Help Nicole with Medical Bills

This was incredibly hard to muster up the courage to do, and I've been thinking about doing this for over a year now, and it's finally come to the point where I feel the need to reach out for help from others.

As some of you may know, I have struggled with my health since the age of 9 after being diagnosed with systemic scleroderma for a number of years. After a long and painful battle for my life, I was thankfully in remission starting at 15 and have been ever since. However, the medical problems continued on.

For the past year and a half, I have been incredibly sick. I have gone to over 20 specialist doctors and been misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, Addison's disease, interstitial cystitis, and so many more that I cannot even remember. I had been put on countless random medications and given horrible advice by so many doctors. Most told me that it was "in my head."

Throughout this time, I have had multiple tumors removed in my uterus, received a colonoscopy where they found colon polyps that they removed, and have been in horrible pain many days. I experience extreme stomach pains almost daily and am restricted to a very thorough diet since I am allergic to over 60 foods.

Along with this, I experience extreme pelvic pain that my current doctor (and the only one of 20+ to figure my problems out) figured out was ovarian cysts that burst every month that were a result of PCOS.

I experience fatigue each day, and had to quit my job last year after constantly being rushed to the ER over pain and going to doctor's offices 2+ a week.

Because of all of this stress and sickness, I developed panic disorder which led to horrible nightly panic attacks.

Last year, even with insurance, I spent over $12,000 out of pocket on medical bills. Currently, I have a much lower-paying job than I did last year that I had to take because I have to work from home. I only netted $27,000 the whole year last year, and the remainder went to rent and food so I did not have much else to work with.

Because Nik was the one taking me to all my appointments, he has lost a lot of work days and we are both struggling financially as a couple. On top of this all, we have a wedding planned this summer, which is causing even more financial stress on us.

Tomorrow I have a large procedure where my doctor will remove my expected endometriosis which will hopefully help me on my healing journey. One of the nurses called me this afternoon and told me that the base price for the surgery that I will owe even with insurance is $2,500 and that it will be more once I get the final bill. Just to add onto that, I also have a dental surgery in the beginning of March that will cost me ~$1,000 for a receding gum that is necessary to saving the tooth.

After I got that phone call about my surgery, I knew I had to turn here. If you are reading this and you have are able to help, I would be extremely grateful if you would donate to help me out in this really tough time. Even a few dollars would help! If you have read all of this, I really appreciate you, and thank you for letting me share my story!