Have you/would you do a Go Fund Me

[SC Minnie]

I've donated to a GFM once. A local animal rescue that is a nonprofit had a dog brought in that was in very bad shape and needed costly medical attention. That was the only time they've used GFM. I think after they realized the cut that GFM took they rethought the process. Now when they have an animal that needs intensive medical care there is as account set up with the vet they use so you can call the vet and donate.

 

[ronandannette]

I have a problem with the publicity of it all to an extent. A coworker's husband was battling cancer. We did a collection of money and gift cards at work. Turns out, my DH indirectly knew the husband battling cancer and felt the desire to donate to the GFM page. He also felt obligated for his donation to be known because other coworkers would see. Anyhow, we ended up donating more to GFM and some to the collection at my work. I was upset that GFM and credit card companies got a cut when handing the family cash would have been better.

DH also constantly gets asked to donate to coworkers who get sick, injured, or die. Not to be a jerk, but I *know* that these people have access to great health insurance and life insurance. I'm sure extra money is nice, but it won't be the difference between life and death or financial ruin. The obligation to donate is big, though.

I suppose some people might feel that pressure; we didn't. We didn't give through the GFM - we put cash directly into their hands. The GFM got hundreds of donations from around the world; more than half of them were "Anonymous". I'm not sure if that's just how they display on the website or if the recipients were given a list of the actual donors. Either way, none of us except the recipients really knew for sure who gave or didn't, or how much. At least not unless people discussed it amongst themselves.

My situation is a bit different. The treatment in question is proton therapy (vs normal radiation), so not anything particularly experimental, just not available here (until next year - just my luck!). The main benefit would be to avoid excessive radiation to healthy tissue. It’s extremely early days with the process but I believe the first step is comparing the proposed treatment and extent of radiation for each.

Really, my gamble is more in deciding whether to do further treatment or not. There’s a possibility that everything could be totally fine without any sort of radiation, but if it’s not it could kill me. Whereas radiation therapy will have pretty severe side effects for the rest of my life, but could also save it. Proton therapy would hopefully be less of a gamble - treatment without as extreme side effects!

I wish you well.

 

[elaine amj]

My situation is a bit different. The treatment in question is proton therapy (vs normal radiation), so not anything particularly experimental, just not available here (until next year - just my luck!). The main benefit would be to avoid excessive radiation to healthy tissue. It’s extremely early days with the process but I believe the first step is comparing the proposed treatment and extent of radiation for each.

Really, my gamble is more in deciding whether to do further treatment or not. There’s a possibility that everything could be totally fine without any sort of radiation, but if it’s not it could kill me. Whereas radiation therapy will have pretty severe side effects for the rest of my life, but could also save it. Proton therapy would hopefully be less of a gamble - treatment without as extreme side effects!

My DH has battled cancer twice in the past 3 years. For the second one, we spent a lot of time researching proton therapy. Ended up going to a different oncologist for a consult to see about the possibility of getting our provincial healthcare to pay for him to go to the US to get proton therapy since it is not available in Canada.

The 2nd oncologist is one of the top in his field (we traveled a few hours to consult with him) and carefully reviewed DH’s case. He was very kind and explained a variety of reasons why proton therapy wasn’t right for DH’s case and that his current treatment plan was exactly what he would recommend himself. So we stuck with his doctor and went through the chemo and radiation treatments as recommended.

We were happy we traveled to get a second opinion as it helped us feel like we had explored all our options. At the end of the day, we were glad we only had to travel 2 hours for treatments (beyond the expertise of our local hospital) instead of traveling 4 hours or over to the US.

 

[ronandannette]

My DH has battled cancer twice in the past 3 years. For the second one, we spent a lot of time researching proton therapy. Ended up going to a different oncologist for a consult to see about the possibility of getting our provincial healthcare to pay for him to go to the US to get proton therapy since it is not available in Canada.

The 2nd oncologist is one of the top in his field (we traveled a few hours to consult with him) and carefully reviewed DH’s case. He was very kind and explained a variety of reasons why proton therapy wasn’t right for DH’s case and that his current treatment plan was exactly what he would recommend himself. So we stuck with his doctor and went through the chemo and radiation treatments as recommended.

