The Jule Box Studios

"Making memories and celebrating moments with pretty crafty things!"

Celebrating by Giving!!

Hello everyone! 

I recently found (yeah…I wasn’t paying attention) that I have reached over 2000 subscribers on my Youtube channel! I am so excited and so humbled that there are so many people out there that want to follow my work and also admire my work!! It inspires and drives me to be more, try more and always do my best! And….I have almost 300 followers on my blog as well! I am soo happy to be where I am, but there is room to grow! To be able to share my love and passion with the world is sooo stinkin awesome! 

Normally, we do giveaways when we celebrate our subby count….but I don’t think I want to make it about something I’ve achieved. Although I appreciate it all 🙂 , I want this to be about who we are and what we have done in the past for each other!!  I want to “Celebrate by Giving” to someone who is in need. On Youtube a lot of us have come to know a lot about each other because we have made friends and have willingly shared things that have happened in our lives….some things happy, some things sad and some things tragic. We all share a common need….and that’s love, support and compassion towards each other no matter what the occasion.

I have a really sweet and funny friend, her name is Tasha, you may know her as “mississchic” on youtube. She had been MIA for a while sometime back and I messaged her asking where she had been. Some of us know she has some physical disabilities and has a hard time with pain and is limited in what she can do….but she’s a toughy and has pressed on and has not let her disabilities stop her from crafting and card making…which is her favorite! Anyways, she was MIA in the hospital fighting for her life….and I didn’t know! This is her story:

I have had Chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis since 8 yrs old. Since then I’ve had so far 10 joints replaced & been in an electric wheelchair. I had never been sick, like a cold, cough or even a headache. One day in end of August 2010 I woke up with my head in screaming pain. I had never felt that type of pain before. I thought someone had shot me & hit me in the head over and over with abut & that I was bleeding from the head. I had my mom check my head, nothing looked wrong. I couldn’t lift my head, blink, eat, drink, breathe or anything for a couple months. During that time I would barely make it to the ER so they could tell me many times that nothing was wrong. A Neurologist, in Oct put me through MRI’s, CAT scans & A lot of migraine meds that didn’t work.

I notice there was a smell in my room & when I left my room I would feel just a little better. We found a small Carbon Monoxide leak under my room & got it fixed but my symptoms got Worse. I was losing my memory, talking with a slur, past out, blackout, talking out of my head, stopped eating almost completely, Extreme nausea, couldn’t see, wouldn’t wake up, wouldn’t sleep for days. I felt like I was dying set told the Drs & my mom. Mom was starting to get some of the symptoms I had already but only when she was in my room. Then it rained & snowed & mom had went upstairs to see that the leak that was way worse than Dad said & water was draining down from inside the wall onto my ceiling. There had been patched leak in our house since my parents bought it, 18 yrs ago. The hole was patched but it started leaking bad around the time I moved back home 3 1/2 yrs ago in 2007. The room with the leak is directly over my room (1st floor). We found out Mold had setup in the roof & had worked its way down the walls of my room.

There was no mold showing in my room but the spores were strong in my room & have now spread through the whole house. I moved to my parents room but that wasn’t really any better. Even in my Moms room my breathing extremely shallow and all my previous symptoms were getting more intense.

I couldn’t breath so I went to ER, they sent me home again. This was Feb 1, 2011. I got a hotel room because I needed to get & stay out the house. It was paid for 2 nights only. Where Mom & I were going to stay after that, no idea. I hadn’t slept or eaten in about 7 days & drank no water in about 4 days. Mom was up all night with me in hotel. I had vomiting, diarrhea. By morning inside my ears were so painful. Then my eardrum busted with thick yellow pus & blood pouring from it. It was blinding pain.

Dad came quick & he drove us to the ER. They finally took me serious. I had been there (ER & hospital) over 30 times! I was barely breathing, barely awake and I was extremely dehydrated. The doctors were scared, they had no idea what was wrong. They spent 2 or3 hours trying to get an IV in me. I have no usable veins left from yrs of blood testing when I was younger. The Anesthesiologist tried everything he could think of from head to toe. He had never seen anyone like me before. I was admitted then @ bedside out of desperation I was given a Central Line (a 8-12 inch catheter inserted into Artery to the heart ) with no anesthetic. I have had them done before with almost no anesthetic. They take (for me) a couple of hours to insert because my veins are small, they roll & they like to shrink during the process. They usually take a few minutes to do on a normal patient. They are EXTREMELY PAINFUL to have done. I had to lay flat in bed trying to stop myself from vomiting, moving, breathing hard, no speaking (screaming) while he took over an hour putting it in my heart. Any movement can cause collapsing of the lung and/or cause a heart attack. I was quickly X-rayed @ bedside because the Dr. thought he collapsed my lung, he didn’t. Finally the twice forcing fluids in me & while getting me an ambulance to a hospital 70 miles away I’ve had my surgeries there so they have all my files.

