Makayla's Life-Changing Surgery

My name is Makayla Lechnowskyj, and I am a 35-year-old woman who has dedicated my life and career to helping others. I currently work as a licensed therapist and addictions specialist, focusing on individuals living in the intersections of homelessness, addiction, and pervasive mental illness.

However, I am now facing a medical condition that is excruciatingly painful, debilitating, and has completely altered my life. For the past six years, I have been suffering from Occipital Neuralgia, a condition that causes extreme pain in the nerves in the back of my head and neck. Despite trying every treatment option available—chiropractic care, physical therapy, nerve blocks, radio frequency ablations, acupuncture, injections, medications, and more—none have brought relief, and many have worsened my condition. This pain has made it nearly impossible to live a normal life, affecting even the simplest moments, like holding or looking down at my baby. I am no longer even able to lay my head on a pillow without severe pain. On good days, the pain is comparable to a severe migraine. On bad days, I am unable to speak, swallow, or move my head and am overwhelmed by severe brain fog and just general hopelessness to go on living.

Without the specialized Nerve Decompression Surgery that I am desperately seeking, I cannot continue to live with this level of pain, and my mental health continues to be severely impacted. The surgery is my last hope for a normal life, but it is not covered by insurance.

Insurance covers ZERO of my cost. My financial goal aims to cover the surgeon, the surgical center, the anesthesiologist, post-op care, medications, round-trip travel to Houston, and lost wages from work. This surgery, along with associated travel and living expenses, is far beyond my financial reach. I need your help to afford it and finally find relief. Additionally, any funds raised above the goal will be used to help me discontinue long-term narcotic medication use, which I have relied on to manage my pain. I would like to do this by utilizing NADH therapy, which is an IV amino acid that not only would quicken my medication taper from weeks to days, but also significantly reduce the symptoms of my fibromyalgia.

I cannot overstate the amount of pain I have been living through, nor the amount of hopelessness that is beginning to overwhelm me. Having a child has impacted me in ways I never thought possible - both wonderful and difficult. I want to be a parent. But the reality is that we all have a limit, and I have reached mine. If I cannot achieve real relief from this pain I cannot envision a life that continues to include me in it.

(Also, to give clarity to anyone desiring it, Jason and I had been saving up and getting ready for this surgery to happen as soon as was physically possible post-partum. Unfortunately my birth process took all of that money. I had an emergency c-section during which I hemorrhaged and developed a second extremely rare neurological syndrome (RCVS). This syndrome was also VERY painful, but more than that put me at a high stroke risk and required multiple ER visits and specialized scans. None of the repeated scans I needed were covered by my insurance, and the copay for the ER visits was very high. This, combined with the cost of my c-section wiped us out.)

Hilary Dufour, a wonderful and talented artist located in San Diego, Ca, has donated an original wood burned art piece to the GoFundMe. Anyone who donates will be automatically entered to win this one of a kind piece.