We are hoping to raise funds in an effort to offset the burden of some serious medical debt at the beginning of our marriage. Long story short, Hannah is in need of a parathyroidectomy to remove a (currently) benign growth on one of her, you guessed it, parathyroids. It is crucial that we have this procedure done as quickly as possible to ensure it remains benign and contained.
Shortly after returning from our honeymoon, Hannah started to feel a little unwell. It began with a certain set of symptoms that warranted a urinalysis, in which a microscopic hematuria (trace amount of blood) was detected. We took her to the Urgent Care, where a nurse practitioner treated her for kidney stones, as that’s what the symptoms pointed to. A round of antibiotics and a medicine to dilate the necessary tracts. Hannah finished the antibiotics as directed and everything seemed ok for a few days.
A few days later, she started to get sick in the mornings. At first, we thought it could be pregnancy but after a couple of at home tests and a visit to the doctor we confirmed this to not be the case. This is when we decided to visit our primary care physician. She ran some bloodwork on Hannah and advised us that if Hannah were to get sick again the next day we needed to go straight to the ER.
As it happens, we ended up in the ER. At this point Hannah had lost nearly 20 pounds in three weeks, and she was already underweight for her height to begin with. The bloodwork came back with severely elevated levels of calcium. First they looked at her kidneys to make sure they were ok and we weren’t dealing with kidney stones, and they were working great. So this led the doctors to the conclusion that there was likely a growth on one of her parathyroids, specifically on the inferior pole of the left thyroid gland. The doctor reviewed her chart and said that he thinks this has been going on for about 5 years. To be completely honest, we can’t know if the tumor is benign or malignant until it is removed and biopsied. They’ve given her IV fluids to help balance all of her levels out, and she is finally able to keep food down again.
Considering that we cannot know whether this tumor is an adenoma or a malignant growth, our only course of action here is the parathyroidectomy. Unfortunately, the hospital we’re in doesn’t have an ENT surgeon, so it adds a layer of “ah man” to the whole thing. So we have to find a surgeon who will operate on her without insurance in a reasonably timely manner before this develops into something more serious.
We have spent five years building a financial safety net and three days in the hospital has eclipsed it twofold. we expect to be here another day and then need to pay for surgery, as well as account for the time she will be out of work. We hope that you would consider helping us to offset this cost so we can focus less on how we are going to pay this monumental price in our first year of marriage, and more on Hannah’s recovery.
