A Brighter Future for Bella

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HAS HELPED BELLA!!!

UPDATE: 8/4/23

We have AC! The house is no longer a sauna! THANK YOU!

Bella got the results of her MRI and they're sobering: she has tumors around 50% of her spine, some of which are inside the channel the nerves pass through. The nerve compression from these tumors is the main source of her chronic pain.

She will have to have surgery to remove as much of the tumors, as soon as possible. She also has tumors around her thyroid, brain stem, some organs, and many subcutaneous tumors.

Neurofibromatosis 1 is a progressive disease, so the tumors will continue to grow even after surgery. Its likely she will need chemotherapy to try to shrink them.

As you can imagine, she is terrified of spinal surgery and chemotherapy. But, she's trying to live her best life while she can.

She is waiting to hear about her disability application, but in the meantime she could use some help with day-to-day expenses. She needs a variety of special cleansers for her skin, to slow hair loss, dietary supplements, OTC supplies, etc, and they costs add up.

She is very stressed about money and continues to insist she work to cover these costs, but I think she should take it easy until she's had surgery and recovered. Please help me stop her from working by throwing a few bucks our way.

She deserves a break before things get much, much harder.

Please like and share!

Thanks again for making a difference!

Love,

Gerra

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Hi everyone,

My cousin Bella escaped an unsafe environment and moved in with us a few weeks ago. In addition to being under severe emotional and mental stress for years, Bella has severe neurofibromatosis - a chronic condition that causes tumors throughout her body. Literally hundreds of them on her scalp, chest, hips, limbs, lungs, thyroid - pretty much everywhere. The main treatments are surgery or localized radiation, but the condition will continue to progress through her life.

Reducing stress will reduce flare-ups, but, she also needs an extra soft mattress, AC (my house doesn't have it), and expensive pain medication. Some days the pain is so intense she can't get out of bed. She's currently sleeping on an air mattress her dad brought over, but no one else close to her has been able or willing to help.

Love is an action word: Bella is my family, and family takes care of each other. I'm doing everything in my power to give a fresh start to a young, smart, talented, disabled woman of color.

She finally has an emotionally safe space to heal, but I need your help to ensure her body can rest and recover.

How you can help:

1. Cash is king cuz I don't think mattress companies accept thoughts and prayers as payment.

2. We need advice on mattress companies/styles (there are so many!). Good mattresses are expensive, so we want to shop smart. It has to be super soft so it doesn't push on tumors everytime she rolls over. Ouch.

3. She also needs part-time work with a flexible schedule. I can personally vouch for her immaculate house cleaning/organizing, as well as attentive child/pet sitting/dog walking. Part time work from home is another great option (but she'll need a laptop). Just DM us if you know of something.

Thank you so much for being a part of her new beginning .