Hi all,.I'm Noa.

On November 26th, I was admitted to the ER with symptoms of a stroke.

While driving home from a friend's house, my whole right side body went numb and I lost the ability to speak in complete sentences. I struggled to remember the names of my closest friends and my partner.

It was incredibly scary, and I am enormously grateful to have been well held by my friends and partner. My housemate drove me to the hospital and my partner intercepted me there.

Over the course of a few hours. my confusion trasnsformed into the most painful head pounding I have experienced. The ER ran a CT scan, a plethora of bloodwork, and an EKG. Fortunately, everything came back normal. Unfortunately, I started a new job in October, and I won't have health insurance until January 2026.

I am reaching out to y'all today to ask for financial support. To be honest, I hate asking you for money. I feel scared of being seen as inadequate. I have prided myself on living a life in alignment with my values while being able to supporty myself financially. With that, I am humbled as my medical bills have come at a time when both my tiny home and car need repairs and grad school application fees are piling up.

The working theory is that I have developed a pretty rare and severe type of migraine (hemipilegic migraine). My close friends have been incredibly supportive and have offered to support me by offering transportation, tracking my location, and in being in a collective group text to respond to me if I find myself in a vulnerable position. The scariest moments have been when I have lost feeling on my right side and lost the ability to communicate while driving. I now travel with an overnight bag and have a text ready to send in case one of these come on randomly.

This experience has required me to reroute how I approach my current life, ask for help, and rely on my relationships in ways I haven't had to before. It has been incredibly vulnerable to need to rely on people and to ask for help in these ways. And now, I extend my ask for support to our wider community for help with medical expenses. I am so thankful for the ways you have all witnessed and held me over these years. Thank you for reading. I am grateful.