Matt Monsoor's Skin Reduction Surgery
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Peaceful. This is the word that describes my Sunday at home as I prepared for the last week of work before Christmas 2016. If I had only known then how wrong I was, because, nearly as sudden as the first unannounced snowfall of winter, I started experiencing uncontrollable chills, and no amount of blankets could keep my body warm. This is very atypical; anyone who knows me can recognize my large frame, and could as easily spot me wearing t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops year-round. I chalked these chills up to stubbornness; yes, perhaps the weather was finally getting to me. After feeling this way for some time, though, we headed down the street to the local urgent care. Little did I know these chills that I took so lightly would turn out to change my life forever.
After the test results were returned, it was determined I had a highly inflamed appendix and needed emergency surgery immediately. They say your life can be defined in but a few important moments; this, my friends, is one of those moments. This appendicitis was a true miracle from God, as weird as that may sound. Without the emergency surgery, the person I have become would not be typing this message to you.
Something I hear a lot is, “Things happen for a reason.” And, you know, as I was being admitted to the emergency room in downtown La Crosse, I met a man for whom these words couldn’t ring more true. I owe to this one man more than words can describe. He made a routine appendicitis into a literal life-saving event. Enter Dr. Shapiro.
After a successful surgery, Dr. Shapiro stumbled upon something very strange. You see, for many years, my family had wondered what was wrong with me medically. For example, I would barely be able to make it through a day, regardless of where I was. I would eat dinner, nap for a few hours, and be on edge. All. the. time. I was always a heavier individual, which was partially due to the fact that I always felt stressed and found solace in food, which inevitably lead to all the weight gain. After a few months and even more weight gain, doctors were concerned about me and my numerous medical conditions: morbid obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, just to name a few. Nothing, it seemed, was working. But after an MRI on my brain was performed, sure enough, Dr. Shapiro was right! The strange discovery on that fateful day happened to be a small, 3 cm tumor perched on my pituitary gland and cranking out over 100x times the normal Cortisol (the hormone that causes stress) levels in my system! This also caused weak bones, giving me crippling osteoporosis. Believe it or not, a bone scan revealed that I possessed the bones of an 85-year-old woman in my 24-year-old-frame. During this time, I’d sleep sitting on the couch because that was the only way it felt comfortable. If that wasn’t enough, another ER trip confirmed I had gained a nasty case of Cellulitis in my left leg right below my knee because the lack of circulation and blood flow throughout my legs. And the tumor was now getting more aggressive by the day and ramping up its destruction. We needed to take action. And fast.
The surgery was officially scheduled for July 19th, 2017, the day that forever changed my life. The night before, I went to sleep thinking, “this will be my last night as my old self.” I had an amazing neurosurgeon named Dr. Waddell, who I have an unfathomable gratitude for. This man was able to able to maneuver small medical instruments through my nasal passages up to the back part of my brain where this tumor was sitting on my pituitary gland, extracting it with surgical precision. To this day, almost three years later, he has done such an amazing job
that there is no residual tumor material left. I believe it was God working His plan: He wanted those particular individuals to work on me so that I could be a light to other people in a quest to overcome their problems. God wasn’t done with me on July 19th, 2017; He had much greater plans for me.
After a few days of recovery, I was able to go home that Friday. Happily ever after,
right? Wrong. I woke up the following day, and, climbing out of my recliner, I realized…I can’t walk. My parents got my hobbling body into the car for another trip to Urgent Care. We can’t take any chances. As it turns out, I broke a toe simply by getting up from the recliner. Yes; that’s how weak my bones were.
After another three months of healing, I slowly felt a newly gained energy and desire to get out and move, exercise, and walk. No marathons quite yet! But sure enough, after three short months, my system was shocked into reality; I had lost at least 50 pounds just from this new perspective; I realized I was living on borrowed time. I was told that if I didn’t have this tiny tumor removed, I would have died. Talk about a wake-up call.
