Myra's Recovery

My 9 year old sister, Myra, was having really bad migraines for a few years which increasingly got worse and more frequent. Recently she saw a doctor who suggested getting an MRI. Myra went to Children's Hospital for that MRI on Wednesday 8/13. A few minutes into the test, the technician called our mom over and showed her an image of Myra's brain, pointing out a clearly visible tumor (meningioma) which was blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid from the ventricles in her brain. Myra was immediately admitted to the hospital and has not left since. Two days after admittance, she had an operation to insert a tube into her brain to relieve the pressure of the backed up fluid (the picture above was taken right after this procedure), and less than a week later she had invasive major brain surgery to remove the tumor. The surgery was successful as far as we know, and she may be allowed to go home in a couple more days, to recover restfully. She is on a lot of pain medicine and many other things. She is very weak and requires full-time care from our mother, and will for a few weeks ahead. We are still waiting to find out if the tumor was benign, but are told that it is more likely that's the case. She may still need radiation treatments for a while though, as they had to leave a part of the tumor which was so close to the pituitary gland that it was safer to leave it then take it out.

Our mother is a housecleaner (independent businesswoman) who does not get paid time off or sick leave. She has been in the hospital with Myra this entire time and therefore unable to work. She will have to stay home to take care of Myra while she recovers, for another couple weeks, at least. With no income, she is not able to pay her household bills which are accruing quickly. Myra cannot come home to a house with no electricity or working phone. Therefore, it has become necessary to ask for help from friends and family to cover these regular expenses during this time.

We would greatly appreciate if anyone could donate to this fund to help our single mother get through this difficult time so she can focus soley on facilitating Myra's recovery. If you cannot donate, please share this page with others. Every little bit helps.

Thank you!