Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to read this. My name is Allen Price, and I am here to ask for help in a time of need. About a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with a condition I was born with, Chiari Malformation. A week after diagnoses I was in surgery, and after that, everything changed. My health has never come back, and even a year and a half later Dizziness, disorientation and pain make daily life hard. I have tried everything to avoid the second surgery, but nothing worked and surgery is the only option left. June 4th, I have my second surgery, and I hope it will be my last.

I have just begun to rebuild the life I had before the first surgery, and now I may have to face that again. Any amount will help, and I will be very grateful for the gesture. Also, if anyone cares to hear the entire story, or to get more info, I am open to conversation and have been known to be an open book.

This is a poem I wrote about 2 weeks post surgery, it may paint the picture:

"All Chiari Consumed”

A monster inside

Years, 35 to be exact

It devised its plan and waited to attack

35 normal, mind understood

35 normal, emotion controlled

35 normal, fulfilled and blissful

35 normal years all but remissful

Starting small, devouring my identity

Challenging beliefs and changing thoughts

Stealing passions, changing the meaning of life

Consuming it all, truth now rife

Starting with task

Onto functions

Ending with movement

Contesting the junctions

All while inflicting crippling pain

Mind was lost, easily deceived by past

Present decisions, no longer mine

Life known dissolved, reformed in time

Frozen mind and now in space

Absent the knowledge to traverse this place

The more I look, the more unknown I see

My dreams make haste and flee

Future was set, certainty secured

With ‘her’ by my side, fears deterred

Limits ignored, the future was open

Fulfilled and complete, requiring no token

Present a monster, controlling my life

Scaring away those most dear

Driving divides and instilling fear

Now without ‘her’ I fight alone

My Direction is lost, my future unknown

Stolen possessions, all but time

That now lonely, unknown what’s mine

Thank you!