Kat's Medical Fund
Donation protected
I've always been the one to help other people, but I've realized it's a point in my life where I have to be the one asking. After dealing with medical issues for most of my life, I've got a mountain of bills and am just now starting to get answers.
I've lovingly referred to myself as a medical mystery my whole life and it's been an ongoing joke that I'm secretly 99. I had my first major surgery in 8th grade and was on a random regime of prescriptions for various ailments from age 13-18. By age 20, I had already had three major knee surgeries (two on my left, one on my right), my gallbladder and appendix had been removed and I had already accepted constant aches and pains as normal. I had a doctor for everything, or so it seemed: orthopedic surgeon for my knees, chiropractor for my back, gastroenterologist for my stomach, a specialized headache clinic for my migraines. Yet all of my blood work ups, xrays, MRIs, ultrasounds, EKGs and catscans all said the same thing: I was normal.
In 2011, my pain changed to also include tingling, numbing and burning sensations throughout my body. As they intensified, my left arm would go numb for up to hours at a time; a few times, I swore I was having a heart attack. I wound up being referred to a pain management doctor who settled on the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofacial Pain Syndrome. I didn't have tender spots, I had pain radiating everywhere. It wasn't uniformed, it was sometimes stabbing, other times deep and achy, so to me, these diagnosis seemed to be a catch-all. Rather than to just treat the symptoms with medication and continue to add to my overwhelming medical debt, I decided to just figure out a way to just cope with the symptoms myself.
Throughout the next few years, my pain continued to intensify and I had a myriad of other issues as well: my migraines became progressively worse and more frequent, landing me in Urgent Care a few times; I wound up dropping out of college because I could not handle the stress of work and school but couldn't afford to lose my medical insurance thru work; my teeth started to decay and erode, resulting in every single one of them having to be worked on; despite having my gallbladder removed, I was getting sick 80% of the time I ate.
In 2013, I got half of my dental procedures completed, which was a whopping $2,500+ out of pocket and, again, no rhyme or reason as to why I pretty much almost lost my teeth before turning 25. (Luckily I've already been able to pre-pay the rest and it should be done sometime this year!)
In February 2014, I wound up at Urgent Care with coughing and congestion, which was said to be bronchitis. Two days later, I was running a fever and throwing up, which then the emergency room said was the flu, mixed with the bronchitis. After two days, I was no longer able to hold down any fluids and was running a high grade fever. I spent 10 days in the hospital with Systematic Ileas, where my entire digestive system decided to shut down. The doctors simply said it was because of how sick I was in the beginning and sent me on my way.
Since that hospital visit, my pain started to intensify quickly, which led me back to the doctors. After various rounds of testing all coming back normal, the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia stuck, despite not meeting all the requirements. I was put on prescriptions for the Fibromyalgia itself, then for the symptoms: pain, insomnia, anxiety. It all just kept getting worse.
By the end of 2014, my daily regime included:
4 pills specifically for the Fibromyalgia
3-6 muscle relaxers
4-6 pain pills
This was daily, they were all heavy dosage and it just managed to take the edge off enough to keep the house in order and go to work. I exhausted all my paid time off at work by more than two weeks at that point and was contemplating going on disability. I barely slept 3-4 hours a night, sometimes not at all. If I didn't take the pills, I could barely get out of bed, but when I did take them, the "brain fog" of Fibromyalgia got worse. I would forget what I was talking about, while I was talking about it; I had trouble functioning at work, could get lost pulling out of my driveway and just didn't feel like myself at all.
In January 2015, my physician told me that other than continuing the treatment I was on, there were no other options in my healthcare system available. If I wanted to try and get to the bottom of this, I had to seek out another plan myself. My fiance and I started to reach out to different treatment centers for lyme disease complex, myofascial syndromes, nerve diseases... Anything that could help get us answers. My main goal was (and still is) treatment of the cause, not just the symptoms. Unfortunately, because of the fact that all of my test results were normal, the people who specialized in this sort of thing were few and far between. To most doctors, it was either Fibromyalgia or it was in my head. It seemed the next step would be a treatment center located in Arizona, which would include 6-8wks off work. Between lodging, travel and medical costs, the treatment would have bankrupted us.
