Jennifer's distal pancreatectomy recovery

Little over a year ago I had to get a CT scan for a rib injury and turns out I had a "Complex cyst". When I asked the Dr. what that was, all I got back was "it's a cyst, but more complex". Very helpful!

Here we are after several MRIs, bunch of labs, fine needle aspiration biopsy and a gallbladder removal which they thought would get rid of the pain...it did not...

Turns out my little friend had decided to grow. He’s now an Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm, or IMPN for short. You can refer to it as a cystic lesion or a tumor. I keep calling it a cyst because anything else gives me heart palpitations.

So now my IMPN has got to go, and most of my pancreas is going with him. It’s hard to know exactly how I’ll respond to this surgery. Hopefully I’ll have enough left over to still produce insulin and enzymes. I’ll find that out after surgery. I should be hospitalized for about 3 days if everything goes smoothly.

Fortunately, I have good insurance and good medical care here at Stanford, but the bills are still coming. I will be out of work for about 2 months, hopefully less though, and I have an amazing family who is providing aftercare from my surgery.

The surgery is 7/7/23 and I need help. I can’t pay my bills while on leave from work for so long. I just got off my last round of medical leave in January and it fully ate all my savings. This support would go strickly towards my bills and keeping a roof over my head while I recover. I will be getting medical leave while I am out, but it is not enough to cover everything. The total bills resulting from the previous surgery, biopsy, labs, and imaging leading up to this surgery resulted in about $1000. I’ve been able to get the payment plan to $107/month. Due to me already hitting my deductible for insurance this year, I’m about $300 away from my out-of-pocket max and I should only get around $300 bill for this surgery and hospital stay.

For some transparency these are the main pain points

Main bills:

Rent - $1950/month

Surgery cost - $300

Medical payments - $107/month

Gas – transport from my mom’s home to hospital - $300

Apartment utilities - $40/month (set bill for water/trash)

Thank you for considering helping. I appreciate any support you offer!