Hello family and friends, as many of you know, I severely injured my neck many years ago. For three decades, I have fought and struggled through many issues dealing with my neck, and now I'm at a point where I need to get a neck procedure to improve my quality of life.

About 4-5 months ago, I started choking, losing my ability to breathe, having visual disturbances, and the list goes on with many other issues from my nerve being crushed by my C1 vertebra. My neck is considered broken because the ligaments that stabilize your vertebrae are severely damaged, allowing my C1 vertebra to slide off my C2 vertebra about 5-6 millimeters in both directions, causing me to have random flare-ups of the above symptoms.

There are 7 vertebrae in your neck, and the C1 vertebra is located just below the base of the skull. My C1 is just floating around and getting stuck in random positions, which is causing me to have good days and bad days.

My diagnosis is a type 2B CCI, which is a type of craniocervical instability due to damage in the alar ligaments in my C1-C2 vertebrae. The alar ligament holds the C1 to the C2, keeping it from sliding off the C2, and it also assists in rotating the C1 vertebra, which mine is not doing anymore.

I qualify for a procedure called Percutaneous Implantation of the Craniocervical Ligaments (PICL), which is a stem cell procedure. The doctor will take a sample of bone marrow from my pelvic bone, derive my own stem cells from the sample, and then inject the stem cells into my damaged ligaments in my neck so the ligaments can restructure themselves and grow back.

The procedure has a very high success rate, but unfortunately, the procedure is not covered by insurance. I climb trees for a living and was told back in September to stop because climbing really causes my symptoms to flare up, so now I'm at a point where I need your help. My goal is to raise $20,000 to help cover the PICL procedure ($12,500), an MRI for my neck, traveling expenses as the procedure is done in Colorado, and the cost of living while I recover.