Hi, everyone!

As some of you may know, I have a very rare connective tissue disease called Loeys-Dietz (SMAD3) that I recently lost my mom to in November. Two of her brothers, and her dad, have passed away from this same disease. The timeline looks like life starts getting harder in the 40s but it seems mine has accelerated!

On my birthday, March 4th of this year, I came out of a headstand with some neck pain. This turned out to be a dissected artery in my neck. (This means I have a great chance of a stroke or aneurism(dying)). They watched me and discharged me and said to check in on it.

On April 1st, I woke up with the same symptoms of pain and nausea and went back to the ER. It turns out the artery now has a bulge and is getting worse. This means that I will likely need a stent put in. This is risky surgery, especially with my disease, and the chances of having a stroke during or after are much higher.

There is a chance it could remain the same size and not grow. Even if this does not happen and it's a close call, we still will need specialists to do tests, keep an eye on it, future potential operations, care, etc.

This all being said, with the support of my sister and close and very wise friends, we are doing everything we can to be proactive and get specialists on this -- especially if it goes down the surgery path.

But either way, this all is already costly. Insurance to cover this is about 2k/mo and we don't know how long the intensity of this is going to go on. Special consult is 1k and there are various out of pocket expenses heading our way.

This is basically not looking good for me and in order to support the best chances for what this could end up looking right, I want to ask for your support.

Thank you so much, I love you all and all the ways you have loved me. Or not, sweet stranger!

[BENEFICIARY IS AELLA MARTIN WHICH MEANS PROCEEDS WILL GO DIRECTLY TO HER SINCE EVERYTHING IS COMING OUT OF HER POCKET FOR ME]

Azmyth