Help Kharyshi Get Life-Changing Lipedema Surgery!

My name is Kharyshi Wiginton, and I was recently diagnosed with a disease called lipedema. What Is Lipedema  This is a progressive disease, and without your support, I might not be able to move around without support from an assisted device. According to The Lipedema Project,

 

"Lipedema is a relatively common fat disorder that is often mistaken for simple obesity. Its clinical diagnosis is an adipose tissue disorder or a lipid metabolism disorder. A typical lipedema patient is a woman who struggles with large hips and legs, usually out of proportion to the rest of her body. Lipedema also appears in the upper arms. One of the hallmarks of the disease is that lipedema fat is relatively unresponsive to diet and exercise. These measures may lead to weight loss in other areas, but the size of the hips and legs remains disproportionately large.

 

Lipedema is both an excess buildup of fat cells in a particular area, and the expansion of those fat cells. Swelling in the interstitial fluid between cells may increase during the day in patients with lipedema, but does not usually cause “pitting edema.” Patients often complain of tenderness or pain in the fat and report that they are easily bruised. Lipedema is little recognized in the United States medical community, and many women go undiagnosed for years."

https://lipedemaproject.org/about-lipedema/

It seems I have Type IV, Stage IV Lipedema. Last year, I revealed that I have lymphedema, but it seems the primary thing that I am suffering from, the disorder that set the stage for me to develop lymphedema, is lipedema. This means that what I actually have is lipolymphedema. I’ve had this disorder since puberty, but it was overlooked and undiagnosed because it was dismissed as simply "fat!"

 

For 40 years, I received constant and persistent ridicule and criticism from family, friends, doctors, and strangers. Not to mention the harsh judgment I gave myself. I was fed so much blame and shame and I internalized it. My lipedema is at a more advanced stage, and because it’s been ignored and misdiagnosed as obesity for so long, it has progressed to the point where my mobility is severely in question.

 

The lipedema is not only large, heavy, and painful, it seems to be growing like wildfire despite all of my efforts to shift that. Lipedema is non-responsive to behavioral interventions like dieting and exercise, yet I am blamed and ridiculed because society sees fatness as something you deserve due to your lack of behavioral discipline to keep your body in order. It is for this reason, I have received little in the way of serious engagement with the disease’s effect on my body and the medical help I require to address it. Additionally, my lipedema has caused large amounts of fat to gather on and around my knees; altering my stance, stimulating my osteoarthritis, and impeding my ability to stand or walk for long periods of time. I CAN BARELY FUNCTION BY MYSELF!

 

But perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this whole experience is that I am a dancer that can no longer dance. Throughout my entire life, I have been extremely active. My identity is deeply connected to movement; as an athlete, a dancer, and a constant ball of energy. In fact, I trained as a dancer for years and even started my own dance company. However, despite consistently exercising and being extremely active, I continued to gain weight.

 

In 2013, I was in a major car accident that landed me with a tibial plateau fracture and an MCL tear. These injuries left me non-weight bearing for (3) months. A year or so later, I tore my meniscus doing Congolese dance, which my doctors refused to treat. I was told repeatedly that it was not a meniscus tear, but osteoarthritis that developed as a result of being fat. The lack of treatment left me walking with a cane for about a year, and my movement has drastically diminished since then. I fought for a year to get Kaiser to give me an MRI which proved that my meniscus was in fact torn. However, they continued to refuse treatment because of my weight. This is not a rare case!

 

The medical field treats me, a Fat Black woman, as though I'm invisible. It is a well-known, well-documented fact that Black women receive far worse care from doctors. Whether it's pregnancy, cancer, fibroids, or any number of other illnesses, our complaints are dismissed because we are thought to be able to take more pain and serious conditions are overlooked. In addition to these egregious actions, being fat adds an additional burden because it gives an already problematic, sizist, and discriminatory system the permission that they’re looking for to disregard any issue we’re having as “being too fat.”

 

As a result of these injuries and the shift in my activity level, my weight has been on the rise while my mobility has been on a consistent decline. My legs have ALWAYS been a vital part of who I am, but due to lipedema, I barely have use of them. I am terrified that a year from now, based on my decline, I’ll be in a wheelchair part or full-time. I am also terrified that aside from difficulty walking, I will never dance again.

 

I am desperately in need of liposuction surgery! There is no cure for lipedema, but liposuction is the only way to remove the excess adipose tissue that multiplies in my body despite a generally moderate diet and desire for physical activity. Because it is difficult to get approved for liposuction by an insurance provider, I must pay for the surgeries that I need "out-of-pocket."

 

Many of you follow me because of the reclamation of the narrative my body provides for what is possible in a large woman’s body. The freedom, the joy, the body positivity, and autonomy we all deserve to enjoy at every size. Well now, I NEED YOUR HELP! My goal is not to be Hollywood thin or supermodel sleek. My goal is to be the healthiest representation of my most authentic self manifested in what I am sure is a smaller, yet supple full-bodied self, able to walk and move, and more importantly, dance about the world, with ease.

 

Please support my journey back to mobility by donating to this GoFundMe.

 

I will keep you all updated on my progress toward full health and whole-body wellness. One where our medical establishment does not allow shame and blame to obscure seeing a human’s desire for health and healing.