Helping Amelia live pain free

Hello, my name is Amelia, a mother of two teens, an interpreter, friend, daughter, swimmer and i am passionate about helping others, now it’s my turn to help me.

I have lived with chronic nerve pain in my arms and legs for about 15years now, with it progressively worsening in the last few years because of Lipodema, a connective fatty tissue disease that mostly affects arms and legs. This cannot be exercised or dieted away (believe me I’ve tried), it requires invasive removal treatment/surgery with water assisted liposuction. There are only a few specifically trained doctors in Australia who do this and it is quite costly to patients. I’ve been told i need 4 surgeries in stages.

After losing 55kgs/110lbs my legs are not smaller and in fact hurt more. Everyday i have to manage the pain with dry brushing, wearing restrictive compression stockings, manual lymphatic drainage, vibration plate, low sugar low carb diet, compression pumps every night (that i pay to hire) as well as medication just to function, it is quite time consuming. As anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows, it wears you down, affects you mentally (embarrassment, shame, covering up etc) as much as physically and sadly the Australian medical board does not recognise this as a medically necessary surgery. Even with private health insurance i will be out of pocket thousands of dollars because it is considered ‘cosmetic’. This feels more and more impossible and I am saving and trying my best but it feels unachievable alone and so here i am asking for help which i find very difficult..

So, if you feel like this is something you’d like to support, I’d be extremely grateful and maybe would get to live pain free for some of my future living.

Lots of love

Amelia