Ease Allison's Medical Burden

My name is Kimberly Mitchell, cousin to the wonderfully sweet, kind, and generous Allison Palmer, and together with her other cousin Stacey Susuico, and her best friend Keli Platek, we are reaching out to all of you to ask for some help in supporting Allison, who is navigating some challenging and costly medical issues right now. If you don't already know what Allison is going through medically, here is something she wrote to explain what's going on. I'm telling you, I read this and I couldn't believe just how much Allison has had to deal with:

"Hello and thank you for making it to my GoFundMe page.

Long story short: I have been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease in my neck and upper back, advanced cervical arthritis, AND they’ve identified a Chiari malformation on the base of my skull. These have come with incredible amounts of pain, migraines, lost time, vertigo, dizziness, and restrictions from doctors about what I can and can’t do; including doing my job.

I hate asking for handouts or help; I’m stubborn as hell with a work ethic like a horse, but I’m in trouble. I’m currently in a world of pain and mounting costs. I am regularly seeing 5 different doctors; 1 primary care physician and 4 different specialists to help me with a laundry list of medical issues that I have going on with my brain, spine, and the nervous system that connects them. I see 2-4 specialists a week costing anywhere from $65-$100+ per visit (out of pocket), with extensive bills in the mail. With a max family oop of $18k per year. This also does not include all the imaging I need to monitor my condition.

I’m already in a ton of medical & credit card debt, and every day I am going further and further into it. I need to accept that our medical and insurance system is a complete disaster, and that to get through this, I need support and financial help.

I am currently on long-term disability. On it, I’m making dramatically less money, & only able to make minimum payments to our growing medical debt. I’m just barely able to pay rent, utility bills, and childcare. Putting essentials on credit cards is putting us in a worse financial situation. We need help.

The long story — get ready…

I have suffered from migraines my whole life, even as a kid. When I was younger I took so much ibuprofen that it ruined my gut and caused severe stomach issues that I still deal with.

But within the last ten years, the migraines started to get way more intense. Scared, I have landed in the ER multiple times, all showing clear CT scans and good bloodwork. Every time, they would just give me a migraine cocktail that would help me in the moment so I would leave — only to keep returning with the same symptoms, the same test results, and the same diagnosis. They say the same thing every time: take migraine & anti-inflammatory meds. Exhausted with the process, I’ve been seeing a headache and migraine specialist for over a year now, and have tried taking 8 different migraine medications which have each been worse than the last (and now Botox, and Vyepti infusions which I hope will start working soon).

But that’s not it…

About 7 years ago, I started to experience debilitating bouts of vertigo. I saw more doctors. So many of them said it was from allergies, or dislodged crystals in my ears, and that it would come and go after weeks and weeks of physical therapy and different maneuvers, seasonal changes, and stress levels. After following all recommendations and still experiencing a regular frequency of vertigo, I chalked it up to misdiagnosis and have just been “dealing with it”.

My allergies and vertigo got so bad I finally made the call to go to an allergist. After testing and discovering that I was basically allergic to every tree, pollen, animal, and mold, they recommended allergen immunotherapy shots, but the treatments were so expensive that I couldn’t afford them. I’ve been taking over-the-counter medicine to manage these symptoms when they appear, almost every day.

After the pandemic started, I found myself in a new career at a beer company doing sales. My day-to-day here was twofold; either sitting all day driving around the city and working in an office, or loading and stocking beer around Chicago — continuously lifting and stacking cases and kegs of beer, in and out of cars, trucks, and storerooms (fun fact —among the things listed as contraindications for degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis: sitting in a fixed position for over 30 minutes, lifting things over 25 lbs. ).

I had a baby in 2022 and started to experience postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, and SO much STRESS. For the post-partum depression and anxiety, I just kept thinking I could get it under control, pushing through it until I felt like my anxiety was literally paralyzing me. I couldn’t speak at times. I would get stuck in my car before social interactions for work, or even just coming home, having full-blown panic attacks. I felt like I couldn’t move, sometimes for a whole day. I spoke to multiple therapists, my PCP, and my family, and I decided to go on anti-anxiety and antidepressant medication. It was the best and worst decision ever. It was the best because, after a few trials of meds, I found one that actually helped my anxiety and depression! But it was the worst because, on this medication, I could no longer take any other pain relievers, anti-inflammatory, or anti-nausea drugs, which I used daily to treat migraines, pain, vertigo, and nausea from underlying issues.

Flash forward to Sept 6th of this year. I woke up to excruciating pain in my shoulder. No injury that I could think of. Just doing my normal lifting cases of beer and my cooler in and out of my car, making displays for work, etc.. Thinking I just pulled something, I saw another doctor.