We were happy we traveled to get a second opinion as it helped us feel like we had explored all our options. At the end of the day, we were glad we only had to travel 2 hours for treatments (beyond the expertise of our local hospital) instead of traveling 4 hours or over to the US.

Just curious - would you mind saying which province you're in? It certainly does work differently in each province. Here in Alberta we weren't able to have my brother seen by specialists here in Calgary because he resided in the northern part of the province and his designated "health region" was limited to specialists/services in Edmonton. (Sorry this is a little OT )

 

[elaine amj]

Just curious - would you mind saying which province you're in? It certainly does work differently in each province. Here in Alberta we weren't able to have my brother seen by specialists here in Calgary because he resided in the northern part of the province and his designated "health region" was limited to specialists/services in Edmonton. (Sorry this is a little OT )

We live in Ontario. I don't know how hard it is to get a second opinion though. By chance my husband met a lady whose daughter was a nurse working with the specialist we wanted to see. We booked an appt through her or something like that (can't remember). I don't know anything about being restricted to a specific health region - but if so, the Toronto doctor we saw would be within that region since a lot of locals here end up in Toronto if needed for various specialists.

 

[ronandannette]

Alberta's divided into 2 regions: North (the entire province north of Edmonton) and South (the entire province south of Calgary). Due to the heavy dispersion of the population, anyone not living in one of the two major cities has to travel (at their own expense) for many advanced diagnostics and specialized treatments. You can't decide where you want to go or "doctor shop" unless it's between facilities in your own region. I think the diversity of how public health-care is delivered in Canada is very poorly understood, even by Canadians themselves sometimes. Thanks for your reply - I hope your DH has had a good outcome.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Alberta's divided into 2 regions: North (the entire province north of Edmonton) and South (the entire province south of Calgary). Due to the heavy dispersion of the population, anyone not living in one of the two major cities has to travel (at their own expense) for many advanced diagnostics and specialized treatments. You can't decide where you want to go or "doctor shop" unless it's between facilities in your own region. I think the diversity of how public health-care is delivered in Canada is very poorly understood, even by Canadians themselves sometimes. Thanks for your reply - I hope your DH has had a good outcome.

So what about those living BETWEEN Edmonton and Calgary?

 

[ronandannette]

So what about those living BETWEEN Edmonton and Calgary?

That's actually a really good question. I want to say Red Deer falls into the South region but I'd need to research it to know for sure. I don't know anybody that lives in central Alberta or I'd ask them.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

From reading this thread, it's obvious many Americans don't understand the reality of health & life insurance for a large number of people in this country. There are many people who don't have healthcare that comes close to paying for the treatment needed in a health crisis. There are also a lot of people who don't have an employer that makes life insurance affordable, especially as you age. Most of these people are working full time, but don't get paid even close to what most people here do. Instead of being judgemental, anyone who has a good paying job, with good healthcare & affordable life insurance should be thankful & feel sorry for those that don't. You're one of the fortunate Americans.

FWIW, I've never started a GFM & hope I'm never in a situation where I would feel the need to. I would never judge anyone who did it to pay medical bills or pay for a funeral though.

 

[Colleen27]

I can't imagine a situation where I'd set one up for a personal/household expense, but (knock wood) we've been blessed enough not to have any catastrophic medical expenses and have decent insurance coverage. We also have family that would do whatever they could to help should we run into something that was beyond our ability to handle. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if it was really a life-or-death matter and a funding option of last resort as some of the ones I've seen have been. I wouldn't ever use one for vet care, or for educational expenses, or any of the other "chosen" expenses that a lot of people seem to use GFM for.

I have helped to set up and promote crowdfunding campaigns on other platforms for local 501c3 orgs. in my community, though, and have seen some of them become quite successful as a means of raising matching funds for grants.

 

[Colleen27]

for me, its because I dont take anything internet related at face value. I am from low income high crime area and I know a great many people around here struggle to pay for day to day life. However I know also that there there many legitimate ways they can get help, from genuine charities, church organisations and various Government schemes for low income households.