It took an hour to get to the hospital. Dad rode in front seat mom followed in van. I get rolled on the Specialty Infections floor nurses are staring@me saying,”Oh My God!” “get into the room Dr comes in instantly tells me I’m dying & they don’t know how to help me so they are going to give me ALL the antibiotics for a STAFF & STREP Infections In 3 days they narrowed it down to STREP BLOOD INFECTION caused by a certain strain of Mold. The worse case they ever seen. I should’ve been dead way before it got this bad they say. I don’t remember much before August and a lot of days until Feb 3.

I was told not to go back to that house because the spores are on/in EVERYTHING I could get reinfected & die this time. Dad brought me something from my room +it made me so so sick instantly. I had to find a place to live before I was released from hospital 2 wks later. Feb 3-16 I was in hospital. My mom used pretty much all her savings & found me an apartment @ last minute. Feb 15 the landlord came to hospital & I signed the lease. I was released next day. So glad I didn’t have to go to the Shelter.

Dad brought my bed from home to my new apt so it’ll be there before I get out. Still really sick & came to apt & my hospital bed caused me to have a severe migraine (no migraines since). I couldn’t breathe. Bed had to be wiped down with strong bleach. New sheets. Electronic Stuff attract mold spores (a lot of it can looking dust) so, spores are in the workings of my bed.

I had to leave ALL my & my mom’s belongings behind. My PC was really infected, I couldn’t go near it so mom bought a HEPA vacuum to vacuum our PC’s (vacuum through the vents). Two 30mins vacuuming sessions and I can use it now, not too often. I use a HEPA air filter in my room to help me breathe & catch spores coming off/out of my bed & PC. Dad is still living in house he says nothing is wrong. He’s not yet affected by Mold. He doesn’t want to give up his house.

I only have a pair of spring assisted Fiskars scissors from the house. I left ALL my craft stuff. I was a card maker (love making cards!) who was starting to get into the Mixed Media stuff. I do want to one day in Summer probably,go get my Gypsy (40 carts), camera, hard drive, Pazzles Inspiration die cutter, electric Big shot & embossing folders, my Cricut, brads, my table, some stamps some Pearl Ex, Lindy Stamp gang mists, I am determined to try to save! In all reality I’m probably not going to be able save my stuff (I have a dream, LoL), craft or clothes (I have l pair of pants & some PJ’s, few underwear, shirts). Hard to let go My stacks of paper, flowers, lace/trims, chipboard are unusable by me. Maybe I can try to wash (many times) the lace doubt it. Every time I come in contact with mold I have a setback. I’m back on antibiotics now from some sheets we forgot were in a bag that have to be washed.

What makes me & mom crazy is NO ONE else seems to be affected by this strain of mold! We are extremely sensitive. I did research on this mold & Strep & the only symptoms I didn’t have was bleeding from lungs & death. People had to leave All their things start over that’s the only way they got better.

I get $674 a month in SSI and just rent is $635. Mom moved in with me since she couldn’t go back because of the mold & she pays half rent and half the bills. There’s no way I can even re-buy anything anytime soon. I stayed away from Craft Stores because I couldn’t craft anymore. Bitter. I gave myself about a week to completely sulk. I’m a fighter and feeling sorry for myself don’t really work for me. LoL. I needed to move on so a few days ago I decided that I was going to kinda give up crafting & I prayed about it, “should I quit it God?”

I’m going to stop there….she needs us you guys so I am going to put together a drive. All the details will be in a separate post since this one is super long. I will do a video again to let you guys know that sign ups are ready. Please know that there is nothing else that would make me more happy than to help Tasha! But I need your help….so please help me help Tasha! I can’t imagine looking around my room knowing I’m gonna have to throuw it ALL away in the trash!!! Can you? ahhh…it kills me!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I am excited to fill Tasha’s room with the things she lost and fill her room with the things she loves!L

Have a great day and God Bless you! 

xoxo, Jules:)

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