Help to be able to afford surgery recovery

Hi friends, family, and possibly nice strangers,

Many of you encouraged me to do this so, here we go.

A couple of months ago my doctor discovered that I have a 9 cm cyst in my left ovary. For reference, I’m told that’s somewhere around the size of a grapefruit. While I am told these things are u s u a l l y benign, the only way to know for certain is to have it out. And, even if benign, a cyst of this size carries the risk of rupture, or torsion (which means my ovary could become twisted, cutting off blood supply), so any way you look at it, it’s gotta come out.

Enter problem!

The doctor has advised me that my recovery time, during which I am to do no lifting, pushing, pulling, or straining above ~10lbs of pressure, is going to be about 6 weeks. She said “a month, if you push it”. While I do think it’s normal for doctors to give a longer estimate to account for everyone’s individual healing factors, I’m looking at anywhere from 3-6 weeks of not being able to work and having zero clue how I can afford to do that without everything falling apart. I definitely will not be able to act as a personal care aide during that time, and while I’m looking for temporary options to get by, I’m pretty scared.

Scared of the consequences of having the surgery. Scared of the consequences of not having the surgery.

What I am hoping to raise here is around 2 months living expenses, so that I can recover well and know that I won’t lose everything in the process. I picked a number because the site made me pick a number, but every little bit helps.

The surgery is currently scheduled for October 19th, which gives me right around a month to do what I can to arrange it all, and see that I’m able to do this.

I’m so grateful for anything you could share, even if it’s just sharing this link, or a couple bucks, or bringing food and friendship while I’m getting better. I know a lot of us are struggling, and this is a big ask, so as difficult as it is for me to put this out there, I have to prioritize my health.

Thank you so much for reading, and for caring about me.

❤️