Michelle Morrison - Eye Surgery Journey

Dear Go Fund Me Community,

I write to you today with a heavy heart. My mom needs help! We have spent lots of time in prayer around this idea of opening up to our community for love and support, so I hope this finds you with a compassionate heart.

At the age of 25, my mom was diagnosed with a rare eye disease (Cogan-Reese Syndrome). It is so rare that her doctors were not able to properly explain it to her, nor did they have enough clinical evidence to give hope around successful treatments she may need in the future. They told her she would eventually develop glaucoma and that her cornea would decompose, requiring corneal keratoplasty-- and here we are today.

In 2013 my mom developed Secondary Glaucoma (the most aggressive form) and is on countless eye drops and oral medications to regulate her IOP (intraocular pressure). Despite several surgeries, her eye pressure remains elevated causing severe eye pain and headaches and other unpleasant side effects from the oral medications. She is in desperate need of a cornea transplant but it cannot be done until her eye pressure stabilizes.

In 2017 she had her first Trabeculectomy (surgery) to control the Glaucoma. That surgery had limited success and she had to resume her regimen of eye drops within a year of this surgery. By July 2022 her eye pressure was so high that she had an emergency Trabeculectomy Revision surgery, which failed. In November 2022 she had a horrific eye procedure called Bleb Needling, which can only be performed without anesthesia. Her doctors could not have prepared her for how painful this procedure would be due to the Cogan Reese and her diseased cornea. Despite the trauma and cost, these surgeries were all ineffective. Most recently, in December 2022 she had an Ahmed Glaucoma Valve surgery, where a shunt was inserted into her eye to help with the dangerously high eye pressure. She also had a Cataract Extraction done since her cataract had also formed in her right eye due to glaucoma and Cogan Reese. We are now in a wait-and-see situation and praying for success. The need for Corneal Keratoplasty remains a high priority since her cornea is rapidly decomposing and her vision out of her right eye is cloudy and blurry.

While she is in the best care at the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, the road ahead looks like more surgeries (some have to be repeated frequently), more expensive eye drops not covered by insurance, and more time off work. On top of it all she is facing a bilateral hip replacement in the very near future.

Due to the high costs associated with these surgeries and numerous office visits, expensive eye drops, and accruing medical bills, she's finding it difficult to make ends meet. She’s even considered moving out of her apartment but rents in West LA have increased so much that she literally can't afford to leave her rent-controlled situation, which is centrally located between her work and her doctor.

We humbly ask for your support in our efforts to raise $25,000.00 for my mom so that she can have at least some peace in how she will financially approach this delicate and unique situation. Thank you so much for your time and generosity.

Sincerely,

Alessandra Todd