It’s 4 am and I’m having some trouble sleeping, so I wanna talk a little about my experience as someone with no insurance having a (not virus related) medical emergency during #coronavirus 1/?

I am (was?) a fairly healthy 22 year old. At the start of spring break, I was a studio art student at my local community college, and my only real concerns were about how to do a lithography project from home. Then the bleeding started. 2/?

Menstrual bleeding cw// What I thought was just a heavy period quickly turned into a dire situation. I lost so much blood that I was barely able to walk. I had near-fainting spells, and once was left lying on the floor for several minutes w/ my ears ringing and unable to see. 3/?

My dad took me to urgent care, and the doctor prescribed me birth control and iron pills. He told me to take 3 iron pills a day ideally, maybe 2 if 3 made me nauseous. I took his advice and took 3 iron pills. That night was one of the scariest nights of my life. 4/?

Vomiting cw// I started vomiting uncontrollably, I couldn’t even keep water in my stomach. I was in a lot of pain and still so anemic that I was too weak to do anything but lie on the couch. 5/?

A paramedic came to the house and told me bluntly that if I really wanted to go to the hospital they would take me, but I would be at a huge risk of catching the virus. So he gave me a pill that stopped the vomiting instead, and I stayed at home. 6/?

I have yet to see a bill for that paramedic visit, and even the paramedic admitted he had no idea how much it would cost. But I know the urgent care visit cost over $100 just to prescribe me birth control and give me advice that nearly landed me in the ER. 7/?

The next day I went to my normal clinic, and the doctor told me that my stomach would really only absorb one pill’s worth of iron anyway, and taking any more than that would only end in a repeat of the night before. She took a blood sample to check my anemia and I went home. 8/?

That visit cost another $180 or so. I still at this point had no idea what the cause of the bleeding was. The doctor referred me to a gynecologist and a place to get an ultrasound, and all I could think was “fuck, how am I gonna afford that?” 9/?

The next day, the doctor called me urgently to tell me that my rbc and hemoglobin counts were so low that I needed a transfusion IMMEDIATELY and to go to the ER. Of course I did go, dreading the bill more than anything else. 10/?

The policy at the ER was no waiting room, no one allowed in with the patient. It’s worth saying that everyone there was extremely patient and kind despite the obvious stress of the pandemic. 11/?

But being alone meant that I had no one to advocate for me but myself, and myself was extremely anemic and frightened. When the doctor took my blood and said that, unfortunately, I wasn’t QUITE below the threshold for a transfusion, I didn’t know what to say beyond “okay.” 12/?

When they told me they were going to do a pelvic exam, I nervously said “okay” again. When it was immediately painful and obvious that it wasn’t going to work, all I could do was holler “please don’t” until the male doctor finally thought to ask if I was sexually active. 13/?

I was not, in fact, and never had been, and so he sheepishly switched to a swab while I cried uncontrollably. Even after he and the nurse quickly left I could not stop crying, alone and humiliated in the examination room. 14/?

I was given a (badly needed) IV and an ultrasound, which discovered a minor ovarian cyst but still nothing to indicate what was causing my bleeding. I was dismissed after about four or five hours and billed $11k, which was discounted to $4k because I was self pay. 15/?

I saw a gynecologist shortly after, who elaborated slightly on the cyst they found and how to avoid torsion, and she renewed my birth control prescription, and that was about it. That visit cost another $100. 16/?

After that, I spent a couple weeks in recovery at home. I was able to walk around and even cook after a while. Until, inexplicably, the bleeding started again. The birth control wasn’t stopping it anymore. I waited far too long to make an appointment at my clinic+ 17/?

because I was afraid of another bill, but I finally couldn’t put it off anymore and went back at the start of the month. Due to a mixup with the thermometer, I was sent home and not allowed into the clinic because I registered a fever (that I did not have). 18/?

When I went back later that day, my doctor told me that the lab had already closed and so I would have to come in for a second appointment on monday to have my blood tested again. She put me on a slightly stronger birth control prescription and sent me home. It cost $60 19/?

I came back on Monday for another test to monitor my anemia, and it cost another $100+ for that visit and I still owe money to the lab, which bills separately for some reason. I still don’t know the cause of the bleeding after two months and lots of money I don’t have. 20/?

My doctor referred me to a hematologist to have iron injected directly into my blood, and I set up a telemedicine consultation that cost almost $300 just for a 15 minute video chat. She estimated that the cheapest option would be at least $1.5k. 21/?

I have not set up that appointment yet, hoping that since my bleeding has finally come to a stop again (for now) I can trust the oral iron to do its job, and knowing I still need to arrange an appointment with my gyno to do tests to find what’s CAUSING this problem. 22/?

All this time, all this money, and I still don’t know why my body has been dying on and off for two months. And I’m one of the lucky ones, to know that I have family to help take care of me and help me pay not to die. Being uninsured in this country can be a death sentence. 23/?

Now we’re in the middle of a pandemic. I don’t even have the virus, but the pandemic has influenced my healthcare experience at every step of the way. My state wants to start opening up for business already. 24/?

What’s gonna happen to me and patients like me if we have another spike in cases? PARAMEDICS were already warning people not to go to the hospital without knowing what you’re risking in MARCH. 25/?

Our healthcare system is already fucked, and the pandemic has only made it even more fucked. I appreciate every healthcare worker I’ve interacted with who put their lives on the line to heal me and everyone else, but this shouldn’t be what they have to put up with. 26/?

And uninsured patients like me shouldn’t have to shell out insane amounts of money just to not bleed to death in our beds without even knowing why. 27/?

Idk what the point of this thread was in the end other than to add my story to what feels like a million other stories. We already know this system is fucked. It feels like screaming into a void. But I guess it would feel worse to be silent. 28/?

My heart goes out to the coronavirus victims and everyone else trying to deal with a medical emergency while the whole world seems to collapse around them. 29/?

Frankly I’m struggling a lot after all this, I’m overdrawn and hit with repeated overdraft fees even as I’m trying to cope with all the bills. If you could rt my ko-fi, I’d appreciate it. 30/30 http://ko-fi.com/dearfriendicanfly