Alleviating Medical Bills

Hi everyone! Some of you know me and my story, and for others this might be totally new so I want to introduce myself and explain a little bit about what's going on! I tend to be a fairly private person so bear with me!

My name is Emily Seekell and I'm 21 years old. Prior to last summer, I was an avid student, athlete, volunteer, and assistant teacher in special education. However, last June, all of that faded due to extreme gastrointestinal symptoms that left me unable to work, attend school, and participate in activities and sports. I wish that I could say that was the only effect these symptoms had on me but in a span of eight months (while being misdiagnosed several times), I ended up losing so much weight from the inability to eat due to nausea and crippling pain that I was hospitalized multiple times and declared "protein-calorie malnourished". Quite frankly, the doctors didn't know what to do because all of my tests were coming back normal. I was finally diagnosed in January 2023 with a rare and complex GI condition called Idiopathic Refractory Gastroparesis. Gastroparesis put very simply is "stomach paralysis" and it causes my body to be unable to tolerate food. My situation is unique in that I am in the minority of those diagnosed with this condition and my gastroparesis doesn't respond to medications or dietary changes (the first defense against this condition). After trialing countless cocktails of medications and different diets, I was continuing to worsen and it was decided that I was going to need to be tube fed if I was going to survive this because of how severe my weight loss and nutritional status was becoming. I am entirely dependent on my feeding tube for nutrition. I have had an NJ (nasal jejunal) tube for 3+ months and have had six or seven procedures on it. Due to infections, it has been decided that it is now time for me to have a more permanent tube placed through surgery. On June 8th, a surgeon will place a tube directly into my small intestine via several incisions and this is how I will get my nutrition for the foreseeable future. It is the hope that this allows me to begin to recover and get back to "normal life".

As you can all imagine, all of these forms of treatment are incredibly expensive and the medical bills pile up quickly. Myself and my family are struggling to keep up with them and are slowly being swamped due to the fact that I have to see so many specialists and am now going to be receiving surgical intervention. It is extraordinarily stressful to manage the supplies, appointments, procedures, equipment, symptoms, ect, and money being so tight has made the stress intensify for all involved. I want to reach out to you all for any help you may be able to provide to offset some of this. Whether it be monetary donations or sharing this to raise awareness for complex, chronic health conditions, I will be forever grateful. Thank you so much.