,000 would just be gravy. Or is it groovy? One of the two.

Anyway, Teresa has seven weeks left on the powerful antibiotics she takes for the mycobacterium and then the docs will evaluate her from there. She plans on working her tail off and getting stronger so she can come home then, rather than go to another physical therapy facility.

That, would be the big payoff for all of us.

The link for the site is http://www.giveforward.com/teresacliftmedicalexpensesfund