Medical Expenses

Starting in January of last year, I began suffering from nausea and abdominal pain. It took months of extensive tests and labs for my medical team to finally find that I had chronic inflammation of the gallbladder. In October of 2018, I had surgery to remove the gallbladder. My parents were very supportive through all of 2018 while I was out of work and paid for as much as they could of the expenses. I returned to work the last week of November and seemed to be back in health. That lasted until the end of December when the pain and nausea returned. It was in the same area as the gallbladder which worried me and my doctor. They ran a CT Scan the first week of this year and found at least 13 lesions on my liver. I was scheduled to have a MRI done tomorrow, the 1st of February, to further examine what those lesions are and hopefully find a solution to my pain. Last week I got the call from Radiology Ltd that my out of pocket cost would $1400 and that I would need to make a half payment of $750 upfront. I finally heard back from their payment office today (after having to call them again) that because of exams that had to go to collections (in 2017 and were paid back in full) and that I hadn't paid the remainder of the $259 for the CT scan, they could not put me under any payment plan. Even with my constant pain and THIRTEEN LESIONS on my liver, there was nothing that could be done as of now. I still have 1500$ of medical bills I'm trying to pay off from the gallbladder surgery and the car my boyfriend Jacob and I shared crashed two weeks ago and was totaled. My parents have helped to their full capacity regarding finances and I cannot ask them for anything more. Im trying to ask for financial help from my work as well, but their fund to help employees doesn't usually cover medical bills. I can't always work my full shift because of the pain and my boyfriend is using almost all of his finances to cover our other bills already. 

The medical bills are as follows: 

Diagnostic Path Consultants: $84.14
Tucson Medical Center: $582.65
Radiology Ltd: $259.00
Valley Anesthesiology Consultants: $508.00
Arizona Community Surgeons: $61.37

Total (as of now): $1,037.16

This doesn't include the bills my parents are still paying more nor for the car repair or college classes I'm enrolled in. If you are able to contribute at all, I would be forever grateful. We are rescheduling the MRI, but without a miracle, we still can't afford the $750 payment up front. Helping pay these current bills off and have the money for the MRI would make it so I can move forward in healing.

Nov 2019 Update

So after the MRI in February, thetechnician who performed the MRI believes it was the oral contraceptives I had been taking since the 9th grade due to irregular, heavy periods that caused the lesions to appear. I stopped taking the medication but the pain didn't subside. When I visited my surgeon about the findings, he didn't think the nodes had anything to do with my pain. My surgeon offered that I needed to lose weight to lose the pain. When questioned how I should do that when I'm in too much pain to move in the first place, he didn't offer much help. I tried applying for FMLA from my place of work in April and somehow the paperwork was lost and I was instead fired. Which, other than the bi-yearly bonuses I would've gotten from Home Depot, didn't really affect me since I wasn't able to work at this point anyway. After that, my grandma passed away and my family and I were running around making arrangements and doing estate sales, which actually helped me lose about 10 pounds but the pain didn't lessen. It was around this time that I filed for social security disability income.

In October, the pain was so immense that I could barely move from pain. I had taken the max dosage I could of pain killers and was wearing a heating pad and still in such immeasurable pain that I was beginning to sob. My boyfriend drove me to the ER where I was told nothing in the emergency department could be done for me and that I just needed to manage the pain. I was sent home four hours after our arrival. I saw my gastroenterologist a week later and finally someone decided to take my pain seriously. They performed another endoscopy and found gastritis, which explains the nausea and vomiting I experience almost daily. I was very lucky that it wasn't gastroenteritis as with diabetes this would force me to get an insulin pump because the slow emptying of my stomach and slow digestion of food would make it hard for my insulin to normally be effective. 

Today is November 11th, 2019 and I just had my second MRI of this year. I'm so grateful for all the help given so far otherwise getting this would have been impossible. The results of that will be ready in 3-5 business days. As of now, here's a list of the bills we have, including the few that have now been sent to collectors.

Arizona Community Surgeons: $30
Tucson Medical Center for ER visit: $150
Emergency Eval & MGMT (Lvl 5) by Dr Pleasants: $56.34
ARStrat on behalf of TMC: $507.65
Diagnostic Path Consultants: $84.14
Old Pueblo Anesthesia: $84.50
Emerald AR Systems on behalf of Radiology Ltd: $922.14


New total:

$1,834.77

This number would have been so much higher if not for all of your donations so far. Thank you so much, you have all helped us immensely.

FEB 2020 UPDATE:

Last Monday, the 24th of February, I finally was able to see the surgeon who had performed my gall bladder surgery. He was very concerned with what was happening to my liver since I've cut out so many different medications but the lesions have only grown in size. To add to it, the MRI I received from SimonMed was too blurry to actually use in his decision to either cut the lesions out or get me a liver transplant. So I have to get another MRI on March the 6th, this Friday. I'm hoping they let me do a payment plan of some sorts since I have 300$ to pay for it so far, but with my deductible starting over I don't know how much the new MRI is going to cost me total. So I am once again asking for help financially. Thank you all of you who have continued to support me during this; it's been almost 3 years of trying to figure out what has been making me sick and I can almost see the finish line... Or at least the drink station. Thank you so much.