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My name is elizabeth. I'm 21 years old. The point of this website is to help me raise enough money to pay off all my medical bills. Allow me to explain this as simply and short as possible. First off, last year after months of agonizing pain I found out that I had a golf ball sized cyst on my right ovary dragging it down. The ovaries are about the size of an almond, and there was this huge thing 8 times the size of my ovary growing there and it hurt really bad. I had to go to the emergency room 2 times within a four month period. They wanted to do surgery, but I didn’t have insurance and I couldn’t even afford the emergency room bills. I went to my gynocologist, and they did an ultra sound. They found that aside from the cyst on my right ovary, there was a smaller cyst on the left ovary. They also saw what appeared to be a small tumor inside of my uterus attached to the upper inside wall. All of this on top of the fact that I already had severe endometriosis. I couldn’t afford surgery, I couldn’t afford any more doctors appointments, and I couldn’t afford any of the medication they wanted to put me on except for birth control. (this was in an effort to stop my periods, which can cause the endometriosis to get worse, and irritate the cysts). So for about 2 months I just had to deal with the stabbing pains and the constant throbbing pain in my stomach and bleeding. Finally I couldn’t tolerate the pain anymore and I went back to the doctor. They found the tumor to be non cancerous, but that didn’t stop it from causing pain. They tried me on different pain killers and different birth control pills. After 2 months nothing was working and I just felt worse. Any time they examined me I'd leave shaking and nauseous and I'd be bleeding for days and sometimes unable to work. My parents are both alcoholics and pill poppers and the most pathetic people in the world. They never did much to take care of me and my little sister. I mostly raised her and took care of myself. I've been working since I was fifteen. I needed their help this time, I needed insuarance and money for medication. But they didn’t really seem to care and wouldn’t help me buy insurance, wouldn’t help pay for medication or doctors visits. They were too busy with their current girlfriends/boyfriends and their drug addictions to bother with me I suppose. My job didn’t offer insurance, and I spent months sending out resumes and applying for jobs. I live in LA and jobs are often hard to find. For whatever reasons, no one was calling me back. I had another ultrasound done and this time they found a large amount of fluid floating around behind my ovaries and behind my uterus. They told me this time that something had to be done and I had to have surgery and get this fluid removed. They werent sure where it was coming from, and that was bad. My monthly payments on my emergency room bills and doctors visits were out of control. My entire paycheck went to medical bills and rent. My boyfriend helped me out a lot, and I cant do enough to thank him. As much trouble as I was in financially, I knew I had to get the surgery over with . The hospital was really nice about working out a payment plan for me, but it was still more than I could really afford. I had surgery done in August. They drained out a cup and a half of bloody, puss like, infected fluid from my lower abdomen area. They burned off the endometriosis. They removed the cysts from my ovaries. They left the tumor because to get to it they would have had to cut into my uterus and that could have caused more problems, and since its not cancerous they left it. They found that I have a birth defect. I still don’t quite understand what they were talking about. Apparently there is a sack that holds all of your internal organs, and it should be totally sealed (unless you have surgery and they have to cut into it, but then it should heal itself) mine has 3 large holes in it which allows fluids to leak out and puddle places it shouldn’t. They couldn’t seal them up, and they wont go away on there own, since they have apparently been there since birth. After sugery I was put on a medication called Lupron. It puts you in to sort of a temporary menopause, complete with hot flashes. Lupron is VERY expensive. One shot is about $400. I have had 2 and I cant afford anymore. I need the lupron for 6 months to keep my organs shut down long enough for them to heal themselves and so that the endometriosis wont grow back. Needless to say, I owe a lot of money. I have paid off what I can, but its getting really tough. Here is a break down of what I still owe:
Because I'm broke from trying to pay this off, or rather just to keep up with my monthly payments and pay rent, I've had to miss some payments. The hospital is now sending me letters threatening to turn me over to a collection agency unless I pay the bill in it's ENTIRETY, NOT payments, but the entire thing....All because I missed a couple of payments. If you can pitch in at all, I would really appreciate it. Even just a dollar, because at this point, every dollar helps. If I could pay you all back one day, I would. Please know that with every contribution, you are making my life a little easier and for that I cant thank you enough. |