Stand with Matti Aerni in Her Moyamoya Battle

My name is Matti Aerni. About 8 months ago, I was diagnosed with Moyamoya Disease. Due to this, I had brain surgery on May 2nd. I was released after 4 days but had complications during the surgery that caused aphasia to the point where I couldn't communicate with anyone for 2 days. I had to go back to the ER the following day and ended up spending another 7 days at the hospital.

About a month later, I ended up with an infection that was bad enough that I had another surgery to clean it out and spent another 5 days in the hospital. They removed part of my skull and replaced it with a titanium mesh. I will be on IV antibiotics at home for the next 6 weeks and if everything heals well, I will finally get the second surgery required to treat Moyamoya Disease. Without these surgeries, the disease can be fatal. Otherwise, I would not be going forward with the second surgery after everything that happened with the first one.

My husband has been taking time off from work to stay with me during these hospital stays as OHSU is 2 and a half hours away from home. Any funds we can get will be used for extra expenses, including gas, food while not home and to help with bills that we are behind on due to the time he has had to take off and will need to take off in the future. This is a scary experience for me and I would love for my husband to be able to stay with me while doing this for a 2nd time. I appreciate the help from everyone who donated before the first surgery, it helped us greatly due to the extended stay after.

I will keep everyone updated with my progress on the wound healing with the at-home IV antibiotics and will update everyone with the date of the next surgery once it heals and it gets scheduled.

My next brain surgery is scheduled for the 2nd of January