You have a far more robust social safety net there, though. NPR had a story about GFM in the U.S. that said, per GFM's own reporting, a third of all campaigns are for medical expenses. Some are probably for people who don't have insurance, which can be prohibitively expensive for lower-wage workers, but many are for paying what the insurance won't. It isn't unusual, for example, to have an 80/20 cost share... so when you get into something like chemo or a transplant or a premature baby, the costs that insurance won't pay can still run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. And we don't have government schemes to help with that - if you make too much for medicaid (with a cutoff around the poverty level), those costs are your own to bear even if they exceed your annual income many times over.

I think they were relatively lucky with their cats and didn’t have to take them to the vet often so had no idea how much vet bills could be.

Or they don't buy into the expectation of treating pets like people. It wasn't that long ago that the idea of four- or five-figure medical bills for pets was the domain of the wealthy, but it is increasingly becoming an expectation of pet ownership to do whatever it takes to prolong a pet's life. I couldn't believe the pressure we got from our vet and from some of my pet-loving friends to put thousands into attempting to treat our dog's cancer a few years ago, to the point of being shamed with comparisons to giving up on a sick child when we decided it was better just to put her down rather than incur high-four-figure bills for a 50/50 chance of giving her another year or two. I have had animals my whole life and never experienced anything like it.

 

[wenrob]

Or they don't buy into the expectation of treating pets like people. It wasn't that long ago that the idea of four- or five-figure medical bills for pets was the domain of the wealthy, but it is increasingly becoming an expectation of pet ownership to do whatever it takes to prolong a pet's life. I couldn't believe the pressure we got from our vet and from some of my pet-loving friends to put thousands into attempting to treat our dog's cancer a few years ago, to the point of being shamed with comparisons to giving up on a sick child when we decided it was better just to put her down rather than incur high-four-figure bills for a 50/50 chance of giving her another year or two. I have had animals my whole life and never experienced anything like it.

It’s a little crazy the expectations these days. A couple decades ago we had a Dalmatian pup who had a genetic kidney disease. Of course we (and the vet) did not know this until it was a catastrophic situation. It would have cost thousands and there were no guarantees he would even make it out of surgery. He would for sure have lifelong issues and surgeries in the future. The vet cried with us while telling we made the right decision to let him go. Flash forward 20 years and our 14 year old lab was diagnosed with cancer. It was crazy the pressure put on us to spend thousands on chemo etc. Not to mention putting the old guy through all of that when in the end it wouldn’t have changed his outcome. He lived another two years pretty peacefully.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

It’s a little crazy the expectations these days. A couple decades ago we had a Dalmatian pup who had a genetic kidney disease. Of course we (and the vet) did not know this until it was a catastrophic situation. It would have cost thousands and there were no guarantees he would even make it out of surgery. He would for sure have lifelong issues and surgeries in the future. The vet cried with us while telling we made the right decision to let him go. Flash forward 20 years and our 14 year old lab was diagnosed with cancer. It was crazy the pressure put on us to spend thousands on chemo etc. Not to mention putting the old guy through all of that when in the end it wouldn’t have changed his outcome. He lived another two years pretty peacefully.

Even less life threatening things can be insane for pets. Mine tore both ccls (equivalent to acl in humans). It was a total tear, she basically wouldn’t have been able to walk so the options were to a) put down an otherwise healthy dog b) figure out how to have the dog in a cart and all the difficulty and expense that comes with that or c) pay up for nearly 10k in surgery and recovery costs.

I agree it’s expected that people do everything for their pet often to the detriment of their own finances. While there are plenty of people who get pets without planning for basic pet care, I won’t fault anybody who doesn’t have 10k on hand for unforeseen pet issues.

Being prepared and planning is important but nobody can be prepared for every possible crappy expensive thing that can happen.

 

[wenrob]

Even less life threatening things can be insane for pets. Mine tore both ccls (equivalent to acl in humans). It was a total tear, she basically wouldn’t have been able to walk so the options were to a) put down an otherwise healthy dog b) figure out how to have the dog in a cart and all the difficulty and expense that comes with that or c) pay up for nearly 10k in surgery and recovery costs.

