Road to Remission
Donation protected
December 12, 2023
UPDATE: VIDEO NOW RECORDED AND UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE.
In the video I did my best to be thorough and explain what I have been through without going off on any real tangents, or speaking too descriptively about any one ailment, but every experience has brought me where I am today.
As stated in my video, my goal is to get started with the Crohn’s Colitis SHIELD program before the year is over, and to be in remission before graduating. This is my best effort to finish what I started, I have come so far and only have three more months before graduation (after this Christmas break) and I hope to do this with my classmates and not have to withdraw! If anyone is not able to donate, I humbly ask that you might share it so that it may come upon another who may be able to assist!
I would also like to offer jewelry and massage/esthetician services (when I am licensed) as a means to match any donation of equal value. Please let me know if that may be of interest to anyone, as I am very much in the spirit of giving back where I can!
My IG handle is: @violetwolfboutique and there one can find a portfolio of sorts of all the jewelry I have made. I would happily replicate or customize pieces.
December 6, 2023
I will do my best to practice brevity right now, but I can’t make any promises!
In the past when I have been hospitalized or very ill, I didn’t want to reach out or ask for assistance with any of my care, let alone medical expenses. I am now at a point where I have no other options but to ask for help.
My medical problems began in 2009, but I went undiagnosed with ulcerative colitis for a long time. In February 2012, I ended up in the ER and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was immediately taken to the OR and they removed one ovary, one fallopian tube, and much of my lymph nodes in the lower abdomen.
A year and a half later, I detected a similar lump on the other side of my abdomen, and it was, of course, cancer again. It had come back. By the grace of the Universe, they were able to detect through the cancer marker test that I was newly pregnant, days before I would have thought to even take a test. This was shocking news. I didn’t plan it, it wasn’t a joyous occasion as I was due to go under surgery for a radical hysterectomy. I was also thoroughly convinced it was impossible to conceive anyway, so it completely turned everything upside down. I chose to keep the baby, regardless of what might happen to me. It was one of the scariest and most challenging times in my life, and ALL the doctors called her their miracle baby. We made it through surgery, a lot of what happened and the decisions that were made were literally day by day. Because of my doctors being the rockstars that they are, and people who are kind enough to donate blood, I was able to hold my baby girl in my arms and recover from the entire fiasco… although the word “recover” doesn’t seem to quite fit the experience.
In 2015 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis, in which my immune system attacks the colon. This is what I had suspected in 2009, but my doctor at the time had said, “It’s just IBS, you’re too young for U.C.”
Since then I have undergone many unsuccessful treatments, and I have quite frankly lost count of how many times I have been hospitalized. Upon leaving the hospital this last stint in 2020, they told me that if I have another flareup and find myself in the hospital again, they will remove my colon. I do not want this.
Recently, I have needed to do blood work not only for my gastroenterologist but for my oncologist and my OBGYN… and now a cardiologist (will detail in video). I have been stone-walled from even seeing any of those doctors unless I can pay down my medical debt for all the ER trips and surgeries. I always received a bill at the end of my treatments. At times, they would let me only pay for follow-up visits and ignore my other balances, but now that is not the case. I would prefer to see the doctors who have opened me up and been with me through this entire journey, than to have to start all over again (and pay for it). These doctors KNOW me.
In between being sick and hospitalizations, I have gone to school, worked, and even had a few small business pursuits in an effort to get back on my feet and stabilize financially. These periods have also been an attempt to find work that would best suit my medical needs. Every time, I end up back on bed rest before I can gain any real traction. I always just assumed that once I was well and working again, I’d be able to chip away at those bills.
I am now in the thick of a flareup, and I am currently off all medications (for several reasons I will cover in my video). I am essentially at the end of the road in medical treatments before surgery to remove my colon. I have not gone into the ER this time, because I know where that road leads. I have been taking it easy, resting when I can, keeping a food diary and continuing my education pursuits as I am at the home stretch of obtaining two licenses.
I researched online how to handle my own flareups and to get them under control naturally, homeopathically, and I found an organization founded by someone who has gone through it like me. I would like to try his program before I walk into the ER and succumb to the chopping block. There are many others like myself who have gone through the crohns/colitis program who now work with him. There are those who have been worse off, started this program and have been in remission- DRUG FREE for months, even years. I know it’s possible for me, too, it just takes a lot of work and dedication on both sides. I am raising money to start this program, to have all the right tests, to work with functional medicine, and nutritionalists. Their philosophy is to tackle this issue from the root cause, whereas traditional medicine would just as well cut another organ out because it’s an easy alternative to medication. (I’ve lost enough organs already.)
Here is a link to the program, and if you scroll through, you can see testimonials and results of this program:
Having said that, I also need to regularly have my cancer marker checked, as I am a survivor of a recurrence. The funds I am praying to raise are to pay down the current medical debt I have accrued over the years of being sick to a manageable monthly payment, and to pay for the Crohns/Colitis program, so that I can establish continued and routine care. The amount I am asking is not the total amount I have accrued to date.
I am also currently waiting for an application in the mail from the hospital for a charity there where they have people and organizations who donate to patients who have not been able to meet the demands of their billing department. I pray that I qualify and receive assistance there, too. I have applied for disability, but was rejected 8 months after submission. Luckily, I have someone who is assisting me in that endeavor, and we are currently appealing the decision. I had three doctors encourage me to apply for disability and they wrote letters on my behalf. Unfortunately, that was not convincing enough for Social Security; however, I hear that initial rejections are standard.
I am asking for help because it’s not just for myself that I need to be well, but I also need to be well for my children. I have watched them watch me go through weeks and months of being in the hospital and on bed rest with no real solutions or answers. I want to stop that trend permanently, as they don’t deserve that. I want to be well and healthy for them and for myself.
I am grateful for any contribution towards my recovery, and I am and have always taken my health seriously and as a priority, which is why I believe I am better off now than I could potentially otherwise be.
Organizer
Imogen Nieves
Organizer
Austin, TX