Help Rachel with Emergency Surgery Bills

Hi there!

My name is Rachel, I'm a self-employed massage therapist in the Shenandoah Valley and I have one doggo and a beautiful partner. I have to be honest that reaching out for help feels hard - I'm used to caring for others, and it's difficult to ask for my own care. I'd like to share my story with you, and I hope it can be helpful in encouraging others that it's okay to ask for help in this very unpredictable life. We need each other.

In late April of this year, I began having intense abdominal pain on my lower right side and began a long and very scary process of trying to figure out what was happening. After a week of waiting while my doctor ordered tests, the pain finally became so intense that I nearly passed out and my partner drove me to the ER on May 2nd.

The ER was a typical American medical nightmarescape: 2 hours of writhing in pain in the waiting room, an extremely painful pelvic ultrasound given by a woman who briskly informed me that if I didn’t stop uncontrollably shaking then she’d have to go see other patients, and several shots of morphine which didn't seem to help. I'm grateful for the care, but gosh is our medical system overwhelmed.

Finally, the wonderful on-call OBGYN surgeon came to my room and told me that although the ultrasound didn't show it, he believed I had an ovarian torsion (twisted ovary) which was likely caused by a very large cyst. The only way to deal with it was surgery, and so I was finally wheeled to the operating room. The surgery was successful, and I’m thankful that they were able to do a minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. It turned out that in addition to my ovary being twisted not once, but TWICE, it was slowly dying due to lack of blood flow and had to be partially removed due to necrosis. I guess that's why I was in so much pain!

I was able to go home only four hours after the surgery and I began about four weeks of slow recovery. Unfortunately, because I’m self-employed and work a very physical job, I had to cancel my sessions and drain my savings account to survive the month. Additionally, this all happened about six months after a lower back injury last year, during which time I also had to take about four weeks to recover and drain my savings. I’m still paying off the medical bills from that experience and will likely be continuing to do so throughout the next year. Honestly, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of debt I suddenly find myself in, and I would deeply appreciate your help.

My fundraising goal will help me pay for the following:

-$264.84 for primary care visit fees

-$6,701.02 for emergency surgery and ER fees

-$1,034.96 for the CT scan

-$823.80 for the on-call OBGYN surgeon’s office

-$1,175.38 toward my lost income in May

I’d be so happy if I can even make it to $9,000, but the additional help supplementing my lost income would be such a huge gift. I’d also be hugely remiss if I didn’t thank all of the amazing friends, family, and community who helped me through last month. People brought soup brought to my door, I had company on my front porch, friends drove me to doctor's appointments, and someone even slipped an anonymous gift of cash into my mailbox. I learned a lot about the importance of well-developed community, and I’m so grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Much love,

Rachel

P.S. Here's a photo of my best front-porch tea and buddy while I was healing.