Cameron's Fight for Life & Limb

Cameron was born fighting for his life & the odds have always been against him. He has been diagnosed with many medical issues & endured nearly 40 major surgeries to date. He was born with Spina bifida & a Tethered spinal cord. We have avoided surgery as long as we possibly could due to his odds of survival, paralysis, &/or nerve damage being so low. He has permanent irreversible damage to his bladder & bowel functions for which we have continued to manage  throughout his life with surgeries & multiple medications. However about 2 years ago he started to experience worsen symptoms including some of the more severe signs such as numbness & cramping in his legs, with pain in his legs, hips, & low back. We saw his Neurosurgeon just a year ago & they ran test including MRIs & nerve & muscle test & at that time he had lose muscle mass but the Dr felt his condition wasn't sever enough to equal the extreme risk of having surgery. Since that time he had started to experience actual falling down from the lose of feeling in his legs, inability to stretch his legs out completely without the tugging on his cord, his knees has started to turn in & rub together making it harder to walk, the start of scoliosis, & his pain has continued to increase in strength. They did a new MRI & his cord has gotten to thin which now poses a large problem as he isn't completely done growing in height. The Neurosurgeon has recommended to us that surgery is now his only chance of survival, while preventing the increased muscle loss up to paralysis, & the continued worsening in the severity of his pain. If he grows anymore his cord can snap or become severed which will result in either death, partial paralysis, or complete paralysis. He is at higher risk due to his age, his allergies to almost all antibiotics, his one functioning kidney, & the cyst of balled up nerves that have grown along his spinal cord. The complications of his conditions place him at a 80 to 90% chance of death, paralysis, or severe nerve damage. He is also at risk for infection, spinal cord fluid leakage, bleeding, &/or breathing complications. If we chose not to do the surgery, he will experience increased lose of his legs & body functions & increasing pain in his legs, hips, & low back; until his cord eventually snaps. We have decided as a family to go through with the surgery but he will be in the hospital for a minimum of weeks & maximum of months. Usually this surgery has a 9 to 18 month wait to prepare families emotionally & financially but his Drs do not feel as though he has that kind of time so he will have this surgery on Thursday October 18th 2018. We have to pay 20% of his surgery & hospital cost including the upfront out of pocket cost of $8210 due the same day as surgery! As we weren't given much time to prepare we are currently working on coming up with the remaining amount of our upfront cost & expenses to be in Kansas City for such a long time. As many may know we just paid out the same kind of cost a year ago for the multiple surgeries he had to remove cancerous pulps in his stomach. Our family appreciates any & all of your prayers, thoughts, & support for our family during what is sure to be a very difficult time!