My name is Allayna Switzer, though most people won’t know me by that… I am ‘Layney’ to all!
I have been battling debilitating back & neck pain for over 10 years now. I won’t say I just “celebrated”, I’ll say I just passed the 3 1/2 yr anniversary of my 1st surgery on my spine.
Multiple extended hospital stays, ER visits, ICU overnights, months bed-ridden, rollin’ on my 2nd-hand walker, fashionable borrowed cane… I am still here, still laughing! 😜🤭
It has been a long, extremely difficult journey to get to this place, where I finally feel like I can breathe! I finally can smile, not only just to cover the pain. I finally feel halfway back to the girl I used to be! All of this is so great… almost as great as the financial burden this journey has cost, not only cost me but my entire family (and friends).
The struggles of actually dealing with medical issues are so costly, not only financially but emotionally and mentally as well! The emotional and mental damage the journey causes, in turn need to be dealt with through even more medical professionals… and the cycle continues! 🙄😔
The financial burdens that have occurred on the path to living (actually living, not just struggling to exist) are consuming. Most days it feels like I’ll never get out from under the cost of all of the pain. On the bad days, it makes me question if it was all worth it?!
But then the good days come again… and I am so thankful for all the prayers and support I am still getting. I choose to only dwell on the good and positive things I have managed to hold on to!
If there’s one thing that I have learned through all of the challenges over the past few years, it is how to ask for help! (Which if you know me, you know how stubborn I can be… you know that learning to ask for help was a miracle in itself!!!)
and so, in the only way I know how, from strangers or friends, near or far… I ask for help
