Cierra's long-overdue recovery

If you are lucky enough to know Cierra, or even luckier and call her a friend, you know what a treasure she is. A tiny, foul-mouthed, honest, hard-working, intentionally generous and genuinely loving treasure of a human. You also probably know she is an incredible single mom to 7-year old daughter Hazel, barbers at a shop on Newport Ave, and has established secure housing through Habitat for Humanity. What you probably don't know is that Cierra has been living with debilitating physical pain and neurological complications, which have been undiagnosed for her entire life up until now.

Thanks to Dr. Pang, Cierra has finally been diagnosed with Tethered Cord Syndrome, where the spinal column is under constant unintentional tension, causing a constellation of progressive symptoms like numbness in the extremities, severe low-back pain, exhaustion, headaches, and anxiety. If left untreated, TCS can cause incontinence and even paraplegia.

Typically, Tethered Cord Syndrome is diagnosed in children by the age of two, but doctors and medical professionals never took her concerns seriously so she's been living with this burden forever. Most recently she's been having to cut down on work and is at the point where she physically can't pick up Hazel or sit comfortably for more than 20 min. Now that she knows what's causing her all this pain and stress, she has the opportunity to have surgery and begin the bumpy road of healing and could really use our help.

Insurance will cover part of the procedure cost, however Cierra will need to come up with the rest. Acute recovery is anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks, during which she won't be able to work, so she needs help with missed work to cover daily living expenses as well. It's been a rough road for our dear friend, but we have the chance to show her a little love. Any amount will be helpful, thank you so much!