The Llacsa Family
Donation protected
We are raising money for Colleen and Jahary to help them with the costs of medical expenses, procedures, childcare and travel expenses while Colleen fights the devastating effects of a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak. As a result of her condition, Colleen is completely unable to work, and requires around-the-clock assistance to care for herself and her three children. The mounting medical, travel and childcare expenses, combined with Colleen’s lost income, have devastated Colleen and Jahary emotionally and financially. We remain hopeful that she will eventually recover but right now, Colleen, Jahary and their children need all of our support.
Learn about CSF Leaks http://spinalcsfleak.org/
This is Colleen's story:
In 2015, my daughter Lucy Jane had just turned 2 and my son Samuel was 5. I had just finished a grueling 2 year Master’s degree program while working full time and while pregnant with our third child, Joshua. After Joshua was born in March 2015 via C-section, I began to suffer headaches, nausea, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms that increased in severity over time.
Life is never how you plan and nothing could have prepared us for what we have gone through. My physicians determined that my debilitating headaches, nausea and other symptoms are the result of a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak caused by the spinal epidural I received in connection with my C-section. Since that time, my health and well-being have continued to deteriorate and forever impacted my life and well-being as well as the lives of my husband and three children.
Over the past two years, I have pursued every possible cure or remedy that would provide even temporary relief to the agonizing symptoms of my condition with no meaningful success. I have spent months in the hospital away from my family and children, been prescribed over forty-seven different medications, received 6 pic lines, 7 epidural blood patches, multiple infusions, dozens of ER visits, months of home health, months of physical and occupational therapy.
Last summer, I underwent exploratory surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, which involved a total lumber laminectomy and dural repair. After the surgery, I spent months and months laying in my bed too sick to lift my head or even talk. My recovery over the next 6 months can only be described as brutal. But far, far worse is the reality that the initial positive indicators from that procedure have disappeared entirely. But I am not ready to give up hope.
As a result of my condition, I spend every waking moment lying in bed too sick to lift my head or even talk. The symptoms have become so unbearable that visits to the ER are now routine. On the best day, I still experience continued severe headaches, fatigue, blurred vision, disorientation, and excruciating pain, all of which require ongoing home health care and physical and occupational therapy.
This is a condition that is completely debilitating and one that I had never heard of before I became sick. My goal is that as I slowly improve, I can help raise awareness and funding for better treatment so others do not have to suffer as I have.
I also want to say THANK YOU to my amazing family who has paid for our childcare, medications and all of our expenses, spent weeks out-of-state at hospitals, brought us meals, and encouraged me to keep fighting thru all of this. My sister Katie, who picks up all of my calls, gives me hope and has been there for me everyday! Many thanks to my friends who have helped us, brought us meals, gifts for the kids and always check in and support me. I want thank Jahary most of all who has had to bear the greatest burden and thru it all has never complained, never given up on me and has been with me day in and day out. He truly is a saint! I could have never made it this far without all of the support!
Learn about CSF Leaks http://spinalcsfleak.org/
This is Colleen's story:
In 2015, my daughter Lucy Jane had just turned 2 and my son Samuel was 5. I had just finished a grueling 2 year Master’s degree program while working full time and while pregnant with our third child, Joshua. After Joshua was born in March 2015 via C-section, I began to suffer headaches, nausea, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms that increased in severity over time.
Life is never how you plan and nothing could have prepared us for what we have gone through. My physicians determined that my debilitating headaches, nausea and other symptoms are the result of a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak caused by the spinal epidural I received in connection with my C-section. Since that time, my health and well-being have continued to deteriorate and forever impacted my life and well-being as well as the lives of my husband and three children.
Over the past two years, I have pursued every possible cure or remedy that would provide even temporary relief to the agonizing symptoms of my condition with no meaningful success. I have spent months in the hospital away from my family and children, been prescribed over forty-seven different medications, received 6 pic lines, 7 epidural blood patches, multiple infusions, dozens of ER visits, months of home health, months of physical and occupational therapy.
Last summer, I underwent exploratory surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, which involved a total lumber laminectomy and dural repair. After the surgery, I spent months and months laying in my bed too sick to lift my head or even talk. My recovery over the next 6 months can only be described as brutal. But far, far worse is the reality that the initial positive indicators from that procedure have disappeared entirely. But I am not ready to give up hope.
As a result of my condition, I spend every waking moment lying in bed too sick to lift my head or even talk. The symptoms have become so unbearable that visits to the ER are now routine. On the best day, I still experience continued severe headaches, fatigue, blurred vision, disorientation, and excruciating pain, all of which require ongoing home health care and physical and occupational therapy.
This is a condition that is completely debilitating and one that I had never heard of before I became sick. My goal is that as I slowly improve, I can help raise awareness and funding for better treatment so others do not have to suffer as I have.
I also want to say THANK YOU to my amazing family who has paid for our childcare, medications and all of our expenses, spent weeks out-of-state at hospitals, brought us meals, and encouraged me to keep fighting thru all of this. My sister Katie, who picks up all of my calls, gives me hope and has been there for me everyday! Many thanks to my friends who have helped us, brought us meals, gifts for the kids and always check in and support me. I want thank Jahary most of all who has had to bear the greatest burden and thru it all has never complained, never given up on me and has been with me day in and day out. He truly is a saint! I could have never made it this far without all of the support!
Organizer and beneficiary
Katie Tyrrell Weimann
Organizer
Naperville, IL
Colleen Tyrrell Llacsa
Beneficiary