I am sorry for how long this will be.

Sometimes stories about life are hard to talk about and share. It isn't easy to be asking for help. It is something I never got to properly learn how to do when I was younger because it always fell on me to be the responsible one.

My name is Tabitha, and for the past 2 years I have been struggling with an illness that I didn't know what I had. I am 34 years old, I've spent my childhood taking care of both my parents since a young age. Between surgery issues and in general bad health of parents, I was homeschooled because I was told it was a burden to take me to school. But, also my mother could not keep up with her medical issues and teach me. So after 2nd grade I never learned anything else as a child until I put myself through a ged program and then college with out their help..

Somehow, I slipped through the cracks of life with how my parents got away with the neglect.

But I am not someone to be pushed down. I'm glad I've been able to grow, be completely different from my parents in our ideals and work ethics. My mother died a few years ago at the age of 58 from many many illnesses. And I took over having to take care of my father while completing an associates degree with multi certificates and working multiple jobs.

Back when I was around 15, I started to not have a monthly cycle any longer, and when I found a Dr... ( my parents didn't care nor try to help me go anywhere. )

The primary and Obgyn both told me it was because I was morbidly obese and to get my weight under control. And it would be normal.

I didn't have another cycle until I was around age 23 and they were normal I suppose, I noticed it was multiple times a month but I figured my body just had catching up to do and the more weight I would lose the more I could shed the linings.

At my heaviest weight in 2019 I was 418lbs. I worked to get down to about 300lbs at the beginning of 2025 and since then it's been a sliding scale down as low as 232lbs due to my sickness.

The pain in my side and lower abdomen was getting worse every week, I would go to the ER so often for pain management the EMS group would park near my home at night and wait for a call, we were almost all on a first name basis.

I was told at first I have PCOS which I could understand. But anytime I went to the hospital, sometimes 12 to 15 times a month they never checked anything else it was here's some reglan, and here's some morphine, sit here and get better. We would do CT scans. My newer Obgyn wanted to do research and we talked about a hysterectomy because I started bleeding so often I needed blood transfusions. To this day, I had 12 in the past 365 days just to keep going.

I worked on my à1c to get this hysterectomy, my Dr put me on Ozempic. But I stopped within the month because I started to have vision issues. But then the hospital started staying I had gastroparesis because ecerytime my side hurt I would throw up for hours. I went on an all liquid diet for a while before I couldn't keep it down nor could I any medicine for the flare up to stop which would end up with me in the hospital.

We had a surgery to temporarily stop the bleeding. But gast forward from the surgery in the end week of May to the mid of August I lost 84lbs, it was drastic but when I say I couldn't eat, those around me always took notice.

My new Obgyn did not think we needed to do a.biopsy of my uterus because I was so young and we would be removing the uterus anyway. However, just a few weeks ago I took an endoscopy and a gastric empty study test and passed them with flying colors. I went to the ER the next day from pain and asked to check my appendix. I had been sick for so long I was just struggling for a diagnosis instead of living in pain.

The DR came in and told me that I had no appendix issues. But I did have cancer.

Thankfully this is a treatable form of Endometrial cancer, it is slow growing, grade 2. However because it's been here for so long undetected it has spread through out the lining of the uterus, the full cervix, the lymph nodes around my pelvic area and is headed up into the hernia sack area of my stomach.

I am thankful to have a diagnosis. However, my dad passed away on the 22nd of July before my diagnosis, and please understand, my parents weren't great but I loved them. But, I thought when my dad passed I'd be able to work as much as I wanted and finally focus on my life. I've always focused on their bills, needs, wants, trying to keep a house out of foreclosure just for it to not be good enough and having parents who expected you to do it alone because they were too prideful to get assistance benefits from anywhere else.

This cancer is treatable for those who know me I am used to working two and three jobs at a time. But with the symptoms I have had to take a step back hard. My primary job I lost benefits, and I had has a policy that covered me for if I got cancer, because it was diagnosed now I don't qualify for the pay out and I am trying to work withy oncology group to go back through my CT scans to see if they see the cancer to diagnose before the policy cancelled.

I have a husband who is a disabled veteran who has been helping but it is a large financial toll with me not readily being able to work. I qualify for Champ Va however there has been confusion about them being secondary when they should be primary. So right now I have to pay out of pocket for medications and certain doctor visits before I can submit for reimbursement. They have said it could take 45 to 60 days to be corrected.

I am thankful to my boss of my only job I have to be kept on the books as on call, but that could be one shift every other week. I have been able to scrape together things like phone bill and car payments.

My mother as stated before was very financially over bearing and took care of all the taxes with our business and even though I had always asked her to take me through everything she would always refuse or her own medical issues would come up. When she died. I lost time, emotionally, mentally, I put my head down and worked. And worked even that I am missing large chunks of memories from those times. I have communicated with a tax company to help find all the information from the past years with all the locations I worked. However the cost is 600.00 alone. But I can't apply for assistances until I am caught up. I severely underestimates how Chemo treatment would make you feel, I am going to have my 2nd round of chemo on the 24th of September. I've been trying to dabble in small gig work to make my bills but it feels like a never ending battle up a mountain.

Again, I feel a sense of shame for asking for help. But I'm learning right now while I fight this disease there are a lot of things I can't do right now. I'm sure those around me are tired of hearing how much I want to go to work. I want to pull my own weight, I don't want to put anyone out and or be a burden to them. But I've been living in survival chaos mode for way to long. And while I stress out about these things like catching up on taxes, or if I will have the funds to pick up my medicine upfront without having to drain my husbands savings. I know there will be many people who won't be able to donate and I completely understand. I just ask that perhaps you share this go fund me Round so it might get some traction.

I just want to be able to get through these 6 to 9 treatments and have the hysterectomy surgery without having to struggle with the anxiety so much of not being able to cover things. Again, I understand if you cannot donate, please do not put yourself in a bad financial state just to try to assist.

If you don't want to donate via GoFundMe due to any fees they may with hold, you are welcome to send donations through Paypal which is: Tabitha.Westbury @ yahoo.com

Thank you for reading.