In February 2015, I started seeing a holistic physician/nutritionist. I have managed to see more improvement in the past month than I have in years with other doctors. In that time, I have been on a strict auto-immune diet (with specifications) and various supplements a day, but off of prescription pills for the most part.
In the past month, she's discovered that my liver is functioning at less than half the rate it should be and my large intestine is backing up into my small intestine. There has also been a viral infection, believed to be a mutated strain of shingles, attacking my nervous and immune system for years.
The first treatment we tried for this was too aggressive, which caused a flare-up. I'm on a different treatment now, but can barely sit or stand for more than 15 minutes at a time without feeling that my back is going to collapse. Because of the intensity of symptoms, it's possible there is something else going on, which will result in different doctors. Since my current doctor is holistic, she also does not go through insurance, so everything is out of pocket (notably, it's still cheaper than everything I got billed for thru insurance).
What I'm hoping to raise is only a sliver of my medical debt. Just from the past two years alone, I have over $5,000 left to be paid and have already paid over $5,000 out of pocket. I currently spend $300-400 a month on medical expenses, including making payments on bills to keep them out of collections. This doesn't even include what has already been sent to collections. I can't even afford to make payment arrangements with the last two hospitals I've had treatment at, because what I can afford to pay is too low for them. What I'm hoping to raise is less than 10% of everything; at this point, I'm just hopeful that with enough shares, maybe I can get some definite answers and start making progress.
I'm so thankful for the support of my family, fiance and friends over this ordeal, because without them all, I know I wouldn't be able to get through this. I tell myself every morning that progress is progress, no matter how small. In the same token, every penny matters. Whether you can afford to donate or can just share this to spread the word, I'd be forever grateful. I want to get well enough that I can go back to helping other people, not having to worry about myself. Thank you and God bless. <3
I've lovingly referred to myself as a medical mystery my whole life and it's been an ongoing joke that I'm secretly 99. I had my first major surgery in 8th grade and was on a random regime of prescriptions for various ailments from age 13-18. By age 20, I had already had three major knee surgeries (two on my left, one on my right), my gallbladder and appendix had been removed and I had already accepted constant aches and pains as normal. I had a doctor for everything, or so it seemed: orthopedic surgeon for my knees, chiropractor for my back, gastroenterologist for my stomach, a specialized headache clinic for my migraines. Yet all of my blood work ups, xrays, MRIs, ultrasounds, EKGs and catscans all said the same thing: I was normal.
In 2011, my pain changed to also include tingling, numbing and burning sensations throughout my body. As they intensified, my left arm would go numb for up to hours at a time; a few times, I swore I was having a heart attack. I wound up being referred to a pain management doctor who settled on the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofacial Pain Syndrome. I didn't have tender spots, I had pain radiating everywhere. It wasn't uniformed, it was sometimes stabbing, other times deep and achy, so to me, these diagnosis seemed to be a catch-all. Rather than to just treat the symptoms with medication and continue to add to my overwhelming medical debt, I decided to just figure out a way to just cope with the symptoms myself.
Throughout the next few years, my pain continued to intensify and I had a myriad of other issues as well: my migraines became progressively worse and more frequent, landing me in Urgent Care a few times; I wound up dropping out of college because I could not handle the stress of work and school but couldn't afford to lose my medical insurance thru work; my teeth started to decay and erode, resulting in every single one of them having to be worked on; despite having my gallbladder removed, I was getting sick 80% of the time I ate.
In 2013, I got half of my dental procedures completed, which was a whopping $2,500+ out of pocket and, again, no rhyme or reason as to why I pretty much almost lost my teeth before turning 25. (Luckily I've already been able to pre-pay the rest and it should be done sometime this year!)
