Help Alyssa with major Surgery (and colectomy)
Donation protected
Hello everyone! As you probably know, my name is Alyssa! I am 23 and I am the Owner and creator of Lazy Space! I take and upcycle old plushies into new art pieces to share with others who love things cute, creepy, Kawaii, and strange. The fact I get to share my art with the world and make other peoples days brighter and the slightest bit more livable is such a blessing, and has helped me through some of the toughest times of my life, including now.
EDIT APRIL 12th 2023:
Hey guys! So not so great news. I recently had a CT scan, and it was revealed that my pectus excavatum is severe. I have lived with the shortness of breath, daily fainting, excersize inability, and chest pain my whole life until this point, so it was unknown that it was going to be so bad. The surgery I now need on top of the Colectomy is pretty hard on your body. It requires a long healing time, is expensive (~$60,000 with insurance, and will have to be done in another state since there are no surgeons comfortable doing the prosecute on an adult here. I will need to take up to a 3 month leave to heal from just the chest surgery. My genetisist has told me that the reason this pectus got so bad is likely due to the fact that I have a degenerative tissue disorder or genetic condition that links to this and my other symptoms like joint pain, hyper mobility, and hyper mobility. This is just an addition to my ever growing medical list, so it definitely is not the kind of news I was hoping to hear. Anyway, any help is extra appreciated! I’ll keep you posted if any updates of course!
ORIGINAL POST:
Back in October of 2022, I was diagnosed with what is called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, or FAP for short. This is a hereditary cancer syndrome that is characterized by the hundreds of polyps that are developed in the Colon, Rectum, Small intestine, and stomach at an early age. Life expectancy for those with this treatment who don’t get treatment is about 45 years. (Treatment for this condition starts at a young age of 8) Polyps are common for people to get maybe one or two, but since my body makes thousands, the chances of things going cancerous is serious. There are other things that can appear with FAP, like thyroid cancer, brain cancer, and a few others, but luckily through testing and CT scans, I have no other complications or signs of danger, except for my colon at the moment. (My stomach had some large polyps, but they were removed and tested and all good)When they did a colonoscopy, they went in and removed 43 polyps; but there were too many polyps so they had to stop removing them unfortunately. Through testing, all the polyps they pulled were Benign, but its been determined that I am in need of a total Colectomy due to the very large threat and danger of these polyps in my colon turning cancerous. This is a major surgery; where they make a few incisions, and will take my colon and rectum out, and then take my small intestine, and make a dip that will act as my rectum so I can still have bowl movements. Due to this being a high risk situation, I will be getting this surgery most likely done within 2-3 months. This is at a really difficult time if my life, as I am still trying to settle in after moving back to Montana (after a separation of me and an ex-husband) and I will need at least 2-3 weeks to recover after the surgery if there are no complications. I will most likely be unable to work on my art during a huge chunk of this process, and I am worried that I will not be able to afford billing, housing, and such. I am going to be holding a r*ffle (go fund me don’t like that word, so I had to censor it) and auction for some of my art, but I wanted to make this go fund me so those who want to help me during this hard time can. Any amount helps, even a sharing of this go fund me. It’s been pretty overwhelming to come to terms with, as I have really bad medical anxiety, and am dealing with a divorce, relocating, and my income is reliant on me being able to physically work.
Any and all donations are so helpful, as I will be able to focus on healing and recovery instead of trying to force my body to work so I can pay for basic needs. All fund would be used to pay for rent, food, bills, and any and all medical bills acquired during this time. I will also post updates to any new information or if and when the surgery is scheduled, all that info! All these tests and such have been really draining, so any and all help is appreciated! thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
EDIT APRIL 12th 2023:
Hey guys! So not so great news. I recently had a CT scan, and it was revealed that my pectus excavatum is severe. I have lived with the shortness of breath, daily fainting, excersize inability, and chest pain my whole life until this point, so it was unknown that it was going to be so bad. The surgery I now need on top of the Colectomy is pretty hard on your body. It requires a long healing time, is expensive (~$60,000 with insurance, and will have to be done in another state since there are no surgeons comfortable doing the prosecute on an adult here. I will need to take up to a 3 month leave to heal from just the chest surgery. My genetisist has told me that the reason this pectus got so bad is likely due to the fact that I have a degenerative tissue disorder or genetic condition that links to this and my other symptoms like joint pain, hyper mobility, and hyper mobility. This is just an addition to my ever growing medical list, so it definitely is not the kind of news I was hoping to hear. Anyway, any help is extra appreciated! I’ll keep you posted if any updates of course!
ORIGINAL POST:
Back in October of 2022, I was diagnosed with what is called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, or FAP for short. This is a hereditary cancer syndrome that is characterized by the hundreds of polyps that are developed in the Colon, Rectum, Small intestine, and stomach at an early age. Life expectancy for those with this treatment who don’t get treatment is about 45 years. (Treatment for this condition starts at a young age of 8) Polyps are common for people to get maybe one or two, but since my body makes thousands, the chances of things going cancerous is serious. There are other things that can appear with FAP, like thyroid cancer, brain cancer, and a few others, but luckily through testing and CT scans, I have no other complications or signs of danger, except for my colon at the moment. (My stomach had some large polyps, but they were removed and tested and all good)When they did a colonoscopy, they went in and removed 43 polyps; but there were too many polyps so they had to stop removing them unfortunately. Through testing, all the polyps they pulled were Benign, but its been determined that I am in need of a total Colectomy due to the very large threat and danger of these polyps in my colon turning cancerous. This is a major surgery; where they make a few incisions, and will take my colon and rectum out, and then take my small intestine, and make a dip that will act as my rectum so I can still have bowl movements. Due to this being a high risk situation, I will be getting this surgery most likely done within 2-3 months. This is at a really difficult time if my life, as I am still trying to settle in after moving back to Montana (after a separation of me and an ex-husband) and I will need at least 2-3 weeks to recover after the surgery if there are no complications. I will most likely be unable to work on my art during a huge chunk of this process, and I am worried that I will not be able to afford billing, housing, and such. I am going to be holding a r*ffle (go fund me don’t like that word, so I had to censor it) and auction for some of my art, but I wanted to make this go fund me so those who want to help me during this hard time can. Any amount helps, even a sharing of this go fund me. It’s been pretty overwhelming to come to terms with, as I have really bad medical anxiety, and am dealing with a divorce, relocating, and my income is reliant on me being able to physically work.
Any and all donations are so helpful, as I will be able to focus on healing and recovery instead of trying to force my body to work so I can pay for basic needs. All fund would be used to pay for rent, food, bills, and any and all medical bills acquired during this time. I will also post updates to any new information or if and when the surgery is scheduled, all that info! All these tests and such have been really draining, so any and all help is appreciated! thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
Organizer
Alyssa Nelson
Organizer
Kalispell, MT