Help Lizzie Fight Kidney Disease and Cancer

Since late 2021, I’ve been dealing with medical bills due to having two cats diagnosed with small cell lymphoma in the GI tract. It’s down to just Lizzie now, and I’ve been getting by despite all the bills, but after two visits to the ER, we need your help.

Quick introductions: I’m Melissa, a freelance writer. Contrary to popular belief about the profession, I do make enough to sustain myself, but the income can be hard to predict. I adopted Lizzie in 2017 after her previous owner passed, and she’s been dear to my heart ever since I laid eyes on her. We’ve gotten especially close since my other cat, Morgie, passed away from GI tract lymphoma in 2022.

Lizzie had to go to the ER on February 27th due to a blockage in her bowels and stayed overnight. It was a little unclear why she had the blockage, but it seemed to be related to low potassium levels and possibly kidney disease. This visit cost $3,184.99.

The events that happened the week after confirmed these suspicions — Lizzie continued to have a lack of bowel movements and low potassium when I took her to an appointment on March 6th. Her doctor tried to provide some supplementation to avoid a second trip to the ER. But, I woke up at 4AM to her feeling weak, and I knew it was time to take her again. She had more extensive medication and testing this time as well as another overnight stay, so this visit cost $5,050.18.

While I’ve been able to keep up with Lizzie’s vet bills so far, these two visits combined cost more than any procedure I’ve had to pay for. They have also caught me at a time where my invoices are delayed and income is a bit lower due to me having COVID at the end of January. $5,945.17 of the costs were put into Scratchpay plans, so I can pay them off over time, but it would require me to pay around $600/month if I stretched them over a year and around $1000 a month if I tried to pay in 6 months to avoid interest.

And Lizzie still needs medical care. Before her ER visit, her appetite was waning, and it’s still not normal after we resolved her kidney issues. It’s possible that after almost two years in remission, her GI tract lymphoma is back, which would mean around $3000 in chemo. Lizzie has been through chemo once and, like most cats, had minimal side effects, so she would still have a good chance at life.

But together, we can keep Lizzie healthy and happy! If you can help me with even part of the costs of her ER trips, I can be in good enough financial shape to keep up with her future treatments.

To keep everything transparent, here’s a breakdown of all of the costs I’ve included in this GoFundMe:

Total: $8,926.23

$2,981.06 is on my credit card (which I can pay off on time by pulling from savings) and $5,945.17 is on two Scratchpay plans which I can pay off for up to a year.

I know it’s a lot of money, but even getting a part of it would be a huge help. I’m including all of the amount in case we can get that far, but even if we can’t, I will still get your money, and it will give me more breathing room. If we get above the goal amount (in which case I will probably faint lol), any extra money will go straight to the part of my savings account dedicated to her medical care.

If you can’t afford to donate, sharing this fundraiser also means a lot to me and Lizzie!

Thanks so much!

- Melissa and Lizzie