First, thank you for reading this. It's been a rough year for a whole lot of people so I feel awkward even asking for myself, but things were already tough before I had an unexpected big fat cost land in my lap. Now they're tougher still, and I realized that if a friend was telling me about -their- struggle I would encourage them to ask for help, so I'm taking my own advice.

CW: Medical details below

So I've had some GI issues for a while but nothing life-threatening or bad enough for me to worry much about, they were just inconvenient. Discomfort, occasional bleeding, but nothing major. They got MORE inconvenient last year, so I finally said "Well, this is why I HAVE insurance, I should at least go make sure there's nothing more serious going on, and check on the cost of treatment." The Dr. checked me out, said he was slightly concerned at the severity, and that I should get a colonoscopy. Ok, no big deal, right? Surely that's a covered medial expense, people get them all the time.

Wrong. Even though this was diagnostic, and therefore 'covered' by insurance ... it was nearly $4000. "Oh, but it all goes toward your deductible!" Great, thanks, why the HELL is it that much though? So, I put it on a payment plan, got it scheduled, and got it done. We were already barely getting by, so another couple hundred a month hurts, but peace of mind, right? Well, they found a 5cm mass in my colon that they couldn't take out at the moment. They took a biopsy but "couldn't get deep into it" so I have to come back to get it removed, and the rest biopsied again. The first one's result came in negative for cancer markers at least! That first visit was 2 weeks ago, the next is happening in a couple days, but that was another down payment immediately, + scheduling the rest.

So, cancer free still for now, but the mass has to go. One HUGE plus side of me going in was that if I had waited til I was 45 or 50 for the 'scheduled and covered by insurance as preventative' colonoscopy, this would have had all that time to grow and be problematic. So, possible bullet dodged!

The other good news is I'll definitely hit my deductible AND my out of pocket max for the year, so even if the second biopsy comes back concerning, or I need YET ANOTHER procedure, most/all of it should be covered. The bad news is that Property Tax on the house went up, last year had enough surprises of its own, and an already tight bank account is looking even tighter now. I could really use some help. Any raised funds will help me get these surgeries paid off so I don't have another big fat monthly bill to juggle, and keep me from having to repeat the collections nightmare from the cancer days. Thanks in advance, anything helps, so long as it's not going to be a hardship on YOU to help.