The doctor did an X-ray of my shoulder and neck. With the images in front of them, they turned to me and asked me if I experienced any neck pain. I said yes, and laughed it off, as my neck always hurts. I drive for 8 hours a day and have a toddler… should it not?

Well, unfortunately, it shouldn’t, and it should not hurt this bad all the time. The doctor saw from the imaging that my neck was in trouble, with moderate to severe wear in my spine around the neck and shoulders, and diagnosed me with cervical spondylosis (spinal arthritis at the neck).

I was recommended to see a Physical Therapist for my shoulder pain and got started on a regimen of PT. I got the most amazing PT doc. Seriously.

They helped the shoulder, but in doing so, my neck and back were only continuing to get worse, and so were my headaches and vertigo.

On the 11th of October, I had a migraine so bad I decided to take a newly prescribed triptan. It didn’t help at all and I felt like I had flu symptoms the following day. So I went back to my old meds that always seemed to take the edge off at least. But it also did not do much. I had to take anti-nausea pills to work on Monday, but by Tuesday morning my migraine was so bad I had to call off.

On Tuesday, I took the maximum dose of migraine meds and anti-nausea meds and on Wednesday morning I called both my headache doctors and my PCP and they both recommended to go to an urgent care. Apparently, because of the anti-anxiety meds that I’m on, I wasn’t supposed to take the triptans or anti-nausea pills that THEY prescribed, because it could cause a rare side effect called serotonin syndrome and urgent care sent me to the ER. I sat at Rush ER with vertigo and a headache so bad for 11 hours before talking to a doctor. They cleared a CT scan and my bloodwork again looked normal… they didn’t even give me fluids. They gave me Tylenol because they couldn’t give me the normal cocktail for migraines or any type of NSAID because of the anxiety medication I’m on. And told me the next step would be to see a neurologist… they set up the next available appointment for Dec 20th… that trip to the ER cost us nearly $4000 for Tylenol and a referral to another medical department.

My headache doctor tried to prescribe me new meds but my new insurance would not cover it. 8 pills would cost over $1600.

Mike was able & had to go to his office and pick up samples. I took one sample for 2 days. It did nothing. So I tried another one for 2 days. It did nothing. The only minor relief I got was from my PT doctor, and he told me to go back to the doctor who referred me and get an MRI of my cervical spine. So I went to the doctor, and she referred me to a pain specialist, ordered an MRI, and referred me to a neurosurgeon at Endeavor Health. They had no appointments with a neurologist till March 2025. North Western Neurology doesn’t have an appointment till April 2025…

I decided to stop taking my antidepressants/anxiety meds so that I could go back to taking what I needed for pain management and migraines.

After visiting a neurosurgeon, I was able to get an MRI, which gave me 2 more diagnoses other than Degenerative Disk Disease and Arthritis.

I also have:

Spinal Stenosis (happens when the space around your spinal cord becomes too narrow.)

Chiari Malformation (is a structural abnormality in your skull that causes part of your brain to move into your spinal canal - my skull is too small for my brain)

I have gone through 2 very painful diagnostic spinal block injections, nerve ablations, trigger point injections, & an epidural. A reaction to my ablation happened, and the muscles surrounding the nerve ablations are atrophied, and it feels like my neck can’t support my head, and I’m in more pain than I started with. More treatments are scheduled.

It is recommended that I do:

3 days of PT per week ($65per visit)

5 days a week of regular exercise. No neck core exercises, no walking, running or jumping…

Take pain relievers for coping and getting sleep.

I have doctors appointments and procedures lined up through May, ranging from surgeons, PT’s, OT’s, psychologists, rheumatologists, spine and pain specialists, naturopaths, and healers. I have no idea how I will be able to afford these treatments and out-of-pocket costs.

Our healthcare system and insurance are a joke and are failing the people who really need care. The amount of GoFundMe’s that are set up for our failed system is embarrassing to our country.

The amount of disappointment in myself that I feel by not being able to afford to do this on my own is immeasurable, and my pride has been eliminated by guilt.

But I’m turning this all around with a little PMA. I’m doing my best for my health and for my family. I’m working on asking for help, saying no when things feel too big, and stepping back to recognize what feels good.

Thank you so much for reading my story and showing any support you can. Even if it’s just a positive note or experience you’ve had that’s similar, it’s all very much appreciated and can’t even express the amount of gratitude I have for every single person I have in my life.

All the love and light to all,

Allison"

I know Allison hates asking for handouts and help, but she really needs any help you can give.