Shalyah is sick. Can you help?

Hi friends,

A dear person who brings a lot of joy and love and goofs to the comedy community is going through an unimaginably hard time with her health. So we are asking for support as she continues to fight.

Here's what is happening: A few days before Christmas, Shalyah had a sudden and severe breakdown of her… everything? Her body went into crisis mode, and all of her regular functions started failing her- she wasn’t able to walk, her fine motor skills were shot, speaking became an issue, and she had constant tremors with traveling pain and jolts all over her body. After a visit to the ER, she learned that she has stenosis in her cervical spine, which basically means there is no longer enough room for her nerves in her neck. She has been seeing specialists to try to find out if this is the whole cause of her symptoms, part of a larger issue (like stenosis in multiple parts of her spine), or potentially one of many conditions that are making each other worse. Neurological and autoimmune disorders have not been ruled out. She was hoping to get some definitive answers when test results finally came back in February, but unfortunately, her doctors have decided to start all the tests all over because they feel the scope was too limited to fully understand what is happening.

Shalyah is still unable to walk well unassisted and can only hold her head up unsupported for short periods of time without the shaking, pain, and fatigue getting worse. Her motor skills and cognition are also still suffering, especially when she gets fatigued, so most activities are difficult and stressful. She’s on some medications to offer day-to-day relief, but for the most part, she remains pretty incapacitated.

We are coming to accept that a full diagnosis, let alone treatment options, may take a long time, and we need Shalyah to stay alive in the meantime.

Any donations you can make will aid her in covering expenses during this uncertain time while she works on getting answers and a next step.

Thanks so much for reading, supporting, and giving some hope to a wonderful person.

Love,

Elyse Brandau and Grant O'Brien