Today is an important day. It’s December 6th, just a regular Tuesday to most, but it’s also the last day you can enroll for your health insurance in most states. This might not seem like that big of a deal to most people, but to someone like me? Someone who depends on a battery for literally every beat of their heart. It’s a big deal. It can be lifesaving & life changing.

I haven’t been shy about discussing my many different health challenges here. In fact, when meeting a new friend recently I described myself as “kinda a handful at times”. But my medical complexities have always just been part of what has made me who I am. I can never remember a time when I didn’t know I was “different” from other people. Probably because most kids could run around in gym class and not fall down & break bones or pass out. I was just a more “special snowflake” with more delicate edges and a more refined weave.

But just because I accepted my challenges early didn’t mean they didn’t come with their own set of anxieties. When I grew up and started living on my own, I had the very harsh realization that I was someone with a “pre-existing condition”. No scratch that…I had about 5 if we’re being honest. And I was fortunate enough at the time to have a job, but I lived in fear every day of losing that job because how would I ever get insurance again if I lost it at that time? I suddenly went from a gal who in her early 20’s had some unlabeled/undiagnosed genetic disorder to being a 27 year old a year out from a major car accident who was pacemaker dependent for life and had a full facial reconstruction and still needed her top 4 teeth implanted into her mouth and a graft put into her right eyelid in order to be able to see clearly.

And that’s when the most amazing thing happened to me. An act was passed that protected people with pre-existing conditions from losing their health insurance or from maxing out their lifetime deductibles. Was it a perfect plan that was put in place? Nope. It still had a long way to go. But most things that start off that way need revisions and re-writes. Sometimes just the first drafts are enough to get the ball rolling.

My cousin Rachel was with me the day the Affordable Care Act was passed and I just collapsed into her into her arms in tears because FINALLY, I could breathe. Finally, I was SAFE. No one was ever going to just cut me off and say, “sorry, not my problem, you figure it out” ever again. And that was an incredible relief for someone like me who had been through so much and had tried to soldier on and keep fighting. It was just that little bit of security I needed and had so desperately wanted…and deserved.

So now that we’re at the end of this current administration and about to turn things over into the hands of someone else, I thought I should probably share my story with someone who really needed to hear it. So I wrote the man the act was affectionately named after. The President. I wrote President Obama a letter and just explained who I was and a bit of my story and thanked him for fighting for people like me. And you know what? He wrote me back. Well at least someone in his administration did, but it’s on White House stationery with his signature & it personally addressed things I wrote about in my letter. And it meant the world to me.

I am hopeful. Hopeful that things will continue to move forward and in a direction that only improves the healthcare system for Americans. Because I know just how stressful it can be to have the worries of not only your health and well-being but the financial burden it can cost you weighing on your shoulders. Please know that I have no judgment or political agenda in writing this. It’s just my experience and one I felt passionate about sharing. We can all learn so much from each other & that’s really what life is all about.

I know things will change, they always do, but sometimes that change can be good. And I’m all about “good stuff”.

Side note: A big shout out to my “Strong Ladies” who have been my absolute ROCKS through the last couple of years. Your strength through your own health journeys inspires me beyond any words I could ever put on a page.