I FOUND A SURGEON. I still need financial assistance during this time so please please please consider donating and sharing.

I desperately need jaw expansion surgery after suffering jaw recession. My jaws have recessed so much that my tongue has nowhere to go but into my throat. My condition has made it impossible to eat any solid food, and pushed my tongue so deep into my throat it is causing severe oral dysphagia and breathing issues. I have been on a liquid diet for four months and even liquids are a struggle. Since the issue became severe about three months ago, I have lost over 30 pounds and struggle to maintain sufficient nutrients. I am at risk of becoming very malnourished. On top of that, my specific surgery needs to be done in a hospital setting with monitoring because my tongue is causing severe obstructive sleep apnea. My current insurances is bouncing me around from department to department getting tied up in red tape and referrals. They have been doing this for four months and I just keep ending up right back where I started. I paid for out of pocket for a in person consultation from an out of network maxillofacial surgeon and he has deemed my case medically necessary and extremely urgent. He said he can perform the surgery for me in as little as 2-3 weeks. I cannot get my insurance company to listen to his report despite filing grievances and complaints constantly. Everyone says there’s just nothing they can do without this referral from this department or this test from these people, etc.

The need for the surgery to be done in the hospital with a possible additional day for monitoring and cost of initial surgery is why I am asking for a large amount of support. I am also looking at overseas to possibly get my surgery done sooner. Every day is a struggle and frankly I am scared. I’m scared of what the prolonged malnutrition has done and is doing to my body. I’m afraid of suffering a heart attack due to it and I’m afraid to be alone because my tongue has literally no where to go and takes up so much room in my mouth due to the recession that I choke on it randomly throughout the day. I’m scared and I don’t want to become another statistic in the healthcare industry of someone who possibly suffers irreversible harm or death due to lack of or prolonged access to care. The mental suffering is taking its toll along with the physical. All other doctors and surgeons and specialists I have called to get second, third and fourth opinions agree this is an extremely urgent issue that could quickly become an emergency and now I can’t even get my primary care physician at Kaiser to respond back to me. I have also been exploring options overseas.

I want to be around for my son and husband.

Thank you so much for your help. I have been seeing a Myofunctional therapist who is helping me out as much as she can but with little to no space in my mouth for my tongue there isn’t much she can do. I have also attached the out of network surgeon’s consultation and CTCB scan. I will also continue to file claims and grievances with Kaiser with hopes this can be solved that way but it’s been an absolute nightmare and I’m running out of time.