Brittany's Chiari Road to Recovery

This is my best friend Brittany, and Brittany and her family could really use your support both spiritually and financially. Brittany was diagnosed with something called Chiari Malformation when she was in college. At the time, she had no symptoms due to the brain malformation where her brain had started to "fall" or "slump" out of her head. In 2014, she needed a brain surgery in order to fix another issue that she had that was called Trigeminal Neuralgia. Despite that surgery being successful to fix the excruciating nerve pain in her face, about 2 months later she started experiencing a new array of symptoms that puzzled her and the doctors. Severe headaches, loss of memory, balance and coordination issues, loss of feeling and use in her arms, hearing loss and tinnitus, neck pain, constant exhaustion, slurring of speech, forgetting words... These are just some of the symptoms that started occurring on a daily basis. After completing more MRI's to find what the issue was, the doctors explained that her brain had "fallen" further out of her head through the hole in the bottom of her skull; therefore, crushing her brain, spinal cord and blocking the cerebrospinal fluid from travelling to and from the brain. The issue at hand was now the Chiari Malformation of the brain.

After 3 years of searching for the right neurosurgeon that could give her the best possible chance at a better quality of life and a life free from pain, Brittany has scheduled surgery on August 28th with Dr. Oro in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Oro is one of the best doctors that treats individuals with Chiari. He thoroughly explained the surgery process to Brittany and feels confident in this plan. A small glimpse into her surgery will be like this... The doctor will be removing a portion of the back of Brittany's skull, detaching and separating the neck muscles, opening the Dura (the sack that is around the brain), making another higher incision on her head to get a piece of peri-cranium (thin muscle layer) to sew into the Dura to make it bigger, potentially shrinking the brain tonsils to create more room in the skull, removing a portion of her C1 vertebrae, screwing in a titanium plate that arches over the hole removed in the skull, re-attaching the neck muscles to the plate and then stapling the head shut.

Brittany, her husband Nick, Mom and Dad will be in Aurora, Colorado for about a week depending on how surgery goes. As I'm sure you can imagine the costs are very high in order to do something like this to give Brittany a better chance at a life without pain. I've put together this fundraiser to help offset the costs she will be coming across such as airfare, accommodations, hospital and doctor’s costs, co-pays for pre/post surgery appointments and physical therapy, and for help with paying every day bills since Brittany will be out of work with no income for a portion of recovery. Even with insurance, medical bills can be a major financial burden, especially since they just found out that Dr. Oro is “out of network”, but I hope we can come together to help relieve some of that burden so it is one less thing for her and Nick to stress about.

Most importantly, I ask that you all keep her and her family in your prayers as she embarks on this journey to be healed. Pray for Dr. Oro and the doctors that will be treating her throughout recovery, the nurses, all hospital caregivers, for their safe travel and her complete healing. Thank you for your contributions and prayers!!!