Bone Cancer - Debt

First and foremost thank you so much for visiting this page.  I see so many people posting their struggles of cancer, and I cry my eyes out each and every time I hear of them.  Not only because they are struggling but because I've been through the same struggle.  While I am cancer free now, and there is not a second that I don't rejoice in that fact, there is no time to focus on the progression of my health due to the amount of financial debt that medical bills have impaled me with.

As soon as I found out I was cancer free, I immediately jumped right back into the workforce because I have collection agencies calling left and right.  For the longest I was scared to create a GoFundMe because I didn't want to rely on others to help me get through this time.  However, when the going gets rough you have to turn somewhere.

I'm unable to take out loans because collections have attacked my credit score, and it's worrysome because at 24 years old you look forward to building your future, and it's not enough that Cancer has haulted it already, now you have to rebuild everything you've established thus far.  If you live in America you know that medical is one of our strongest debt collectors, right up there with college education.

When I was diagnosed with Bone Cancer in 2015 I had just graduated my Undergraduate career not too early before that.  When my Orthopedic Surgeon said "You have cancer" my first thought was, "how do you want to live out your remaining days?"  I knew I wanted my remaining days to be extended so I enrolled in school (because everyone knows school lasts forever haha) to keep my mind off of death and keep it on my future, because I was fighting for one.  So not only am I paying medical financial debt, I put myself in a larger pool of debt by enrolling to get my Master's Degree.

It's so funny because you think that you're doing the right thing, and in all actuality if the cancer doesn't kill you the stress of not being able to live a life of good quality, will.  While I won't sit here and ask for ALL of my medical debt to be paid, I will take generous donations for a minor portion of it.  I understand that everyone has their own problems and life struggles, but if you could spare anything, it will be taken with great appreciation.







-------- READ MY CANCER STORY BELOW -------

May 4th, 2015 // A blog post entitled Scared Straight

I keep praying to God to watch over me. The scariest thing in life is the unknown. Not knowing what can happen. Not knowing results. Today I decided to write out what’s going on with me so I can cope. 

Normally I keep everything inside but this I can’t. I’m scared, hurt, frantic, but I’m open. Two weeks ago I broke my arm. Couldn’t tell you how it just broke when I was pulling up my pants. 

My arm had been hurting for a month but I thought I just sprained my deltoid. The first doctor I went to told me that actually. Second doctor just looked at me and said “I can’t tell because you’re crying.” Then she placed her finger on my elbow said “your bones are fine” and then told me to go to the emergency room and charged me $107 for nothing. 

I went to the emergency room where they administered an ultrasound to check for blood clots prescribed pain and muscle medicine and told me to go to physical therapy. 

At physical therapy he couldn’t move my arm without me crying. He also noticed I couldn’t lift my arm up by myself. He sent me to an orthopedic doctor for an X-ray because he thought I had a torn bicep. 

At the new doctor I had an X-ray where we first discovered I had a broken bone. Dr. Wilson gave me this creepy looking mechanical structure that wrapped around my waist and arm to stabilize it. He told me I needed an MRIbut didn’t explain what for but he said it was detrimental. 

I had my MRI and went back to Dr. Wilson and he told me there was a tumor formed from my bone. He said I needed a biopsy because the X-ray and MRI showed the tumor was cancerous. My bone was not broken by my movement but by the tumor. 

I was in shock. Scared beyond belief. A tumor?  Cancer? What the hell!! Not me. I couldn’t begin to imagine. I thought of everything negative. I thought of death I thought of family. I prayed to God that it wasn’t cancer but I wouldn’t know for five days. Longest five days of my life. 

Leaves us here today. I prayed so much god was probably tired of me. I went into the doctors today where she showed me the MRI and XRay and said she’s 95% sure it’s bone cancer. Tomorrow I go in for a surgical examination where they will discover what stage of cancer I’m in and what kind of bone cancer it is. 

I’m scared. But my support system is strong. Obviously God has some lessons for me to learn and this is his way of showing me. 

If you know anyone whose had bone cancer please contact me. I feel alone and don’t know what to expect. 

http://www.sincerelyleanne.com/blog/journey/scared-straight/

(Read Here)