Nicole's Medical and Cost of Living Bills

I was told at a young age that asking strangers for money was not a good thing, so writing this now brings tears to my eyes. For those that don't know me or my story, I am 31 years old with 3 children in a blended family. In 2013 I had excruciating pain in my abdomen so I went into the ER and was diagnosed with pancreatitis for my first time. Everyone there kept asking "how much do you drink?" Alcohol has never been part of my life, so I was discharged days later for acute idiopathic pancreatitis. I had another episode 3 years later during nursing school but this last year went sour quick.

After the birth of our youngest (which is another story), I went into the hospital with the distinguishable pain in my quadrant. This would be the worst hospital stay I've had. This stay included two blood transfusions, tube feeds through a tube in my nose, and much more through a 19 day stay in the hospital. With this still being called idiopathic they decided to remove my gallbladder. It wasn't the gallbladder as I ended up with another 9 day stay in the hospital with high dose of pain medication and nothing to eat or drink and blood clots in my arms. October was another 8 day trip in the hospital. This time work decided that when I come back from disability I would have to reapply for my job as a way to legally fire me.

Distraught and in debilitating pain, my family and I have decided we aren't going to stop until we got answers. As of today an endoscopic ultrasound showed I have moderate-severe chronic pancreatitis and the next step is genetic testing and an ERCP to place stents and cut pieces of my pancreas out. Genetic testing was completed and shows my pancreas issues are not related to genetics, thankfully I can't pass this horrible disease onto my children (huge relief). This Valentine's Day, I had the ERCP which put a stint into my pancreas and cut my sphincter of Odi for possible disfunction, I POSSIBLY GOT MY DIAGNOSIS!!!!!! but this procedure caused my 6th flare. Rehab after my flares takes months to feel human and get off pain medication.

As I'm sitting in my hospital bed, stressing about all the bills that are still coming out of my bank account, with nothing coming in, we have exhausted all savings and options at this point. My bank calls telling me my account is overdrawn after mortgage and car insurance came out, I am crying to them saying "there is nothing I can do, I'm sorry". I'm turning to help in the community until I can start my new job in March. It pains me writing this and asking for money but I have officially ran out of options. I'm turning to you to help me get through this.