Let’s help Julie be seizure free!

Hi! My name is Maggie Eubank and my family and I are raising funds to help our dear friend (and everyone’s favorite Vet), Dr Julie Carroll, cover some of the expenses she will incur during her extensive stay in Chicago to undergo brain surgery.

For those who don’t know, in 2018, Julie took a bad hit to the head from a horse while at work. As a result of that incident, it was discovered that she has a condition called Cavernous malformations/angiomas.

Cavernous angiomas are an abnormal bundle of tightly packed, thin-walled capillaries located in the brain and spinal cord. 1 in 500 people are unknowingly walking around with a cavernous angioma in their brain that will never give them problems. In the average person, brain angiomas remain small and stable for years without ever causing symptoms. Since Julie doesn’t know how to do anything “average”, she doesn’t fall into this category.

She’s part of a small subpopulation (<0.08%) of individuals where something will trigger their malformations to grow and bleed; at which point the lesion is considered “active”. When a blood vessel leaks in your brain, the brain gets angry and retaliates with seizures and stroke-like symptoms, which is unfortunately what Julie has been dealing with for the last few years.

On top of all of this, Julie has the genetic mutation that causes the familiar form of cavernous angiomas (as opposed to the sporadic, non-hereditary form). This form is considered to be more aggressive and more likely to result in repeat bleeds.

Julie’s angioma is located in her left temporal lobe, and has continued to grow and bleed over last few years, greatly impacting her ability maintain any sense of normalcy in her life; personally or professionally.

As you can tell, this is a rare condition that is not well understood by the average neurologist or neurosurgeon, which often results in diagnoses containing misinformation and poor outcomes. However, through the help of the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation, Julie was introduced to Dr. Issam Awad at the University of Chicago.

Not only is Dr. Awad an amazing human, but he is an internationally recognized neurovascular surgeon that specializes in cavernous angiomas. He has spent the last 3 decades publishing over 350 peer-reviewed articles related to clinical innovations, surgical outcomes and research associated with this condition. No one knows exactly why some angiomas bleed and some don't, but thankfully Dr. Awad is working on finding answers to that question. It's likely that being hit in the temporal lobe by that horse in 2018 woke everything up, but we will ever know for sure.

After 4 years of worsening symptoms, Julie flew to Chicago to meet with Dr. Awad and obtain his opinion on her case. Dr. Awad explained that this lesion is continuing to rapidly worsen and the hemosiderin ring associated with each bleed is such profound irritant that it will never go away. Each time it bleeds, more damage is done and at this point surgical removal is the only option for management.

Surgery to remove the angioma from Julie's temporal lobe is scheduled for August 26th in Chicago. The decision to remove the lesion was heavy, but it will give her an 80% chance of being seizure-free. Additionally, it will eliminate the risk of the angioma ever bleeding again, causing further damage.

The procedure will require Julie to fly to Chicago a week before surgery for a battery of testing; she will then have to stay in Chicago for 7-10 days post op, followed by 2-4 weeks of recovery at home and at least one return trip to Chicago for follow up appointments.

During that time she will have to leave her two young children in Texas, and close her beloved veterinary practice. When you're a dedicated mother, and you live and breathe veterinary medicine the way Julie does, it's incredibly hard to leave it all behind and fly 1200 miles away for a craniotomy.

Our main goal with this campaign is to be able to cover three weeks of hotel expenses, fights, and transportation for Julie and Corbin while in Chicago, and to continue paying her dedicated technicians Rory and Colleen while she is away.

Julie gives so much to so many and rarely asks for anything herself. She is very uncomfortable with us putting together this campaign, but per usual, we don’t care about what she thinks is right or wrong (we know what is best for her). Any donations to make this journey a little less stressful on her and her family will be greatly appreciated; there is no amount to small!