Hello everyone, my name is Matthew Finneman, and I hate that I am doing this.

I just wanted to get that out of the way first. I have always tried to help out my friends when they have had to resort to a GoFundMe, but it was always with the belief that I would never need to turn around and do one myself. But then 2023 decided to start off by giving me the worst pain I have ever experienced.

I woke up at 4:30 AM, on Saturday the 7th, with a searing pain in my left side. At first I was still in the "groggily waking up" phase, so I thought it might have been a cramp induced by gas or something similar. About two spasm waves of pain later and I realized that no, this was something else. Something bad and awful. My wife woke up our daughter and got us her ready for a trip to take me to the E.R. It was around that time that I got hit by a wave of pain so intense that I passed out on our outside porch.

Once taken to the E.R, we were informed that it was a kidney stone. That one episode of Friends lied to me as a kid - it wasn't a funny experience at all. I never knew 2mm could cause such devastation within my body. Luckily, the E.R. used an ultrasound to determine that it was *just* small enough to pass naturally. My only enemy was time. After being discharged, I spent the next few days waning in and out of being a functional human adult and a cowering mess of pain until it was expelled on Wednesday. Here is a picture of me finally being able to rest thanks to the pain meds being IV dripped into my body.

All's well that ends well, right? Well, sure. Until I got hit by a $12,000+ medical bill for my brief E.R. stay. Even after insurance, that number was still $5,000 that I did not have. In a year that began with the hope that this would be the year we stop becoming renters and get a home, or that we could finally try for Baby #2 we've been wanting, instead began with a medical debt we were not prepared for.

So uh, that's a lot of words to basically say, I could use some help. I hate that I need to ask, but then again, I also hate that the US health system necessitates GoFundMe as a requirement to not be saddled with huge amounts of debt for relatively minor medical issues. Anything you can offer is appreciated. Please enjoy this image of my almost two year old daughter Anna watching Sesame Street to calm down because she didn't know why her dad kept screaming in pain.

Love you all, and Socky Bless.

Matthew Finneman