Brain Surgery needs and recovery

Hello Friends!

I am putting this out for my amazing niece, Kayla (25). She is a phenomenal young woman who has been dealing with severe and debilitating migraines since she was around 8 or 9 years old. Finally, it has been uncovered that she has a cyst on her Pineal Gland that is the size of a walnut. She has also found a doctor in Wisconsin who is willing to do the surgery. This surgery can be the start of a better life for her.

On top of this and all the normal life things, Kayla recently lost her insurance and had to postpone this surgery which was scheduled for the end of January. I am hoping to take some stress off of her by getting the time off from work covered and any other out of pocket that come up now that she has a new insurance.

You can donate here to show Kayla that not only is she important but so is this surgery. Kayla does not ask for help often and really had to be convinced to allow me to put this out there for her.

Pineal Cyst Info From Kayla

The majority of neurologists and neurosurgeons do not believe that pineal cysts are symptomatic, therefore finding a neurosurgeon that understands the debilitating symptoms they cause, is quite challenging(to my knowledge, I know of 4 professionals who do the operation I need).  On top of that, identifying a neurosurgeon skilled enough to perform surgery for resection or fenestration of the cyst is even more difficult. 

Pineal gland tumors are very rare, and there are several different types of them. Pineal tumors account for 0.5% of all central nervous system (CNS) tumors in adults, 1% in young adults (aged 20–34 years), and 2.7% in children (aged 1–12 years). My pineal gland mass was first noted back in 2011 but my Neurologist at the time was not educated in pineal gland tumors/cysts therefore (also only had the education that these masses are 99.99% of the time non-problematic) I was not notified of my pineal gland mass until the Fall of 2021. Pineal tumors aren't always and most often are not cancer, but they still cause problems as they grow because they press against other parts of your brain.

Her surgery is expected to last 4-6 hours with Kayla needing to be off work for roughly 6-8 weeks.

After all the years of searching for solutions to help me get by day to day with a diagnosis that impacts every aspect of my life, finding a permanent solution to give me the relief I need to get control back over my life and my health is the greatest blessing I could ever ask for. I genuinely wouldn’t have made it all these years without my family and loved ones' unrelenting support in fighting with me to find me help and take care of me daily. I can never thank them enough ♥️ Kayla