Emily’s Story

My name is Emily. I work in healthcare and I love my job.

A couple of years ago I had to have surgery on my foot, and my doctor told me it would be 2 weeks before I could go back to work. In the work that I do they couldn't make accommodations. As a result I ended up out of work for 9 weeks without any income.  It was very difficult to make ends meet, and sometimes I wasn’t sure I would be able to.  

This year I had to have another surgery and again was told it would be 2 weeks, but without accommodations I ended up needing six weeks.  A week and a half into my unpaid time off of work, my fiancé got into a car accident. 

He has a motorized scooter that he rides to work, and one day was hit by a car. He had severe injuries and was hospitalized.  It was really touch and go. Fortunately he's made huge strides, but he's going to have a very long recovery without any income coming in.

Since then it's been a balancing act.  I had to get the restrictions lifted two and a half weeks early, so that I could go back to work because we needed an income. 

You do what you have to do. It's really difficult when you need to be out of work. 

My child struggles with autism, depression and anxiety, and I can't take time off from work to be home to take care of her, because we went for so long without a paycheck.  All my time is spent now between work and hospital. If we had paid leave then there wouldn't be that burden of having to go back to work when there are things that really need my focus more than that. However, if I want to keep a roof over our heads, food in our belly, oil in the tank. I have to work.

I just put on a happy face, but my house is a wreck. I don't have energy to do anything, and just the stress of wondering:

Are we going to be able to pay our bills? Am I going to be able to buy Christmas presents for my child this year?

It just makes life so much more difficult, so much more stressful. I always worry when I'm under this amount of stress because I have MS and stress really triggers a lot of my flare ups. I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.

I wish I could remind lawmakers that they started out as regular people. They do great work, but they have better medical insurance, and more resources than most of us do. People end up in so much debt. We're going to end up with so much medical debt because of this. It's frustrating when it feels like they're so far removed from that now. It doesn't mean they are, but it feels that way.  It feels like sometimes they're just holding their democrat-republican line, and not looking at what the actual people in the state need.

What happened to me could happen to anyone, a healthcare need and an accident.  We spent over a month in the ICU. So many people come in just terrified and stressed, not knowing how they're going to make ends meet. It breaks my heart.

I’m one person trying to hold everyone together. I have to be strong right now.  I've done it for years. There’s always something. No one said life would be easy or fair, so we do the best we can. If we can help other people along the way, why not? If my story can help other people, I want to share it.

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