The Quest for Nobility

Well, it's been a while since I've dropped in here. I thought I would give everyone a little update/background that I had written for a private financial forum I'm a member of. I left out the financial information though but I'm sure no one here will mind.

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Hi, my name is Christopher and I have a financial problem.

Not that I've ever been to A.A. but I felt like that was a good way to kick things off.

You know I wanted to make a journal like the one from domesticactivist entitled Present Perfect but after looking at my current financial situation I realize that I don't need such a huge breakdown.

First I would like to tell you a little about myself before we get into the nightmare that is my financial life.

The week of Thanksgiving in 2010, I found out that my kidneys were failing and I would have to start dialysis within the next few years. Fast-forward to May of the next year and I had to start dialysis immediately. So much for doctors and their guesstimates huh?I spent the next three years on dialysis and two of those years in a deep depression. I was so bad off that I didn't really listen to my doctors and my health just got worse. Then one day I just woke up and said screw it. I started following the renal (kidney) failure diet exactly. I got up and exercised as much as I could through the haze of physical exhaustion dialysis left me in constantly.

I spent the next three years on dialysis and two of those years in a deep depression. I was so bad off that I didn't really listen to my doctors and my health just got much worse. Then one day I just woke up and said screw it. I started following the renal (kidney) failure diet exactly. I got up and exercised as much as I could through the haze of physical exhaustion dialysis left me in constantly. I was slowly improving myself every day.

Then my wife decided that she couldn't bare to see me like this and just couldn't be my caretaker any longer. We ended up getting a divorce and I moved from Kentucky to New York to stay with family. I honestly don't blame her, the first year alone was a living Hell for both of us and I know I didn't make it easy on her at all during those two years. That's all I will say about that portion and I will not answer any questions about my divorce or ex-wife.

When I moved in with my sister I started receiving more S.S.I. and Food Stamps by the way. While I was there all I did was go to dialysis, eat dinner with my family, and walk. I walked and walked and walked all over Buffalo. From Spring until Fall I walked so much that I couldn't fit into my clothing anymore. Ever since I moved up here everything was just getting better with my health. My weight was down, my lab values were perfect, and the stronger I got the less dialysis even phased me.

I moved out on my own in the Fall and started receiving full S.S.I. and Food Stamps while living in a H.U.D. apartment building. At this point and time, I wasn't really saving much because even though I was on the transplant list my Nephrologist informed me that my chances of getting a kidney was too slim and that I should just prepare myself to live life tethered to Lucy (Yes I named my dialysis machine Lucy).

Then the unthinkable happened. The national agency that regulates organ transplants restructured how recipients and donors are matched. Out of nowhere I went from near the bottom of the list (it doesn't work like that but still) to skyrocketed towards the top (it works that way now, sorta).

While I was dog sitting for my sister around Christmas I got a phone call saying they might have a kidney for me and asked if I was interested. After hearing the details, I agreed and sat frozen on the couch waiting on the callback. There is an ENTIRE story about that day, but this post will be long enough without it.

On December 30th of 2014 I received a kidney transplant. The recovery was a living Hell. No seriously, dialysis was muuuuch easier than this. An even longer story short, fast-forward to April of this year and it hits me "I only have until December to find a job." That's right, my S.S.I. ends the month of one year after my transplant.

As if that weren't bad enough then it occurs to me that I have to pay back all of my student loans as well. and only some of them have been in deferment because the others (federal I think?) didn't care about my financial or health situation. Also in my deep depression I was positive I would die on dialysis and did not see a point in stretching my extremely small budget any further than I had to. So they have grown even larger over the years with interest.

So here I am looking for a job in my field (another long post), trying to put back as much as I can for the first months rent and a security deposit somewhere else and I have debt collectors crawling out of the woodwork now demanding that I start paying on my loans.

Now I don't have all of the information on my debts just yet but thanks the CreditKarma.com I know a little bit.

So here I stand at the beginning of my quest to become superior to who I was yesterday and to slay the foul demon I had summoned from the depths named Debt.