In February 2014, I wound up at Urgent Care with coughing and congestion, which was said to be bronchitis. Two days later, I was running a fever and throwing up, which then the emergency room said was the flu, mixed with the bronchitis. After two days, I was no longer able to hold down any fluids and was running a high grade fever. I spent 10 days in the hospital with Systematic Ileas, where my entire digestive system decided to shut down. The doctors simply said it was because of how sick I was in the beginning and sent me on my way.
Since that hospital visit, my pain started to intensify quickly, which led me back to the doctors. After various rounds of testing all coming back normal, the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia stuck, despite not meeting all the requirements. I was put on prescriptions for the Fibromyalgia itself, then for the symptoms: pain, insomnia, anxiety. It all just kept getting worse.
By the end of 2014, my daily regime included:
4 pills specifically for the Fibromyalgia
3-6 muscle relaxers
4-6 pain pills
This was daily, they were all heavy dosage and it just managed to take the edge off enough to keep the house in order and go to work. I exhausted all my paid time off at work by more than two weeks at that point and was contemplating going on disability. I barely slept 3-4 hours a night, sometimes not at all. If I didn't take the pills, I could barely get out of bed, but when I did take them, the "brain fog" of Fibromyalgia got worse. I would forget what I was talking about, while I was talking about it; I had trouble functioning at work, could get lost pulling out of my driveway and just didn't feel like myself at all.
In January 2015, my physician told me that other than continuing the treatment I was on, there were no other options in my healthcare system available. If I wanted to try and get to the bottom of this, I had to seek out another plan myself. My fiance and I started to reach out to different treatment centers for lyme disease complex, myofascial syndromes, nerve diseases... Anything that could help get us answers. My main goal was (and still is) treatment of the cause, not just the symptoms. Unfortunately, because of the fact that all of my test results were normal, the people who specialized in this sort of thing were few and far between. To most doctors, it was either Fibromyalgia or it was in my head. It seemed the next step would be a treatment center located in Arizona, which would include 6-8wks off work. Between lodging, travel and medical costs, the treatment would have bankrupted us.
In February 2015, I started seeing a holistic physician/nutritionist. I have managed to see more improvement in the past month than I have in years with other doctors. In that time, I have been on a strict auto-immune diet (with specifications) and various supplements a day, but off of prescription pills for the most part.
In the past month, she's discovered that my liver is functioning at less than half the rate it should be and my large intestine is backing up into my small intestine. There has also been a viral infection, believed to be a mutated strain of shingles, attacking my nervous and immune system for years.
The first treatment we tried for this was too aggressive, which caused a flare-up. I'm on a different treatment now, but can barely sit or stand for more than 15 minutes at a time without feeling that my back is going to collapse. Because of the intensity of symptoms, it's possible there is something else going on, which will result in different doctors. Since my current doctor is holistic, she also does not go through insurance, so everything is out of pocket (notably, it's still cheaper than everything I got billed for thru insurance).
What I'm hoping to raise is only a sliver of my medical debt. Just from the past two years alone, I have over $5,000 left to be paid and have already paid over $5,000 out of pocket. I currently spend $300-400 a month on medical expenses, including making payments on bills to keep them out of collections. This doesn't even include what has already been sent to collections. I can't even afford to make payment arrangements with the last two hospitals I've had treatment at, because what I can afford to pay is too low for them. What I'm hoping to raise is less than 10% of everything; at this point, I'm just hopeful that with enough shares, maybe I can get some definite answers and start making progress.
I'm so thankful for the support of my family, fiance and friends over this ordeal, because without them all, I know I wouldn't be able to get through this. I tell myself every morning that progress is progress, no matter how small. In the same token, every penny matters. Whether you can afford to donate or can just share this to spread the word, I'd be forever grateful. I want to get well enough that I can go back to helping other people, not having to worry about myself. Thank you and God bless. <3
Organizer
Kat Elizabeth
Organizer
Springfield, MO
