Yue's Medical Bills and Mishaps

Hey there, my name is Younique but most of you probably know me as Radical_Yue or just Yue.

To start off with, I will say it's taken a lot to get me here and asking for help. This really isn't easy for me to do and it's taken a lot of urging from friends to bring me here. Not because I ever felt like it was beneath me but a lot of people are going through tough times right now and it has been very, very hard to convince myself I'm allowed to ask for help. But, I'm here now so here is my story.

2020 has been the worst rollercoaster possible for so many this year, myself included. Early on this year I contracted Covid-19 and that put me out of commission for quite a few weeks, unable to work or do much other than focus on my ability to breath. When that hit I got behind.

Shortly after my Covid recovery I received word from the job I loved so much, that due to the ongoing pandemic they had no choice but to let me go as a means to try and keep their struggling business afloat. When that happened, I started to sink...deep.

I've been barely scraping by thanks to amazing commissioners and friends hitting me up to draw a wide variety of cool and awesome requests. However, I've been in denial this whole time and while food was paid for and rent was made on time other debts were basically dropped in favor of the denial I've been living in that I'd be able to dig myself out, catch up, and get back to my old life.

Then finally the end of October hit. I experienced a pain that could only be described as 10/10 "I think I'm dying" level of intensity. For almost a full week I writhed on the ground in pain, screamed, clawed at the floor and couch, and begged whoever was listening to make the pain stop.
It didn't.
Eventually my friends told me that if I didn't voluntarily go to the hospital they'd be calling an ambulance to come get me. I was terrified, hurting, and didn't know what I'd do with the bills I knew would come thanks to complete lack of insurance.
After two trips to the hospital it was discovered that my gallbladder was full of stones and so inflamed it was about 3x larger than it should be. For the past 12 years I've been living with this random pain that would come whenever I would eat or drink just about anything. I've been calling it "heartburn" because that's the closest thing I could describe it as. Turns out it was actually 12 years of my gallbladder getting worse and worse, being inflamed, dealing with stones, and pressing against my other organs. Due to the lack of good insurance, finances, and intense trauma brought on my poor experiences with doctors I just basically lived with it. Pain every day of my life in some way, shape or form. Impacting my work, my social life, my sleep, everything.

I was taken into surgery, my gallbladder was removed and I've been recovering well. No pain beyond the standard healing associated with any basic surgery.

But a new bill has been added to the pile. One for $24,000 and climbing with each follow up appointment to verify I'm healing well.
I'm in the process of applying for financial assistance and medicaid but it's going to take a while. In the meantime I haven't been able to really work on commissions and I've been getting by thanks to friends and just incredibly kind acquaintances and even a couple strangers. But like I said, things have been bad...for a very long time.

While I'm hoping to make the bill go down I don't know when that will happen, how much I can get rid of, or anything like that. In the mean time I'm in trouble facing very large bills with the minimum they'll allow me to pay towards it being almost $700 a month and that just being one of many bad things knocking on my door.

I'm scared and I don't want to do this but I have no other choice. I hate looking at that big number, I don't feel like I'm worth it at all but I don't have anywhere else to go right now.

I swear to you that anything that is not used to pay off this nasty pile of bills will be put right back into the world to do good. This has been the first year I haven't been able to really contribute to charitable causes myself and dear lord I miss being able to help people who need it.

I'm sorry for the novel, if you know me you know it's the only way I know how to write. But if you're here and you can help or even just share then thank you so much. This is one of the hardest things I've had to do and I desperately want to get back to my old life where I can be on the other end helping people again. For now though, as much as I've wanted to deny it this whole year, I need help.

So thank you again for your time.



Also, because it makes me feel better, feel free to include like a Pokemon or Digimon or just something in your message if you donate and I'll try to do a little doodle of it that I'll post on Twitter. It's the least I can do and it'll help me slowly get back into the swing of things.