
Madysen Pederson's OMEGA surgery
Donation protected
When Mady Pederson was just on the cusp of her teenage years at 13 years old, she had a lump on her shin that she was told by doctors was just a bone cyst. After Ryan and Amy, her parents pursued having it removed, they found out Mady had a rare adolescent bone cancer. Mady loved and lived to dance competitively and she was so talented and this meant she was facing losing her ability to dance maybe ever again. This type of cancer didn't respond to chemotherapy or radiation, and had to be excised. To ensure the doctors at Mayo Clinic in Rochester could remove all the cancer they excised 4 inches of bone from her Tibia and then they placed a fixator on her lower leg from her knee to her ankle, screwed into her bone, where they would proceed to regrow her bone from her growth plate with daily turning of screws in her bone and many surgeries and follow up appointments for the next more than a year. She had to be on many pain medications and she made it through with a positive attitude and amazing strength and determination. She had a set back after the final bone graph surgery, and fractured the new bone, but that didn't stop her from fighting to get back on her own two feet with no fixator and she even fought to get back into her ballet and dance shoes and was able to dance again.
This is where the second big challenge in her journey started. Once she moved onto her new normal because she had to take so many pain control medications while she was fighting cancer, her brain started to process pain differently and she started getting severe migraines. She has been through so much to manage these migraines. From infusions, every medication you can imagine, to chiropractics, acupuncture, cryotherapy, massage therapy, biofeedback, IV therapy, working with teams of doctors at Mayo clinic, trying to manage her pain through Occipital nerve blocks and Botox and recently she was told there really isn't anything more they can do for her at Mayo.
Through all of this, she has kept living, putting her best foot forward while in severe migraine pain. Some days, many days in fact, she can't get out of bed and spends the day vomiting in pain with what seems like no end in sight. She held down a job at Klein bank in the summer and has been a nanny as well. Even with migraines that were debilitating. She developed severe anxiety and panic attacks and has been through extensive therapy to overcome this and has conquered it with the help of her therapy dog Stella and her amazing horse Cha Cha. She even has been able to show Cha Cha and has a real talent for riding dressage. Through her strong determination, she graduated from high school and was able to start college at her dream school, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in the fall of 2019. We are all so proud of what she has had to overcome, while still managing to succeed in her life. She is an inspiration.
Today, Mady is 19 years old and just tries to get through everyday with some pain medication and the aforementioned list of treatments to try to manage her pain. Until recently, when Ryan and Amy stumbled upon a doctor in Texas who specializes in what has been noted The Reed Procedure, she felt like she had no options left and this was going to be her life. This procedure is Mady's last option to try to have a pain free life. It is a surgery they have only started to use for migraine pain management where they insert stimulus probes at the base of her skull also known as the Occipital region of her brain and this procedure has shown great results in combating severe migraines, but this surgery has yet to get the FDA stamp of approval. Because it is not FDA approved yet, the insurance company won't pay for this surgery. Ryan and Amy have done several appeals working with neurologists to support them withno luck changing the insurance companies decision to not cover any portion of this surgery.
Mady will return to University of MN this fall and would love to be able to start her year living pain free, but in order to try to get to this goal, she needs to have this surgery in Texas this summer with the renowned Dr. Reed. The surgery is $50,000 and with any luck she will be able to start the trial at the end of June. I am asking for donations for Mady's surgery. Anything will help pay for this expensive yet very necessary surgery. For this beautiful young woman who has gone through so much, she continues to impress us all with her ability to shine bright like the sun, smile through the pain often and push forward and try to live her best life. We want to see her have a pain free life. She deserves to have a pain free life.
Please consider donating and thank you for your support!















This is where the second big challenge in her journey started. Once she moved onto her new normal because she had to take so many pain control medications while she was fighting cancer, her brain started to process pain differently and she started getting severe migraines. She has been through so much to manage these migraines. From infusions, every medication you can imagine, to chiropractics, acupuncture, cryotherapy, massage therapy, biofeedback, IV therapy, working with teams of doctors at Mayo clinic, trying to manage her pain through Occipital nerve blocks and Botox and recently she was told there really isn't anything more they can do for her at Mayo.
Through all of this, she has kept living, putting her best foot forward while in severe migraine pain. Some days, many days in fact, she can't get out of bed and spends the day vomiting in pain with what seems like no end in sight. She held down a job at Klein bank in the summer and has been a nanny as well. Even with migraines that were debilitating. She developed severe anxiety and panic attacks and has been through extensive therapy to overcome this and has conquered it with the help of her therapy dog Stella and her amazing horse Cha Cha. She even has been able to show Cha Cha and has a real talent for riding dressage. Through her strong determination, she graduated from high school and was able to start college at her dream school, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in the fall of 2019. We are all so proud of what she has had to overcome, while still managing to succeed in her life. She is an inspiration.
Today, Mady is 19 years old and just tries to get through everyday with some pain medication and the aforementioned list of treatments to try to manage her pain. Until recently, when Ryan and Amy stumbled upon a doctor in Texas who specializes in what has been noted The Reed Procedure, she felt like she had no options left and this was going to be her life. This procedure is Mady's last option to try to have a pain free life. It is a surgery they have only started to use for migraine pain management where they insert stimulus probes at the base of her skull also known as the Occipital region of her brain and this procedure has shown great results in combating severe migraines, but this surgery has yet to get the FDA stamp of approval. Because it is not FDA approved yet, the insurance company won't pay for this surgery. Ryan and Amy have done several appeals working with neurologists to support them withno luck changing the insurance companies decision to not cover any portion of this surgery.
Mady will return to University of MN this fall and would love to be able to start her year living pain free, but in order to try to get to this goal, she needs to have this surgery in Texas this summer with the renowned Dr. Reed. The surgery is $50,000 and with any luck she will be able to start the trial at the end of June. I am asking for donations for Mady's surgery. Anything will help pay for this expensive yet very necessary surgery. For this beautiful young woman who has gone through so much, she continues to impress us all with her ability to shine bright like the sun, smile through the pain often and push forward and try to live her best life. We want to see her have a pain free life. She deserves to have a pain free life.
Please consider donating and thank you for your support!















Organizer and beneficiary
Danielle Engebretson
Organizer
Victoria, MN
Amy Pederson
Beneficiary