Story

Hi there,

I hope you are having a nice day today, I never would have thought I’d need some help from strangers and it’s embarrassing even asking despite the fact it’s online and I’m not standing in front of you.
my name is Jade, I’m 36 and I live in Australia.
last year, I had surgery to remove my gallbladder, routine and easy surgery right? Wrong.
while the surgery was quick and my hospital stay was short, the 6 years leading up to it was the hardest time in my life. It had started with a persistent and chronic infection in my gallbladder which ended up turning septic.
in the 6 years of investigation, I was referred to many specialists, pain clinics etc, I underwent two nerve ablations, many medications and tests with nothing working.
initially it was dismissed by the surgical team as endometriosis despite the pain being in my upper right abdomen and no other symptoms relating to the diagnosis.
I was in the public system as I eventually was forced to quit work and was barely able to afford my rent.
during this time Covid hit and we all went into lockdown, which also meant that any specialist appointments I was waiting for were pushed back a minimum of 6 months.
the last few tests I did before the surgery were nuclear digestion tests to which I was told had come back within normal range.
Upon my last surgical appointment, I was told they “couldn’t find anything wrong with me”, that was the last straw I had and I broke down and expressed that I had no quality of life, I was rapidly losing weight, unable to eat, no energy and extremely depressed. I told the doctor that I had no will to live anymore as I couldn’t live like this, I could barely stand and shower myself, 9 times out of 10 when I attended the emergency room in 10/10 pain – I was denied help under the assumption I was drug seeking. I couldn’t do it anymore. He reluctantly put my name down for gallbladder removal and said “what happens if we take it out and you are still in pain?” I snapped back that at least it would be one thing knocked off the list.
two days later the surgeon called me, he had actually done his job and reviewed my diagnostic history and found that my gallbladder was indeed functioning outside of normal ranges, it was producing too much bile, he scheduled me in to have it removed a week later. It was only after pathology called me to give their findings. My gallbladder had gone septic and had started to die. All from a mild infection that was never picked up or treated.
I am happy to say that I am now completely pain free, tapered off all pain relief and medications and I am back to work.
sounds great hey?
it would be if I wasn’t behind on rent, having creditors on my back, behind on bills and my car on its last legs.
being off work due to sickness has set me back so far and I’m struggling to breathe.
I work in the community as a home carer for elderly war veterans, I absolutely love my job but it requires using my car up to 150kms per day and I fear it will not last long.
I have no support system, I rely on myself and myself only to get by but right now it’s almost impossible.
I’ve sold most valuable possessions to pay bills but it never seems to make a dent. I know everyone is struggling in these times but I feel like I’ve run out of options to get back on track.
I’ve looked into a second job, with the hours I could spare for it the return is not worth it with all the tax I’d have to pay.
I salary sacrifice already to get the most out of my pay, budget and scrape by barely.
I guess this is my last resort? I have applied for loans but have been declined due to not working for a year and have only been at this job for 7 months now. They saw I blew through my savings but don’t care that it was on rent, medical bills etc and not materialistic items.
there are little to no options left without being put in a worse position.
im kindly asking for help to get back on track with my rental and bill payments and enough to get my car into a mechanic to be fixed.
a helping step up to solid ground, because at the moment I feel like I’m slowly being sucked down into quicksand and air is running out.