One Week Later: State of the Teeth

See the previous blog post for the situation, and here for the GoFundMe I'm talking about.

So, I've had a busy time this week.

Other than posting my blog here about it, I've been trying other avenues of getting the word out. I talked a relative of mine who has Facebook (I don't) into sharing the link with a couple of groups that are specifically for sharing GFMs, which meant I was trying to dig up several groups that were for that purpose via Google for her to join that neither appeared creep-infested or scammy, which isn't an easy feat. I upped my pledge to a content creator to access the benefit of him plugging it on his weekly livestreams; this past Monday was the first of them and resulted in the person who was co-hosting part of the stream putting a link up on his Twitter, where it racked up some views and retweets. And lastly, the video itself that I'd uploaded, which I'd initially intended to leave unlisted, I switched over to public and gave a description with a GFM link, in case anyone on the hunt for cute dog videos might be in a generous mood.

I've also been trying to write. Trying. Since more stories are more for my resume for potential commissioners. I should, maybe, even have my first shipfic live sometime today if I can manage to edit what I wrote last night.

We've reached $2205.00, which, after GFM takes its fees, means that $2138.65 is available to withdraw. I'd initially placed the $3516 goal where it was because I was under the mistaken belief that the platform added fees onto the pledged amount, rather than slicing from it, so I hadn't budgeted for that, but I'd also based the total on what I thought was likely to be the high end of potential expenses, so I initially wasn't worried.

Turns out I was off the mark. She's finally gotten an estimate on her wisdom teeth: I'd read that the high end could be $379 per tooth, and so her half of the fundraising was placed at $1516. The quote she just got was $2175, over $500 per tooth. And this is after what tiny scrap of insurance she has access to. Turns out, the longer they're left, the more pricy it is to remove them because it's more work to rip them out.

I told her today about the progress the fundraiser had made, and there were a lot of feelings. Shock, guilt, apologising for doubting so much that it'd get traction, and lastly... overwhelming panic. Not just from the quote, but because what little government benefits and support she has could get yanked away if she has that much money in her bank account at once. Go fucking figure. And since she, in her own words, "literally thought it would get like twenty bucks" and I don't live under the kind of restrictions she does, we're only just realizing the problem now.

We're currently seeing if a family member (her one trustworthy one; the rest of the people who she's unfortunate enough to share DNA with, I wouldn't trust to guard a purse for ten minutes without rifling through it for something to steal) will hold onto the funds for her, but they work night shifts and are currently asleep, so we haven't heard back yet. I'd normally do so myself, but I've been organizing this from a distance, and GFM won't let a Canadian collect money from a US fundraiser. (EDIT: Relative has agreed to hang onto the funds, thank goodness).

I haven't upped the amount on the GFM yet because we want to figure out how to get what's already in there out before recalculating. And I loathe to, because nobody likes a GFM that "moves the goalposts," but... life rarely goes smoothly, even when you think you're preparing for the worst already.

That said, while this is an extra load of logistical stress, the money itself is still appreciated more than words can say. So for everyone here, collectively, who gave advice or donated or signal-boosted: Thank you. Sincerely. I'll do my best to get it where it needs to be.