Hi friends!

I hate that I am having to do this, and this is the last thing I've ever wanted to do… but insurance is a joke and I'm stuck.

I was born with a rare musculoskeletal disorder called Poland Syndrome. It’s a rare disorder that affects 1 in 100,000 children at birth, and the cause is unknown. I was born without 3/4s of my left pectoral muscle and was completely concaved. This led to 13 years of being a medical mystery without a diagnosis or treatment and led me to a plastic surgeon in Akron Children’s at the age of 13. The process of complete reconstructive surgery took place. Between ages 15-17 (yes, it took that long fighting with insurance to get my surgeries), I had a complete pectoralis flap surgery, skin expanders placed to create a breast pocket, breast lifts on my other side, and then my implant.

That leads me to today, roughly 16 years later. I am now in need of more surgery because, well, this will be a never-ending need for me as implants are not permanent and not meant to last forever. I'm having a lot of discomfort in my implant currently, and quite frankly, I'm long overdue for the reconstruction that I need now. I saw a surgeon who knows what I have and how to proceed with the surgery I need, and of course, insurance is denying my procedures because in their eyes, this isn’t a continuation of care or considered reconstructive to them. They view this all as cosmetic, which is crazy because it’s not just an implant exchange. I need more work done now that I’ve aged and developed even further through the years. The surgery quote was roughly between $12,000-$13,000, which is not even remotely something me and my husband can swing. Apart from trying to figure out a loan scenario, we are stuck.

I am an operating room nurse who chose her career because of what she went through. I had such an incredible team during my earlier surgeries, and I want to affect someone as positively as I was affected as a child, and that led me down the road I’ve been on as an adult. It kills me that I’ve been subjected to things and am asking for money, but I’m truly at a loss for what to do next… If you can do anything at all, it would help us. No matter the amount. Even if it’s just to spread awareness about this disorder and make someone see the mental toll something like this plagues someone with, then I’ve done my job. Thank you all so much.