u/PP_BOY__

Feels like a good gauge of the community.

You guys are buying furniture, right?

As the title says, I'm in a rough spot. TW in advance for mild medical talk and a bit of oversharing.

For the past 6 years, I've watched this mass grow from the size of a grape to a baseball in my underarm. It was just unsightly at first so I ignored it for years but it now causes me lots of pain because I work in manual labor. There's a mental component to it, too, and I can barely stand to look at myself in the mirror anymore. I get sick to my stomach when I even see or feel it. After it became too big to ignore, I told myself it was cancer and would kill me anyway, but it's been years and all it does is hurt.

I have no insurance and for that matter have not been to a medical office of any kind since I was maybe 13 years old. My parents were self-employed and had no insurance. I have no clue how to even navigate setting up an appointment. I don't "have a doctor" or anything like that.

I'm at my wits end. The few times I've tried to contact free clinic events, I was turned away because I'm an otherwise young, fit, and employed single adult. I just have no health insurance and it's not immediately life-threatening, either.

The last thing I need is more debt. I've heard people talk about clinics that operate on a sliding pay scale, but I don't even know how to approach them. Any recommendations or advice would be appreciated, thank you for reading.