I agree it’s expected that people do everything for their pet often to the detriment of their own finances. While there are plenty of people who get pets without planning for basic pet care, I won’t fault anybody who doesn’t have 10k on hand for unforeseen pet issues.

Being prepared and planning is important but nobody can be prepared for every possible crappy expensive thing that can happen.

Oh yeah, I know that. Been a pet owner my entire life. My lab had ACL troubles as well.

I think a lot of factors need to come into play. How old the pet is, if they’re otherwise healthy, the most probable outcome etc. My girl now is only six and very healthy so I’d be inclined to spend more than say if she was twelve and showing her age. What I wouldn’t do is let anyone shame me into a decision that wouldn’t be financially responsible. I’m a “look at the bigger picture” type of person.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

So what about those living BETWEEN Edmonton and Calgary?

They have to be fans of two hockey teams that haven't won a Stanley cup in a long time instead of one.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Or they don't buy into the expectation of treating pets like people. It wasn't that long ago that the idea of four- or five-figure medical bills for pets was the domain of the wealthy, but it is increasingly becoming an expectation of pet ownership to do whatever it takes to prolong a pet's life. I couldn't believe the pressure we got from our vet and from some of my pet-loving friends to put thousands into attempting to treat our dog's cancer a few years ago, to the point of being shamed with comparisons to giving up on a sick child when we decided it was better just to put her down rather than incur high-four-figure bills for a 50/50 chance of giving her another year or two. I have had animals my whole life and never experienced anything like it.

These friends definitely do view their animals like family/people. It really is a case of shell shock in terms of what a dog's wellness visits costs over what their experience with their cats were. Dogs require more vaccinations since they are exposed to more public areas and other dogs. It was a complaint about how much the wellness puppy visits were each time.

 

[Colleen27]

These friends definitely do view their animals like family/people. It really is a case of shell shock in terms of what a dog's wellness visits costs over what their experience with their cats were. Dogs require more vaccinations since they are exposed to more public areas and other dogs. It was a complaint about how much the wellness puppy visits were each time.

Yeah, there's no reason not to anticipate the routine care expenses. But I don't think it necessarily follows that no one should have pets if they can't handle thousands of dollars of emergency medical expenses, which you mentioned in regard to your friends. That goes way beyond the normal differences between cats and dogs, which I agree is not small change, and into the realm of the reasonably unexpected.

 

[ols386]

No I don’t think I could start a Go Fund Me account. Not even for a pet. I love my pets, but would not expect others to pay for him or her.

 

[BLAZEY]

There is a family in my city which has a young child now battling a 3rd type of cancer in their young life. Treatment at the children's hospital requires leaving town and going to the mainland, so while here in Canada the medical treatment is paid for, one of the parents had to take time off work to be with the sick child in the hospital. The regular bills of life still go on, and the young family needed help more than once. Another young family tragically lost the husband/ father who battled cancer, and rather than a go fund me friends and family started a meal train where people would sign up to provide and home made or take out lunch or dinner for the family during his hospitalization and after his passing. I contributed to both as I felt both were worthy causes.

 

[ronandannette]

There is a family in my city which has a young child now battling a 3rd type of cancer in their young life. Treatment at the children's hospital requires leaving town and going to the mainland, so while here in Canada the medical treatment is paid for, one of the parents had to take time off work to be with the sick child in the hospital. The regular bills of life still go on, and the young family needed help more than once. Another young family tragically lost the husband/ father who battled cancer, and rather than a go fund me friends and family started a meal train where people would sign up to provide and home made or take out lunch or dinner for the family during his hospitalization and after his passing. I contributed to both as I felt both were worthy causes.

It's my perception (maybe I'm wrong) that for-profit health care results in far more convenient and immediate access than is available to a large portion of our population. So many of us have to travel hundreds of miles (at our own expense) for services and at that generally have no choice between providers. As I said upthread, I totally believe we all need understanding, compassion and support from one another. Bless you for your efforts.