Help Uliana to Fight Her Debilitating Condition

Hi my name is Alyona. Today, I am asking every person who cares, to help me save my best friend.

Please allow me to share her story. Her name is Uliana. She is a wife and a mother of two beautiful kids. We met a few years back and became forever friends. She is kind, considerable, supportive, social, and easygoing with a very strong will and a great sense of humor. Her stories will always make you laugh out loud. She brings so much joy and passion into life. 

Over a year ago, an event occurred that devastated her life and the lives of everyone in her family. I have been with her throughout her painful and remarkable journey. 

For many years Uliana has been suffering an intense chronic neck pain, possibly caused by a trauma obtained in her childhood. Uliana has been searching for answers, going to many doctors and trying many different things to help her with her pain, all while raising kids, being a very active person, supporting her husband and always prioritizing her loved ones. When her neck pain started to intervene with her work she decided to devote more time to find an answer to her chronic neck pain. She consulted a doctor who suggested a nerve block, assuring her that it would cause no complications. 

Unfortunately, the nerve block procedure caused astonishing and devastating symptoms. The neck pain has increased causing sever headaches, constant dizziness, lightheadedness, and other challenging symptoms. 

Her symptoms started just a few days after her procedure while she was driving, with her kid in the car. She felt very sick, very dizzy, nearly fainted behind the wheel. She had to immediately find a safe spot to stop the car and call for help. I can’t even imagine what she went through, nearly passing out but doing everything she could to avoid an accident. Uliana was taken to an emergency room, but was released without any diagnosis. Her symptoms got worse and, two days later, she ended up in an emergency room again, following a similar incident. Yet she did not find any answers on what was going wrong with her health as the ER doctors released her with a recommendation to seek diagnosis and additional care from a physician. Unable to work or function normally, time has passed but her symptoms kept progressing, including inability to walk for more than 10 minutes, inability to drive, being socially withdrawn, inability to sit at the computer. She was experiencing severe pain, difficulty breathing, vision problems, neurological problems, and many more. She has gone through periods where her health was very unstable and she could not receive a proper treatment or help because doctors had no idea what was causing all these symptoms. She had gone to every doctor and specialist imaginable, both traditional and alternative, trying to find an answer. From wearing monitors, to countless x-rays, CAT scans, brain scans, and MRIs. She’s been referred to multiple clinics, completing different types of therapy, chiropractic care, vision therapy, the list just goes on. Yet, every month her symptoms got worse and her health declined. She would tell, remind me: “remember back in April I could walk 15 minutes and go uphill.” yet now she can’t. It does break my heart to see my best friend like this. 

At this moment Uliana is home bound, leaving the house only for doctors’ appointments. At times, she gets taken out to sit on a park bench for a little bit but car rides make her ill, so those outings are seldom.

Despite this madness with her health she still takes care of her kids, takes care of the house, helps kids get ready for school every morning, takes care of their activities and learning. I know how hard and exhausting these tasks are for her being in this condition. 

As I have mentioned before Uliana will always go forward, none of her health problems can make her stop in search to find a cure and get back to her life. Following months of research, she found that her symptoms are related to a very uncommon and often misdiagnosed condition called Craniocervical Instability, or CCI. 

CCI has many symptoms as it is a condition related to brainstem and cranial nerves

- the center of all our bodily functions. It can come in many forms and different people can experience different symptoms and different severity. Main symptoms include severe neck pain, headaches, balance problems, vision problems, neurological problems, gastrointestinal problems, and many more, all of which she has.

There is a private medical center in Florida that specializes in this field. They have helped many people with extreme CCI cases. After many conversations and a review of her case, Uliana is qualified for the treatment in that clinic. This clinic is a big hope for her, for her family and for all of us. 

There is very little awareness of CCI. It is often misdiagnosed. Untreated, the disorder can cause irreversible damage or death. This medical center conducts a lot of CCI research and treats patients like Uliana from all over the world, often successfully. For her it is the last hope to treat her progressing disease. 

On behalf of Uliana’s friends and family, I am pleading for your help! The treatment is very expensive and her family is already in medical debt, following a 15 months journey of countless doctor appointments and treatments, most not covered by insurance. Without community help, her chance to receive treatment is minimal. I am afraid for her because this condition is progressing very quickly and every day she lives in suffering. 

I, we all, want this to be over for her. She deserves a good quality of life and simple abilities, like walking and playing with her kids. Her kids deserve a healthy mama. Her husband deserves his wife back. 

I thank you all for reading this remarkable story of a woman with a big desire to live a healthy and happy life.