Hi everyone, my name is Nina - I'm not known for anything crazy, I'm a mom of two amazing little kids, a wife, a sister, a daughter. You know; Ordinary.

As most ordinary folks do - I worked, I cared for my family, I paid bills and crossed fingers to be able to save for things for the kids. I'm admittedly the friend who responded to most invitations with "Aw man, I'm sorry. I'd love to hang out but I'm broke and I gotta work. Not this time."

In 2023 on my way walking home from work *something* happened - I honestly was left with amnesia from the incident, so I have no idea what - But I was found in a street with a head wound and bruises all over my body, thankfully a gentleman helped me to the sidewalk and long story short I got to the hospital. While they scanned my head to see how bad the concussion was, the ER noted a nodule on my thyroid and I was advised to have my primary care physician follow up on it.

Thankfully that whole episode worked out okay with limited issues.

So when I followed up regarding the aforementioned nodule, scans showed it as well as a few other very small nodules on nearby lymph nodes - I was told everything was too small to be concerned about at that time and that we would follow up with another scan a year later.

Which brings me to September 2024 - I went in for the rescan, honestly I wasn't thinking much of it. I had been having neck pains but I figured it was muscle knots.

Surprise! Not a muscle knot, but metastatic papillary thyroid cancer.

In medical terminology; I underwent a total thyroidectomy with right modified radical neck dissection and parathyroid autoimplantation (In laymans terms, they removed my entire thyroid, 61 lymph nodes, and had to reimplant one of my 4 parathyroid glands inside my neck muscle tissue because it had been severed during surgery) on the 26th of February 2025. I was hospitalized for a week due to complications.

As of today (04/05/25) my parathyroid glands are still basically nonfunctioning, leaving me experiencing hypoparathyroidism. I am on scheduled medications four times a day to keep the delicate balance of calcium and hormones going. I am supposed to begin physical therapy because my range of motion and strength on my right side is drastically reduced. My legs and ankles swell to a point where it is painful to stand and walk (which is assumed to be due to my out of whack hormonal balance) There's a bit more but now I just feel like I'm whining haha..

Needless to say; Right now I am not working. Thankfully I had short term & long term disability options through my work which I am making use of, but that gives me 80% of my income and I was already on a paycheck to paycheck balance. I had paid into a "critical illness" insurance through Metlife which is meant to help pay bills outside of the expected hospital bills, but they are fighting the pay out despite multiple doctors now going back and forth with them, stating that they still need "proof" of my diagnosis - Despite being sent medical records.

I still have all my same bills as before, but now I also have medical bills, related-to-medical bills such as having to purchase things like compression thigh highs and a specialized diet to prepare for taking irradiated iodine treatments. My bills are taking turns falling behind right now but I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to keep that up, and to put the cherry on top now our bathtub faucet has decided it can't turn off.

I'm throwing in the towel, it's time I ask for help. Please, if you can, anything helps and is greatly appreciated, but I am exhausted and stressed to my limit. I'm not asking to be able to go out to eat or anything crazy. I'm just trying to keep utilities on and essentials on hand while going through a difficult health journey.

Thank you for hearing me out.

-Nina Lightle