I cannot tell you what to do, but I can tell you what we did. My husband has multiple myeloma, and he had two stem cell transplants at Mayo. This included months of conditioning chemo at home and the long relocation to Rochester for transplant.
It was financially devastating, and like you say “a tsunami of sickness”.
We paid all the co pays that we’re most important to his continued treatment first, then we paid the others. We also got on a few payment plans until we could get past the worst of it. Paying 10.00 a month on a bill until we were finished with the travel portion of his program. Then we paid of the bill when we were home again.
I am going to say, my financial life went up in flames along with my credit rating during this time. I was still paying off bills that kept us afloat during my cancer and those ended up in default and although finally paid…….well you know how it goes. I would do it all again to have the resulting 13 years and counting with my husband.
Sometimes I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until we get to a better place again.
Do you have people in your life that can help with the physical logistics of caring for your home while you get treatment? Can you start planning for your trip now by setting things up at home and giving yourself a sense of moving forward?