Surgery, hospital bills, loss income. I need help!

I never thought I'd be here. I'm even a little scared to be here. I'm laying here freaking out. Some of you may already know, but I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when I was 17 in high school. Long story short, its a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. I've had small complications that included occasional pain/constipation. I have also experienced more serious ones like severe blood loss that ended up with me fainting, rushed to the ICU, and needing a blood transfusion. This was in the first few years I was diagnosed. After that, I haven't had too many flare ups after college.

Last year, in February, I've had serious bouts of abdominal pain. So much pain that I can't even get out of bed.  I was hospitalized for 2 weeks due to bowel obstruction. I was informed by my doctor that my Crohn's can be categorized as moderate to severe and that surgery is very likely in my future. But when it comes to Crohn's, surgery doesn't cure it. You may be symptom free for a year, for 5 years, or forever. But most people with more serious Crohn's will eventually need surgery at least once. The downfall to repeated surgery is that there's only so much of the diseased bowels that they can remove. The more they remove, the less you will have. So instead, my doctor has put me through a chemotherapy/infusion therapy that I do every 8 weeks initially, but my dosage had to be raised to the max and the cycle had to be shortened to every 6 weeks. I looked at my bills and saw that every 6 weeks, the cost for my chemo/infusion is about $18,000. Thank you insurance right? Sort of. My out of pocket costs through insurance is still about $8000 for the year. Luckily I was able to take care of this and get everything arranged accordingly (with lots of help from my lovely mother).

Everything was going smoothly until 2 weeks ago. On October 22nd, I had dinner that night with my girlfriend.  After that I haven't had any bowel movements for 10 days. Imagine all the food you eat stuck in you for 10 days. The pain is unbearable. I have this issue every once in a while but it usually lasts for 1-2 days only. This time it lasted 10 days. During my scheduled chemo/infusion on November 2nd,  my doctor told me I had to admit myself to the emergency room right away, which I did. Another serious bowel obstruction. Only this time, my doctor is informing me that I most likely cannot postpone surgery anymore. Currently, I am in the hospital waiting to be transferred to Mount Sinai since they supposedly are the best at dealing with Crohn's disease, but Mount Sinai may be out of network for me, so my insurance may not even cover it. I'm already freaking out about the surgery, but now the financial headache begins.

I already had a lot of trouble dealing with last year's out of pocket cost,  but this time I can't handle it. With this current hospital stay I'm sure my out of pocket cost will already be maxed out. That's another $8000 that I just don't have. The surgery, if not covered,  averages about $24,000-$30,000, not including the hospital stay at Mount Sinai. Not to mention the loss income. I have no vacation days or sick days because I already use all of them every month as I receive them in order to keep up with my constant doctors appointments and my chemo/infusion. I've already lost about a week of income, and with surgery on the horizon, I'm looking at another  3 weeks to a month of loss income. Of course I will try to take a look into all possible programs and ways to pay these bills, but don't know how much help I will be able to find.

I have finally struck up the courage to ask for help from you.  I understand that it may be hard for you to help, especially during Covid times. (Speaking of Covid, I am deathly afraid of getting it now since I'm in the hospital so long and I can't wear a mask due to this tube they have stuck through my nose all the way down to my stomach.) If you are unable to help, I understand and your kind words and comfort are appreciated. But if there is any possible way for you to help me financially, even if it's just $5 (every little bit helps). I will be forever grateful. I am already deathly afraid with just the thought of surgery, the financial aspect is just piling on. Please help me if you can. If you can't, please help me share this message/fundraiser. If you also need help yourself, know that i send my kind wishes to you and hope for the best for the both of us. Let's try to stay strong together. Thank you!


***edit***
I also wanted to just say that any help provided through this gofundme will be used for all medical related bills and financial issues due to income loss I am facing.