Help Support me through Major Surgery

My name is Naomi. I’m 23.

I’m a very private person, so this is very hard for me to do, but recently I was diagnosed with an extremely rare disease known as Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor (TGCT). I’ve been unable to walk for over a year, and finally, I am about to undergo surgery to remove my tumor and a full replacement of my left hip.

Because of the rarity of this disease, I’ve been sent from Roseville Orthopedic Specialists to UC Davis, UCSF, with many insurance issues, to finally now get help 2 hours from my home at Stanford University. I now have a board of tumor specialists and their teams helping me through this treatment process.

I have been through misdiagnosis. I’ve been seen by many doctors who couldn’t help me. I’ve been depressed and alone, dealing with financial difficulties. I’ve had to quit my job because of this injury; I couldn’t physically perform my tasks anymore working in a restaurant after losing the ability to walk. I’ve managed to sustain my bills for a year while being injured, but I am now struggling to keep up and find work that I can do with all my doctor’s appointments and chemo treatment. I’m reaching out to folks for financial assistance to help support me through my injury and recovery until I am able to support myself once again.

I’m reaching out to the people that know me and the people that don’t. I am currently on a chemotherapy medicine to help shrink the tumor, and my doctors plan on replacing my hip in November after many delays.

The recovery is expected to be long and hard due to muscle atrophy and damage done by this tumor. My doctor has described my hip as that of an 80-year-old woman, so there is no other choice but to replace it. This is a major surgery, especially for someone who is so young, and I’m not too afraid to admit I need all the help I can get at this time. Thank you for all of your donations; I appreciate it so much. Anything will help.