Justin/Danielle - Medical Donation Site

Happy Almost New Year, folks. As I sit here, watching the end of MISS CONGENIALITY on our basic cable, I am also reflecting on a year that a lot of people have said, really sucked. But if I look back on it, Justin’s terrible accident did not define our year. In fact, despite everything, I had a great one. I’ve been producing 3 great films, received the Sundance Creative Producing Fellowship, fell in love, got married at a fantastic wedding surrounded by friends and family, and had a wonderful Italian honeymoon.

And the last two months of pain and stress also brought so much generosity and help from family and friends, that it taught me so much about humanity, empathy, and my own strength.

We still have a ways to go. Justin’s surgery is - TENTATIVELY - scheduled for Wednesday, January 4th, and we need to raise $4,500 for that alone - to pay for the O.R. and the anesthesiologist. So, we are still appealing for funds, of course. And appreciate people spreading the word as much as we appreciate donations.

Some people have had trouble with Paypal, so you can also donate via check to: Danielle DiGiacomo or Justin Young and send it to:
725 4th Avenue
Apt. NN4
Brooklyn, NY 11232

Thanks for helping make our 2011 great, and here’s to a fantastic 2012, featuring a new and improved economy, for all of us.

Love, Danielle & Justin

It’s been about 10 days since I last checked in. In that time, we’ve been busy trying to get back to regular life. For me, that’s grant applications, fundraising, shoots, and trying to get freelance work. (Also, trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to be able to get ANYONE presents this year). It also means, biweekly visits to the plastic surgeon - in Long Island and on the Upper East Side - for Justin to get checked out and have “procedures.” Because each trip is an hour each way, and the visits are often long, this means 4 hours our of our day twice a week, which does not count the recovery period at home post-visit.

The procedures, which thin some of the flesh off the “leash” attaching Justin’s forehead skin to his nose, are painful and harrowing, in particular because he only has local anesthesia. (Full anesthesia costs between $1200 and $1500, and we just cannot afford it).

Basically, we are still waiting for the final surgery, in which this leash will be detached and Justin’s nose can start looking like just that, a nose. At that time, he will also be able to get back to work.

But, we must be patient. Being impatient would cause all this work to go to waste.
So, we are hoping that the surgery will be done Friday, December 23rd, a wonderful Christmas present (though I am Jewish, I don’t think that matters :) for us both.

And just to let you know, we are not all about pain and suffering in our home, here is Justin, bandage and all, playing one of his best originals:

I often feel a bit strange writing all of this in a public forum. It’s difficult to tell the difference between narcissistic self-pity and just attempting to put an experience out into the world. But I also recognize that blogs are a free form of therapy, and they can be very helpful.

Things have been more difficult than we’ve hoped lately. We thought that Justin was having his third, and most major surgery today, to disconnect this leash of skin he’s had connecting his forehead to his nose, so he can go back to work and make the motions of a somewhat normal life again, but alas, it isn’t so.

When we went in a couple days ago, the surgeon, Dr. Mir, did an awful and painful test, where he put a clamp in the middle of the “leash” of flesh going from Justin’s forehead to his nose, to test if there was enough blood flowing into it without the forehead blood.
Unfortunately, there was not.

Yesterday he called us and said he was looking at the photos he took of that procedure and also had shared them with more experienced colleagues. He was nervous about cutting the leash, since the blood didn’t flow as much as he wanted it to.

So, basically, we are going to go in to his office tomorrow at noon and he is going start thinning the leash of skin. Then he will do it twice a week for two or three more weeks, which will increase blood flow, and then he will cut it out.

This is good, because he is playing it very safe and says be patient, for two more weeks, because it’s the next 75 years of your life. (He thinks we are going to live for a very long time, I suppose).

But still, the dangling fruit of the life with no-leash - Justin being able to return to work; me being able to leave the house without feeling I’ve left a disabled infant behind - that was hard to let go of.

Right after the first surgery - November 9th Justin, 10 days later, on November 19th Justin two days after Thanksgiving, November 26th.

Like all crowdfunding campaigns, our momentum has levelled off after an amazing first three days. Interestingly, this article, entitled PATIENTS, TOO, TURN TO THE INTERNET was in the New York Times today.

Many commenters, like myself, took the opportunity to talk about the larger issue of needing universal health care in this country.

As I wrote “I agree that crowdfunding medical bills is not the solution to such a massive national problem. I have advocated for universal health care my entire adult life, and especially after living in London for several months, where I had a work visa and was therefore able to get health care whenever I needed it. However, I also agree that, sadly, crowdfunding on the internet can be the only solution for desperate individuals, like myself, when an emergency strikes. The problem of health care in this country will likely not be solved for many years, if ever. It’s a sad reality that friends, colleagues, family, and people three degrees away on Facebook have to pitch in their hard-earned money to help us, when the government chooses to neglect so many people in our situation. This surgery was not elective. Without it, my husband would have a gaping hole where his nose used to be. We could not have said, no, sorry, we just can’t afford it. ”

In any case, the bottom line is that I am saddened by the fact that it comes to this for so many people like me. I am also saddened by the fact that I have witnessed so many hard-working friends without insurance, have lesser but still bad medical problems that they just “wait out” since they can’t pay to get them taken care of. For example, I have witnessed a dear friend, medically uninsured and one of the hardest working people I know, get through a painful ear infection using ice packs.

We are now at $8, 246.00 out of over over $23,000 of medical bills. We are going to keep pushing, as every little bit helps immensely! Justin still has another surgery coming up, and he is still unable to work, since being exposed to a classroom full of students greatly increases the risk of his open wound getting infected. Thanks for all the support.

With Justin and I basically under house arrest, we feel awful we’ve been missing out on the world. In particular, being part of such an important political moment in our time. (But seriously, if Justin was out there, and his nose got bumped into, we would be screwed.)

That said, we spend the day creatively. Justin wanted to post his reggae song, which he wrote and recorded in his old Florida living room, on Facebook, but they don’t accept straight mp3s. So I took a moment (or several) to edit a protest video to the song.

(As for the issue at hand, we have now raised $7500 out of $24,000!) You can donate here. LOVE LOVE LOVE to all:

We are still racking up the bills, and stressed about it, but stuff like this helps!

People have asked me to have a goal number of how much we need to raise, and what we owe. We don’t know until all this is over, a year from now. But thus far, we owe:

Hospital bill (just received from the hospital) - $18, 345.39

Medication thus far - $182.54

Loss of salary thus far - $4,100.00

Cost round trip to see surgeon so far ($75-80 each) - $155.00

So far, we have incurred $22, 782.93 in medical costs from this.

And, thanks to your gifts, we have raised $3486.51

(Note: this was as of November 15th.) As of right now - November 17th at 11:22 AM EST, we have raised $6014.18.

So, roughly $16,000 to go! But EVERY BIT HELPS.

So, that’s the deal. For more of the story click here: http://cashmerewalks.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/otis-an-adoption-gone-wrong/ You can donate here:

And for any donations, you can click here.