Allison's Brain Surgery Fund

My name is Allison Prouty and I am 21 almost 22 years old. I have been battling with this mystery illness since around 2009. In that same year I got diagnosed with mononucleosis and took me close to a year to recover. Ever since then I get sick very easily, there are days where my lymph nodes swell painfully all over my body and sometimes bruise. In 2012 I developed severe migraines that almost stopped me from graduating highschool. My mom took me to the hospital and they ordered a brain CT which showed a mass on my pineal gland in my brain. The ER doctor told us that this is nothing to be worried about and that the cyst is not causing my migraines. So I went on with my life.


I graduated high school and started college in Cedar Rapids I lived on my own and had three jobs just to make ends meet. My migraines and pelvic cramping slowly progressed with my very busy, stressful lifestyle as a college student trying to make ends meet. I have gotten sent to the hospital multiple times since 2013 due to ruptured ovarian cysts.

 In January of 2015 I thought I was having another ovarian cyst rupture so I was rushed to the hospital. They did ultrasound and didn't find a source of the pain so they sent me home with pain meds. That was when I started noticing that doctors are not taking me seriously and that this pain isn't planning on going anywhere.

I have had 6 procedures in this calendar year and all have came back normal or almost normal. I have seen around 20 doctors to help me with this debilitating pain and either they tell me that this is all in my head, I am overreacting or I am just in this for pain meds. It becomes a challenge to stay strong when the professionals who are suppose to help make you feel like you are all alone.

This pain never ever goes away, it has gotten extremely exhausting. I've tried Pain medication, physical therapy, mild exercising, ice or heat and still no relief. It is getting close to month ten of my chronic pain my body decided to bring back my severe migraines. 9/9/15 my migraine started, I forced myself to go to work And that only made it worse. By 9/11/15 I couldn't move my head without wincing in pain, I couldn't keep any food down, extremely sensitive to light. Two weeks prior I was going through my medical record I made for myself and started reading my brain mri from 2012 and it states that i needed a 6 month follow up mri to check the pineal gland cyst.It had been three years and no one told me.

I let my doctor know asap that I need an mri done. 9/14 I had a brain mri coincidentally when my migraine started. I could tell there was something different about this migraine, I felt metal skewers being jabbed through both of my eyes and deep in my brain. By 9/16 i finally had a doctors appointment to have my mri read to me, I had not kept anything down for a week I could barely move. She told my mom and I that my pineal gland cyst has hemorrhaged. My first instinct as I couldn't lift my head let alone my whole body was to panic and hyperventilate. She advised that we have to go to the ER asap. Soon as I got to the hospital they told me i need to be transported to the university of Iowa via ambulance. My family and I waited hours In the ER room to get any answers and they diagnosed me with an extremely rare condition called Pineal apoplexy. I had to stay in the SNICU for 3 days, once they thought I was stable I moved into a normal room. I was kept heavily medicated and sedated to manage my nausea, pelvic pain and my severe headache. Some of the neurosurgeons at the university of Iowa told me that the pineal gland cyst isn't causing my severe symptoms and that they didn't know what else to do for me. On 9/21 I finally was discharged from the hospital, I am on strict bed rest taking it as it comes. I am so thankful for my amazing family and friends stepping in to fight my battle when I am no longer able to fight on my own. My mom and sister have been on the phone constantly calling to try and find the best neurosurgeon in the nation who are highly educated on how vital the pineal gland is and has performed the surgery before. Every day becomes a bigger challenge but I am willing to give this my all knowing I have loving family and friends to stand by my side every step of the way.


Any donation is contributing to my road to recovery so thank you very much. My spirits are high, guardian angels watching over me. My family and I will be able to use the contributions for travel,hotel, hospital stay accommodations. This would mean the world to us.