It started back in February when I was evicted from my home of over eight years due to the property being sold.

It was late in May when I started experiencing issues with my health. It started with a case of strep throat and tonsillitis. After that, it was a kidney infection. From this point on, I experienced fevers, chills, and nausea, and heavily reduced my food intake. Despite following doctors orders and taking the prescribed antibiotics, I wasn’t getting better.

My health was still deteriorating. I went to an after-hours medical centre who, eventually, sent me to the emergency department. Several scans and tests later, I was told that the infection had spread internally and that there was a large abscess caused by the infection. I was booked in for surgery to insert a drain into the abscess.

The tests showed that my health issues were caused by a specific strain of bacteria resistant to all the antibiotics I had been prescribed to this point. I was switched to IV antibiotics specifically designed to combat this type of bacteria.

Several days later, I wasn’t improving as well as I should have been. Another MRI (a newer machine this time) showed that I actually had two abscesses, not one. Another surgery to insert a second drain was required and completed.

This was, finally, the point my health started to improve. The abscesses were decreasing in size and the fever/chills/nausea finally subsided, The drains were finally removed and I was discharged from the hospital - 10 days after being admitted.

Later, on the day of my discharge, I was dumped. Four days later, I was told that I was going to be made redundant from my job of six years.

In late August I had a stress-induced mental breakdown.

In September, I had another surgery on my sinuses. Fortunately, this surgery was planned and scheduled in advance. Unfortunately, my recovery from this has not been as fast.

I have been fortunate to have been able to see a counsellor and will be seeing a psychiatrist later this week.

Throughout my recovery, I’ve been aggressively seeking new employment since late-August and have applied for over ninety jobs. Unfortunately, I have not yet been offered a position.

I have exhausted what little savings I had and I also exhausted my annual and sick leave at my previous job, which had a 'no redundancy payout' clause.

I've made it this far on financial support from friends and family, a crowdfunding campaign, and racking up a lot of credit card debt. I also launched an online store selling prints, but have only sold one (for which I made no profit). I may need to declare bankruptcy if I don't find a job soon enough.

I've been experiencing high levels of anxiety, stress, and depression for the last five months and, to be honest, I'm fucking tired.

So, yeah, everyone's fighting a battle.

Be kind.