Hello, I am sure most of you know that Jacob Holtzhauer is my brother. For those of you who keep in touch with him or know someone who does, you may have heard about his health. Jake has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Neuropathy and Post Traumatic Deafferentation on the left side of his face as a result of eight surgeries to his jaw. This story dates back to February of 2022 and is very long and too much to share in detail. In the past year, he also had unsuccessful back surgery and a total hip replacement. On a pain scale of 1-10, he is constantly at a 7 and some days a 10.

Jake has not been able to work for over a year and is trying hard to get disability to keep afloat until he can find a solution for the chronic pain. Jake has been all over the country searching for help - Chicago (4X), Dallas, Atlanta, Boston (4X), Cleveland, New York, etc. As many of you know, trying to find help for rare conditions is extremely difficult and costly. A lot of the procedures are not covered by insurance due to lack of data or positive outcomes. Jake spent $30,000 out of pocket in Denver this past August on a procedure using a spinal cord stimulator for facial pain, but unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. He is currently working with a few different functional neurosurgeons, two at the University of Cincinnati and another at Emory University in Atlanta. The procedures are not guaranteed to work and unfortunately not covered by his insurance. A few of the procedures being discussed are DREZ, motor cortex stimulation, etc.

Jake is a fighter and loves life, especially being in the water and soaking in the sun, but he is extremely tired, and we can all see the pain in his eyes. It's literally a full-time job for him trying to find help. This whole process has worn him down both mentally and physically. Jake has an extremely hard time asking anyone for help, so I mentioned to him a GoFundMe page. He wasn't really excited about it, but he knows he is running out of money and options. He just wants to get back to work and enjoy life again. He would be grateful for anything and everything will be extremely appreciated. If you don't have the means to help financially, please reach out to him. He said when he gets a random text from someone he hasn't heard from in a long time, it keeps him going.

Hello, an update on Jake's current status. Jake had the DREZ procedure back in June of 2024. The surgery was unsuccessful and was very devastating. Anytime you mess with nerves there is a chance the procedure might not work and actually make things worse, and that has happened to Jake. He is currently working with a neurosurgeon and pain management doctors at University Hospital in Cleveland, Oh. They are injecting a drug called PRIALT, which is a poison found in the mucus of a Conus Magus snail into his spinal fluid. The first injection didn't help. They will increase the strength for the next injection.

It will be three years on February 5th since this all started. Any help at all would be gratefully appreciated.