Nates testicular cancer recovery

Hi all,

Most of you all know the story of my testicular cancer, but for those of you who don't, here we go.

Late December of 2020 i went to the hospital at the recommendation of a good friend due to some discomfort from one of my testicles. Upon receiving an ultrasound at Fanny Allen Urgent Care i heard the words that no one wants to hear from their doctor... cancer. I was then referred to UVM Urology who got me in the next day to talk about the tumor they found on my testicle. Within a week i was scheduled to have an orchiectomy so that they could biopsy the tumor and get me a diagnosis. Within a few days i was told that i did indeed have cancer, i had stage 1 seminoma. As far as cancer is concerned, this was good news. I was ordered to have a CT scan to see if the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes or anywhere in my body. Thankfully it hadn't and i was officially cancer free.

Because of my procedure and the overwhelming fear of being told i had cancer i missed about a month of work, most of which was unpaid. I've been playing catch up ever since. I'm now more or less caught up financially with the exception of my insurance deductible. My deductible is $3,500, $900 of which i've already paid off. Today i got a letter in the mail from a collections agency who UVM must have sold the debt to. I'm being billed for the amount of $2,568.53. For the next 5 years i will be under surveillance by UVM to make sure the cancer does not come back. Because of this i expect i will owe the amount of my deductible every year for the next 5 years. I am aware that UVM has financial aid programs, unfortunately i do not qualify for any assistance because my income was just above the threshold for help last year. I'm not one to ask for help, but in this case i got dealt a shit hand and could use any support that i can get. I plan on using every penny i receive to pay off my deductible to UVM.

Thanks in advance friends,

Much Love

-Nate