𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭_𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞

Since y'all are helping pay me, I suppose it's only fair that I tell you where that money is going. I'm not going to share exact numbers, because frankly, I don't think anyone needs to know that much about my finances. But something rather remarkable has happened over the last month and a half. Every payment I've received from X has come within about 10–25% of a medical bill I've had to pay. There have been quite a few of those lately. So, whether you realize it or not, you wonderful people have been helping me through what turned out to be a pretty frightening cancer scare. I haven't talked about it much because I wanted to know what was happening before I said anything publicly. About a month and a half ago, I had an MRI for some unrelated health issues. During that MRI, the doctors discovered a nodule in my neck. That led to an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a rather large nodule in my neck with characteristics that doctors considered suspicious for cancer. I'm not going to pretend I was brave about it. I wasn't. For about a week and a galf, waiting for the biopsy, I was scared out of my mind. I tried not to dwell on it, tried to go about my life, tried to keep writing the same ridiculous things I always write here. (Now many of you know the reason why my muse abandoned me for a bit) In the back of my mind was the possibility that my life was about to change in a very unpleasant way. Then came the biopsy. A few days later, I got some of the best news I've received in a very long time. Benign. No cancer. Thank the Lord. I don't think I can adequately describe the relief I felt reading that result. Now, here's where all of you come in. Medical care isn't cheap, even with insurance. MRIs, ultrasounds, specialist visits, biopsies... it adds up remarkably quickly. Thanks to the money I've earned writing here, after accounting for the taxes I'll eventually owe, I've only had to pay about 10% of those expenses out of my own pocket. The rest came from X. Which means, ultimately, it came from YOU. Could I have afforded those bills myself? Yes. I'm fortunate enough that I could have dipped into savings and taken care of them. But I didn't have to. That means more to me than I can really put into words. I'm under no illusions about why most of you follow me. I write things, sometimes people enjoy them, sometimes people get angry at them, and sometimes I wonder why anyone reads my nonsense in the first place. It might just be the catgirls. Whatever. I certainly never expected that sitting around writing my thoughts on the internet would someday help pay for medical care during one of the scarier experiences of my life. But here we are. So I want to thank you. Thank you to everyone who reads what I write. Thank you to those who share it, reply to it, argue with it, or just quietly enjoy it. And yes, thank you to X for having a program that actually pays people like me to do this. You didn't know you were helping me through something difficult. I didn't tell you. And you certainly didn't owe me anything. But you helped anyway, simply by being here. I know I'm just some opinionated catgirl on the internet who writes too much and occasionally has something worthwhile to say. Behind that silly little avatar is a real person, with real worries, real bills, and a very real appreciation for the people who make it possible for me to keep doing something I love. Y'all have made a genuine difference in my life. I wanted you to know that. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.