Eventually, I got back to work part-time, then full-time. “Why then,” I thought, “was my back still in such agonizing pain?” In November, I needed answers. X-ray. MRI. “Anything, anything.” I thought, to alleviate this misery. How much more can I take? Five, I guess. That’s the number of compression fractures discovered that were smashed together in my 85-year-old spine. I had no choice: another surgery. In January 2018, I went under the knife for the fourth time in 13 months.
Since then, I have been making incremental improvements, but some days are still very hard for me. I fight on. I now have been walking around 5 miles or more every single day for the last year. I am happier than I could’ve ever imagined pre-surgery, a night-and-day transformation in a very short time. Sure, I still have many goals ahead of me, including running an entire 5k. First though, I need to fight a whole new battle.
You see, all of the weight loss I have worked so hard for has allowed a tremendous
amount of excess skin to accumulate around my abdomen and back. In October 2019, I took a Monday off work to go up to Madison, WI to see if the UW-Health Plastic Surgery department would find me a good candidate for this long desired surgery. To my amazement, they told me they thought I would be. Finally, victory. Happily ever after, right? Wrong again.
Just this April, my family and I received the biggest punch to our metaphorical guts. Public Enemy No. 1 (AKA Insurance Co.) originally declined to cover the surgery and deemed it non-medically necessary. We appealed. Then waited. And waited. We waited for what seemed an eternity, until finally, last month, we received a crushing verdict: Still No. We requested they take a second look at all the paperwork and medical opinions we provided them. Surely, we think, they were looking at the wrong file this whole time or something similar. We waited another month, until May 20th, a day that goes down for me as the day the insurance company officially gave up on me, the day they said no after “careful consideration”.
This is why my family and I have decided to start a page for the surgery. It’s a surgery that will put a financial burden on me immensely and in our opinion, I truly need. I don’t want my life to be hindered anymore than it already has been and want to live life to the fullest and I feel this surgery will help me accomplish that. I try to live my life to be a good example of what God would have wanted me to do with the talents He has handed to me. These last three years have been long enough and I want to get on to the better times and be the best version of me. I
would cherish anything that you could spare towards the cost of the surgery so that I can get it accomplished as soon as possible.
The picture on this page is from May 2018 to show the difference or progress that was made from just before surgery to ONLY 10 months post-brain surgery.
So thank you, my dear reader, from the bottom of my heart, for your willingness to come with me on this journey. Your support means the world to me.
Deeply And Gratefully Yours,
Matthew
After the test results were returned, it was determined I had a highly inflamed appendix and needed emergency surgery immediately. They say your life can be defined in but a few important moments; this, my friends, is one of those moments. This appendicitis was a true miracle from God, as weird as that may sound. Without the emergency surgery, the person I have become would not be typing this message to you.
Something I hear a lot is, “Things happen for a reason.” And, you know, as I was being admitted to the emergency room in downtown La Crosse, I met a man for whom these words couldn’t ring more true. I owe to this one man more than words can describe. He made a routine appendicitis into a literal life-saving event. Enter Dr. Shapiro.
After a successful surgery, Dr. Shapiro stumbled upon something very strange. You see, for many years, my family had wondered what was wrong with me medically. For example, I would barely be able to make it through a day, regardless of where I was. I would eat dinner, nap for a few hours, and be on edge. All. the. time. I was always a heavier individual, which was partially due to the fact that I always felt stressed and found solace in food, which inevitably lead to all the weight gain. After a few months and even more weight gain, doctors were concerned about me and my numerous medical conditions: morbid obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, just to name a few. Nothing, it seemed, was working. But after an MRI on my brain was performed, sure enough, Dr. Shapiro was right! The strange discovery on that fateful day happened to be a small, 3 cm tumor perched on my pituitary gland and cranking out over 100x times the normal Cortisol (the hormone that causes stress) levels in my system! This also caused weak bones, giving me crippling osteoporosis. Believe it or not, a bone scan revealed that I possessed the bones of an 85-year-old woman in my 24-year-old-frame. During this time, I’d sleep sitting on the couch because that was the only way it felt comfortable. If that wasn’t enough, another ER trip confirmed I had gained a nasty case of Cellulitis in my left leg right below my knee because the lack of circulation and blood flow throughout my legs. And the tumor was now getting more aggressive by the day and ramping up its destruction. We needed to take action. And fast.
