Medical Bill Relief for Amy Blumke

Hello,

My name is Amy Blumke and I am in need of help. I live in Saint Paul with my lovely husband Malcolm, our beagle-mix dog, Ripley, and our two gigantic cats, Tom and Gulliver.

Long Story Short - TLDR

I have been suffering from various illnesses, including three ruptured hemorrhagic ovarian cysts and a status migraine that has lasted for over 40 days. These conditions have prevented me from working regularly and has resulted in thousands of dollars in medical debt. I need help making ends meet until I'm well again.

The Long Story:

For the last two years, I have been setting out on my journey to become a small business owner and artist. I primarily create and sell paper art, with my specialty being paper cut light boxes. Quitting my "normal job" and pursuing my passion for art has meant so much to me this last year, and I have been met with enthusiasm and some success, including a "Best in Show" award at the Lakeville Art Festival this past fall.

Unfortunately, during the height of the art festival season this last summer, I was suddenly taken ill during my first major show. It started the first day with some vague pain and bloating in my stomach. But it quickly escalated overnight into overwhelming pain so extreme that I could not even be touched by the doctor. After many doses of morphine, my pain decreased enough to be examined and get diagnosed with ruptured ovarian cysts. Not one cyst, not two, but three ruptured ovarian cysts! And not only that. They were hemorrhagic cysts, meaning that the bloating that I had been experiencing was actually my abdomen filling with pints of blood.

I was immediately admitted to the hospital for observation. Specifically, they wanted to make sure I didn't need a blood transfusion if my hemoglobin dropped too low. Luckily, it only ever dropped to 9 g/dL which was not low enough to need replacement.

In the days and weeks following this initial health scare, I was seen by various specialists and it was determined that the ovarian cysts that had ruptured were only three of the seven that were currently on my ovaries, some of which were over three inches in diameter!

Two weeks after my initial ovary explosion, two more of my cysts ruptured and I found my way back to the Emergency Room. Luckily, this time the cysts were not as hemorrhagic, and I did not have to be admitted. But I was sent away with a warning; that due to my enlarged ovaries, I shouldn't do any strenuous activity for at least a month.

I was devastated. I had just broken out into the art festival scene, and already I was missing some of the biggest shows of my year. But I held back my ambitions, and committed myself to resting and recovering. During this time, the medical bills started rolling in, and my two-day hospital stay, ER trips, and specialist visits were adding up fast. Even with insurance, the bills easily exceeded $3000. And on top of that, I was unable to work during that time. I figured I would just put off paying the bills until I was working again...

And two months later I was back at it, doing my art! Things went well through the fall and winter, though due to the blood loss I had experienced everything felt just a tad harder than usual. But I was happy to be well enough to continue to pursue my passion! And with starting up work again, I set up payment plans with the hospitals to start paying off my debts, a little bit at a time.

But in the first week of January, I got sick with a terrible cold/flu and was sick for about two weeks. And that's when the headaches began.

At first I thought it was just a symptom of my cold. But when the cold cleared up after two weeks, the headaches remained. I went through Virtuwell the last week of January and was diagnosed with a suspected sinus infection. I was prescribed an antibiotic and high doses of ibuprofen to deal with the inflammation. While taking the high doses of ibuprofen, the severity of the headaches decreased, but were always still there in the background, never quite disappearing entirely. I finished the antibiotics, but the headache remained.

Now, I suffer from migraines on a regular basis, so I am somewhat used to the pain associated with them. But these recent migraines are unlike any I have ever had, and they are non-stop.

Finally, this week I could not stand the pain any longer. The headaches had been progressing into full blown migraines every day for weeks. So I went to urgent care, where I was given a tentative diagnosis of Status Migraine. I was prescribed prednisone in the hopes that it would decrease the inflammatory state of my nerves. But I was sent away with the warning that for some people, the prednisone could actually backfire and make the migraines worse. For the first day on the steroids, I felt some of the first relief from the pain in weeks. But the respite did not last, and by the second day I was already succumbing to another migraine. The prednisone backfired and the headaches kept getting worse.

After four days of trying to stick it out with the prednisone, I had had enough! I was speaking with my sisters on Facetime, and I just broke down in tears talking about how much pain I had been in and for how long. They were obviously concerned and my oldest sister offered to take me to the hospital immediately. That way I could at least get a scan of my head to make sure nothing more serious was going on (clot, tumor, etc...).

After eight hours in the Emergency Department, I walked away with a clean CT scan (yay no brain cancer!) and a body full of "migraine cocktail." The cocktail was meant to give me some immediate relief and hopefully break the cycle of migraine attacks that result in a Status Migraine. Unfortunately for me, it did not. I had one day of glorious, full pain relief. But on the second day, the headache came back.

Since the diagnosis, I've been doing some research on Status Migraines. Status Migraines are migraines that last greater than 72 hours and do not respond to standard treatments. They are widely considered by most doctors as one of the most painful conditions in existence.

My migraine has now lasted 40 days, with little to no relief at all during that time. Unstoppable pain. Every day. With no end in sight. I would guess the average person would be feeling frustrated, upset, and angry that this was happening to them. And unfortunately for me, I am not neurotypical and dont have an average response. I have a severe form of PTSD that is associated with another traumatic health event that occurred earlier in my life.

When I was 17, I suddenly became very ill with a condition known as Lemierre's Disorder. This resulted in me getting sepsis, a pulmonary embolism, and placed into a coma until my doctors could figure out what was even causing all of my symptoms. Unfortunately for me, I gained some very traumatic memories during this time as I slipped in and out of my coma, and thus I developed PTSD and am triggered specifically by health scares. Any time I get ill, a rising sense of dread and anxiety comes over me, and the longer an illness lasts, the worse it gets for me. This anxiety then develops into panic attacks if the illness lasts too long.

As you might imagine, these last 40 days have been a literal hell for me physically, emotionally, and mentally. And with no end in sight as of yet and no definitive answers on treatments, I have been in a very sad state and am at a loss of what to do.

I finally realized that what I really needed to do was reach out for help. Malcolm, my amazing husband, has been so supportive and concerned for me and has taken up the role of breadwinner AND caretaker on my behalf. But he is also incredibly stressed out by the situation and needs help too.

With medical bills piling up, many more doctor visits to come, and my inability to work at all, we are having a hard time making ends meet. So I'm asking for help from the people in our community. Any bit helps at this point and would go a long way to help restore some hope.

Thank you,

Amy