Hi everyone! My name’s Kiarra and just a few days before my 21st birthday I ended up in the ER due to symptoms that I later found out was caused by my illness. For 3 weeks I was struggling with fainting spells, low energy, and a high resting heart rate that never went below 130bpm. I was admitted with a hemoglobin level of 4.3 and I had essentially been walking around with an alarmingly high heart rate and only 1/3 if the ideal amount of blood my body needed. Doctors were stumped and couldn’t figure out the cause, as I never had any health issues. They ran every test and every scan and took so many samples but everything came back clear. After a few days, they were able to diagnose me with Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia. AIHA is a rare autoimmune illness that affects 1-2 every 100,000 people. My red blood cells are being attacked by antibodies my body made instead of foreign viruses and infections, causing them to burst and leaving me with not enough blood. As someone who’s never had a medical history, this was a complete shock to me. I was on bed rest being stabilized while waiting for blood matches from out of state as well as what the Red Cross could find out about my blood; but eventually I had to undergo a risky blood transfusion with the least incompatible match (my blood had a lot of antibodies that it was rejecting other matches and had the potential to shut down the rest of my body). It was either that or sit here and remove my spleen or possibly even die of heart failure if we didn’t do anything. The craziest week of my life for sure, and with a heavy weight on my mental health throughout the process as well. I’m doing much better now, and I want to thank everyone that was there for me either in person or with their kind words. I am currently receiving Rituxan on top of a high dosage of Prednisone. The effects of it are taking a toll on my body but I’m doing my best to push through. Full transparency as well, just a few days ago I had minor damage on my car that needed to be fixed immediately as it wasn’t safe for me to drive it and I couldn’t afford to not be able to commute. Every penny will go towards: my bills and treatment; how much money I missed out on due to not being able to work while in the hospital/recovering; and my car being in the shop. I am actively working on getting ANY of these expenses reduced/reimbursed someway somehow, and each time I do I will update on social media and on here, as well as lowering the goal accordingly. Any help I can get will also help me focus on recovering instead of overworking myself (like I always do) and I currently do not have any sick time through my job. It’s been a tough year (and experiencing being unhoused when the year started) and having to deal with this so suddenly and so young hasn’t been easy, but I am so incredibly grateful to be alive and thankful for everyone who’s been so supportive. - I have opened up my website again where I’ll be selling prints and stickers, and new products and art I’ll be posting as well. I also do nails and will be expanding my nail account to press ons in the near future @hevnisabedroom ❤️ if you would like to support any of my endeavors to help pay for the hospital bill and to ensure I can continue to get treatment to manage this, I am forever grateful! If art or nails aren’t your thing but you would like to help: IG nails: @hevnisabedroom art: kvlsqz.com ❤️ thank you -kiarra