The surgery was officially scheduled for July 19th, 2017, the day that forever changed my life. The night before, I went to sleep thinking, “this will be my last night as my old self.” I had an amazing neurosurgeon named Dr. Waddell, who I have an unfathomable gratitude for. This man was able to able to maneuver small medical instruments through my nasal passages up to the back part of my brain where this tumor was sitting on my pituitary gland, extracting it with surgical precision. To this day, almost three years later, he has done such an amazing job
that there is no residual tumor material left. I believe it was God working His plan: He wanted those particular individuals to work on me so that I could be a light to other people in a quest to overcome their problems. God wasn’t done with me on July 19th, 2017; He had much greater plans for me.
After a few days of recovery, I was able to go home that Friday. Happily ever after,
right? Wrong. I woke up the following day, and, climbing out of my recliner, I realized…I can’t walk. My parents got my hobbling body into the car for another trip to Urgent Care. We can’t take any chances. As it turns out, I broke a toe simply by getting up from the recliner. Yes; that’s how weak my bones were.
After another three months of healing, I slowly felt a newly gained energy and desire to get out and move, exercise, and walk. No marathons quite yet! But sure enough, after three short months, my system was shocked into reality; I had lost at least 50 pounds just from this new perspective; I realized I was living on borrowed time. I was told that if I didn’t have this tiny tumor removed, I would have died. Talk about a wake-up call.
Eventually, I got back to work part-time, then full-time. “Why then,” I thought, “was my back still in such agonizing pain?” In November, I needed answers. X-ray. MRI. “Anything, anything.” I thought, to alleviate this misery. How much more can I take? Five, I guess. That’s the number of compression fractures discovered that were smashed together in my 85-year-old spine. I had no choice: another surgery. In January 2018, I went under the knife for the fourth time in 13 months.
Since then, I have been making incremental improvements, but some days are still very hard for me. I fight on. I now have been walking around 5 miles or more every single day for the last year. I am happier than I could’ve ever imagined pre-surgery, a night-and-day transformation in a very short time. Sure, I still have many goals ahead of me, including running an entire 5k. First though, I need to fight a whole new battle.
You see, all of the weight loss I have worked so hard for has allowed a tremendous
amount of excess skin to accumulate around my abdomen and back. In October 2019, I took a Monday off work to go up to Madison, WI to see if the UW-Health Plastic Surgery department would find me a good candidate for this long desired surgery. To my amazement, they told me they thought I would be. Finally, victory. Happily ever after, right? Wrong again.
Just this April, my family and I received the biggest punch to our metaphorical guts. Public Enemy No. 1 (AKA Insurance Co.) originally declined to cover the surgery and deemed it non-medically necessary. We appealed. Then waited. And waited. We waited for what seemed an eternity, until finally, last month, we received a crushing verdict: Still No. We requested they take a second look at all the paperwork and medical opinions we provided them. Surely, we think, they were looking at the wrong file this whole time or something similar. We waited another month, until May 20th, a day that goes down for me as the day the insurance company officially gave up on me, the day they said no after “careful consideration”.
This is why my family and I have decided to start a page for the surgery. It’s a surgery that will put a financial burden on me immensely and in our opinion, I truly need. I don’t want my life to be hindered anymore than it already has been and want to live life to the fullest and I feel this surgery will help me accomplish that. I try to live my life to be a good example of what God would have wanted me to do with the talents He has handed to me. These last three years have been long enough and I want to get on to the better times and be the best version of me. I
would cherish anything that you could spare towards the cost of the surgery so that I can get it accomplished as soon as possible.
The picture on this page is from May 2018 to show the difference or progress that was made from just before surgery to ONLY 10 months post-brain surgery.
So thank you, my dear reader, from the bottom of my heart, for your willingness to come with me on this journey. Your support means the world to me.
Deeply And Gratefully Yours,
Matthew
Organizer
Matt Monsoor
Organizer
Onalaska, WI