Our wonderful Valerie, who is so kind and so loving, has been in excruciating and life-disturbing pain for a year and a half and she desperately needs our help.

Valerie has endured a horrific sports injury causing a very serious traumatic injury to her ribcage. This alongside her hyper-mobility condition went undiagnosed for nearly a year. Valerie was diagnosed with Slipping Rib Syndrome, an underdiagnosed and terribly painful condition where the sharp tips of the rib cartilage are dislocated, causing movement which stabs the intercostal nerves.

Valerie’s surgery in October of 2022 was brutal, but it was helpful and she recovered well. However it did not resolve all of her chest wall pathology and agony. This disease has caused Valerie to become entirely incapacitated, causing her to have to miss out on most things in her life. Prior to having this bilateral operation in October, Valerie has exhausted every last penny in her savings account on diagnostic injections, testing, procedures, ect. The sum of everything she has paid out of pocket totals to $15,000. Valerie has also lost all income/wages from her job working as a Psychiatric Social Worker.

Since January this year, Valerie has been advocating relentlessly and failing to get someone to support her further. She’s had endless procedures, scans, examinations, and testing done to rule out any other possible pathology. While it’s clear there is a problem with the ribs that connect to her sternum, she was given the devastating news that her surgeon did not have the skills or the inclination to operate and that he was refusing to authorize the Dynamic Ultrasound that she desperately needs to solve her case. Quite simply, Valerie cannot live like this. Her pain is intolerable and profoundly disabling and she needs help now.

Thankfully, Valerie has finally found a surgeon who does have the skills to help her and who works closely with the world’s leading rib imaging radiologist. She has the Dynamic Ultrasound scheduled on 26 May to clarify the precise nature of the surgery she needs, and a follow-up appointment that very day with the surgeon. Unfortunately, neither the radiologist nor the surgeon is based in the US and Valerie is going to have to make the journey abroad and fund the treatment privately, and stay away from home for at least a month, until she has had the surgery and is fit to fly home. The journey is going to be incredibly difficult for her and very painful, which is why her father will be accompanying her, even though he has only recently finished a course of treatment for cancer. It’s going to be expensive and that is going to be challenging, as Valerie has been away from work now for over a year, which is why we are asking that everyone who loves and cares for her digs deep and gives what they are able to enable her to live a full life again, a life without appalling pain and miserable disability.

Valerie is quite simply the kindest, most thoughtful person we know. She has been a tremendous support to so many of us with Slipping Rib Syndrome. Even in the depths of despair and misery, she still does everything she can for others. She is on a medical leave from her position as Psychiatric Social Worker, where she has devoted her life’s work to supporting children and families in need. She’s also an avid animal advocate, often donating, networking, fostering, and advocating at city council meetings for euth-listed shelter dogs. Valerie has spent her entire life giving to others in need. Please, help this wonderful woman who has endured so much medical trauma return to the life and the career that she loves, helping her to help others, and donate to the fund that will pay for the surgery she needs. Valerie’s only wish is to release Abraham and her parents from having to care for her and return to being the dog mom she once was to Yoko. There’s real urgency here. Even a tiny amount will help. With love, heart, and gratitude, Madison, Sarah, and Abraham xx