Please help Debra raise $ for medical expenses!

Hello! Thank you for considering donating.

***I have a very bothersome and distressful gynecology (GYN) issue I'm dealing with. It's altering my life in a serious way. I'm in constant pain and discomfort.*** Sitting is very uncomfortable and even painful. I've been struggling with constant infections for a half year, which I have never in my life had before. This has been going on and getting worse for over a half year now. I can't continue to live like this.

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I have changed this main post twice to reflect the updated costs.  I spent about half of what I initially raised to have my gallbladder surgery. Thank you so much to my donors for that. As you may know, much of the costs have to be paid up front.


I'm so exhausted from standing most of the time, as sitting hurts, and now on a hurt left leg as of a week and a half ago, that I haven't written all my USMA classmates asking for help. I plan to do that
as well as thank my other most recent donors. I haven't done that yet. Sorry.   Because my gyn issues are getting worse, sitting is vey hard, so I avoid it, which makes life very hard.



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Background:

I had a gallbladder issue for over a year since February 2020 when I couldn't ignore it anymore. It had been bothering me since late 2018. When I told the VA, they were predictably dismissive. Several times in spring and summer 2020, I considered visiting an emergency room, but I always held off because I couldn't afford the bill. My local V A never told me that wad an option, although I would bet they'd make me pay. I would literally go to bed many nights in 2020 praying to God that I wouldn't die, because I felt like my gallbladder was going to burst.

Because I didn't have gallstones, the VA and another local hospital (potentially to be named later) didn't take me seriously. However, I don't understand how they didn't notice that my gallbladder was attached to my duodenum. That's what was causing the sharp pain.

  Thankfully I found a skilled private sector doctor who did the surgery....THANKS to my donors!.... He  removed the scar tissue connecting the gallbladder and duodenum. Then, he peeled them apart and removed the gallbladder. I'm lucky my gallbladder didn't tear my duodenum or vice versa before the surgery.  That surgery went well, as far as I can tell. 

At least with gallbladder pain, I could still sit without problems. I could still ride my bike and play tennis. Now, there is none of that because my pelvis feels so damaged from a surgical procedure in December  2020 that the VA pressured me into that I didn't want or need.

I cry frequently because of this. Playing tennis, running , and bike riding were a big part of my socialization. Now that I can't do that...I'm currently walking with a cane due to a hurt leg to make matters worse.... it's very depressing because I am an extrovert.  I'm single and have no kids. I live on a very limited income, so I am by myself most of the time.

In late 2019, I told neighbors that I planned to go work as an economist again in 2020, but COVID hit and my gallbladder started acting up. 

I'd rather go back to the days of having a sore gallbladder. We all have to die sometime, but these OBGYN procedures that are pushed on women are honestly evil.  I'd rather die from a gall ladder issue than live in torment for 30 years due to a GYN issue.

A 51 year old woman....with lower estrogen levels should NOT have her cervix opened at all (she'd be considered a high risk pregnancy who would most likely have to have a C section), much less for the 10+ minutes of that D and C procedure at the local VA. Even when I had a D and C without very many issues in 2015 at a private hospital.... that the VA amazingly paid for.....I was a lot looser down there and had a little bit of incontinence that I had never had before, ever! Bicycle crunch exercises helped that a bit. Even then, I wasn't bleeding badly enough for a D & C. I only stopped bleeding for 4 months and then was back at it. 

A pregnant woman in labor is younger, had a lot of hormones in her body, and the baby takes a few seconds not 10 minutes to pass through the V. Yet OBGYNs....to push these procedures, act like it's all the same. It's not!

I have never hated myself or my bleeding. I was happy taking iron and getting my blood checked quarterly. But the VA pressures women.......with written threats and screaming if we are upset about being pressured into seeing the OBGYN clinic (which should be called sterilization clinics)....into these procedures.

I told the GYN the month and the week before the surgery that I wasn't bleeding anymore down there, but she still wrote on the OP note that the reason for the procedure was excessive bleeding and polyps. I wasn't excessively bleeding out my V but out an anal fissure which a private sector doctor found. And she told me I had no polyps, but her OP report said I did. Even the ultrasound said that I had two possible 1 cm polyps, which the VA tries to pawn off as cancer. I've since read that only 1% of uterus polyps are cancerous. Whereas 10-20% of ovarian cysts CA be cancerous. I told her that I didn't want a D&C; I told her I wanted my gallbladder and right painful ovarian cyst removed. She ignored me. I've been dealing with my right ovary issue for years. 

The VA is good at threatening vets with jail...in writing if we are uncooperative, however. I'm completely serious. The VA doesn't hire skilled people. That woman, I have since found out is almost unemployable in the private sector, but that is who the VA hires.  I could go into a lot more detail but I won't beyond saying the horror stories regarding surgical outcomes on veterans are literally never ending. I'm talking Congressional staffers and people on state veterans commissions who have bought unto all the PR glitz on VA websites about how great the VA is. It's not. Even in the last two weeks I have received calls from well dedicated vets the VA has really messed up in surgery. The VA should shut down all their surgery departments asap. 

Beyond the VA, I think the OBGYN pushes all these procedures not for the good of the patient, but for the good of their bank account. I'm writing in part to warn other women. 

I've read recently that there is another kind of D&C procedure that uses medication to naturally dilate the cervix. Then a suction tube is put up into the uterus. The VA uses the old barbaric way of using metal instruments to pry open the cervix and then uses a knife to scrape out the uterus. The don't warn of all the potential side effects, including bladder puncturing!


Anyway, I'd be grateful for any help you can give me.

I try to be healthy, eat a good diet. (I've been a vegetarian/pescetarian since 2017), and I exercise regularly. These surgeries will be the first serious surgeries I've ever had. I'm in my early 50s.  

Thank you very much for considering donating.  I hope you do. 

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Admin notes:



Last, if you want to be anonymous, publicly, then there is a box to check when you sign and donate. If you *also* don't want me to know who you are, then in the First and Last Name boxes below your email address, just write whatever name or initials you want. Then UN-check the "use as billing name" box. Then, write your real name on the "Name On Card" box. I don't see the "Name on Card,” your email address or your credit card number. I only see the name under your email address.