🌒🌕🌘

So I’m aware I haven’t really posted anything in a while but I hope this reaches someone. My brother’s name is Efren. Growing up he used to tease and make fun of me, but among all the teasing he also helped raise me along with our mom. When he was little he wanted to be an architect. But his is the story that a lot of Mexican American working class families face: either take the opportunities available to you to attain your dreams, or curtail those in order to take care of your family. He chose his family. After graduating high school he turned down full ride scholarships in order to stay and work to help pay the bills. It was just him, my mom, and me. After a couple of years we got stable enough economically that he was able to go to college, but after graduation we fell on hard times again and instead of finding work in his field or applying to architecture school like he always dreamed, he decided to stick around and help us again. It’s because of his choice to help our family that I was able to go to college too, something that for a time I didn’t think was possible. It’s because of him that I was able to apply to and get accepted into a PhD program in the hopes of becoming a professor. It’s because of him that my mom has a house to call her own. My mom and I owe him everything. Yesterday, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). He’s uninsured. I’m a student, our mom works in childcare. There’s a high success rate for remission if he gets treatment, but we can’t afford it. He’s all me and my mom have, and we can’t lose him. He chose family growing up, and it’s my turn to choose him. Please, any donation helps. I just want him to come home.

I know times are tough with covid and everything so if anyone could please just spare a dollar or a reblog thatd be great. I can’t lose him.

paypal.com/Yulenni

cash.me/$pastandfuturequeen

venmo: @Yulenni

First off, thank y’all so so much for the generosity, advice, and kind words y’all have shared. I honestly thought this might get a couple hundred notes I didn’t know it would get over 12k!!!! I’m so incredibly thankful to everyone who’s reblogged and donated and messaged me. Y’all truly don’t know how much it means to me and my family.

Now I wanna post a couple updates here. A lot of y’all pointed out that hospitals should have financial aid or pointed out some charities that could help, and for that I’m very thankful. Yesterday we applied to the hospital financial aid but they told us that he likely only qualifies for a 50% discount on their sliding scale because of income. We’re incredibly thankful for that help of course, but 50% of $30k/month is still $15k/month for treatment. I also spent yesterday applying to different cancer charities and Catholic charities and Latino charities and government assistance but ofc cancer related assistance is in really high demand and a lot of charities are strained thin because of covid and people losing their jobs.

I’m incredibly grateful for y’all’s extreme generosity, so far through the gofundme, Venmo, cashapp, and PayPal we’ve received $8,327.64 and I’m absolutely blown away. I’m in tears writing this I didn’t know people could be so generous. I know times are tough with covid and a lot of families are going through the unimaginable. I don’t know how much more this post can circulate on tumblr, so now I’m just asking if y’all could do this:

Please spread this post and the gofundme link on your other social media.

I’ve made this post on Twitter that y’all can retweet (link) but I don’t have Instagram or Facebook or Reddit because I’m admittedly kind of a hermit. So I’m incredibly thankful for everything y’all have done, I’m just hoping that maybe some of y’all will spare a retweet or a repost and help get the word out to as many people as possible. Thank y’all. God bless.

Apologies for the late update. But first and foremost I just wanna say:

Thank you so much.

We’re blown away by everyone’s generosity, I never thought that this would gain as much traction as it did, and Efren also wants to say thank you so much. Words really don’t do justice to the overwhelming amount of support and love that we’ve received though this and though everyone reaching out and offering your kind words and suggestions. When I showed this gofundme to Efren he was speechless, both my mom and I cried because now he gets to stick around just a little bit longer, and that would’ve never happened were it not for everyone’s support. So a million times, thank you.

Now for the (actual) update: Since we heard about the diagnosis, we’ve been applying to a couple of different charities and to St. Francis’, SCCA’s, and UW Medical Center’s financial aid departments respectively. I want to give a quick shout out to people who offered advice and helped us navigate this whole financial situation. Thanks to everyone’s help, Efren’s been able to see a whole army of doctors and hospital staff (Efren says there’s too many to count) and he’s gotten his first round of chemo with more to come in the following weeks. Because of you guys, he’s been able to laugh and talk shit about me for the first time since we got the diagnosis, something I never would’ve thought I’d miss. The bill has gone way WAY down, so now we’re looking at a total of $25k instead of $200k, mostly for meds and the initial emergency room visit.

We never expected this much help and generosity. We’ve set up a payment plan for the remaining amount so it’s not gonna be due all at once – this is a long road to remission as I’m sure some of you may know, so hopefully a combination of payment plans and a diet of ramen packets (I’m kidding mostly) will help us weather this storm. Again, my whole family and I just want to thank each and every single person who’s donated, shared, and sent kind words or prayers our way. God bless you all.

(Including the funds from PayPal, cashapp, and Venmo):

It’s not a bad thing, I just saw someone say “we never said who would eat the rich” and realized a lot of y’all might not have heard the full quote

It’s from Rousseau and it’s “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich"

"We are starving. There is no more bread, and we have nothing to eat."

The rich man said,

"Not my problem you don't work for your bread,"

as if he did not snatch away the grain by his own greedy hands and create filling bread for his own overflowing mouth.

The poor cried,

"We are dying. There is no more medicine, and we're all ill."

The rich man said,

"Not my problem you don't take care of yourselves,"

as if he did not buy all the medicine and raise prices so high

the gods themselves would not

be able to reach.

The poor people

stopped crying,

and the rich man was satisfied...

Until they came knocking at his door one night;

their faces were sunken,

their flesh decaying,

their eyes sightless.

They were monsters

of the rich man's

own making.

As they devoured his flesh,

the rich man cried,

"Please, spare me!"

The ravenous zombies said,

"Not our fault

you fattened yourself

this is pumpkin

he will be 4 years old on November 15th

he has a lump that will likely need to be biopsied and that's more than I can afford even with pet insurance

he is like my child and I am worried sick and I hate to ask but donations are appreciated in this trying time

venmo: rabbitclaws

cashapp: hexxbby

paypal: paypal.me/saturnstardust

no te vi, otra vez.