Lauren Alexander is a 21-year-old pre-med student. She had to put college on pause because her diseases made it impossible for her to walk on campus. Lauren has both lipedema and lymphedema, and her insurance has been hesitant to approve the surgeries she desperately needs to live a normal life. It has taken over a year of pleading with the insurance company just to approve the first of many required surgeries. The toll these have had on her physical and mental health is overwhelming.

Lipedema is an abnormal build-up of fat in your legs and sometimes arms, and lymphedema is the localized swelling of the body caused by an abnormal accumulation of lymph. Both are very painful, and cause both physical and mental obstacles for the individual suffering from them.

Lauren has, at one time, had over 3-4L of fluid in just one leg, and sometimes more. She needs to go to California to see a specialist for her stage 3, stage 4 case, and there are no specialists in the St. Louis or Kansas City area that are equipped to care for her at this aggressive stage. Please consider donating to her medical expenses so that she can pursue being a doctor and so that she can live the life that every 21-year-old deserves. Lauren wants to be able to walk on campus, see her friends, and have a day where she can enjoy activities in the same way that many others take for granted.

The reason behind the goal amount being $140,000, is that Lauren needs 5-7 surgeries to reduce the size of her limbs which causes pain and mobility issues due to the diseased fat and fluid; each surgery is estimated to cost at least $15-20k, or more, not including travel or compression garments. This is integral to let her get back to being a student and living her life the way that she chooses, not the way that she has to.

"I have to use this FlexiTouch lymphatic pump to get circulation throughout my entire body and to keep the swelling down for 3 hours a day. I have the leg attachment, as shown in the above picture, but I also have an upper-body attachment since my entire body is affected by these diseases. It's very overbearing, but it helps me a lot" - Lauren

"I have to wrap my arms and legs every day for at least 6-12 hours in order to just maintain my body weight and reduce fluid, however this alone will not remove the Lipedema nodules and lobules (diseased fat tissue). Surgery is the only thing that will remove them fully" - Lauren

Lauren's Journey Highlight