Support Darlene's Medical Journey

Support Darlene’s Medical Journey

My name is Darlene Romer. I am a 54 year old mom of two beautiful teenage children a boy and a girl that are my life. I am also an EMT and I love my job helping people. I was completely healthy and had no issues. Until one day in January 2025 I noticed my left eye was slightly closed, thinking nothing of it, I just figured it would go away. A week later I started to have double vision and the left eye closed a bit more . I schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist who diagnosed me with cranial third nerve palsy. He sent me for numerous tests and with no underlying cause said that it would just go away. After a few days, I noticed more symptoms. I noticed I had half a smile, I was having difficulty swallowing, and I had no strength in my shoulders. With this, I decided to schedule an appointment with a neurologist. The neurologist immediately put me through a series of blood tests, CT scans and MRIs.

The first thing they found was an Autoimmune Disease (AID) called Generalized Myasthenia Gravis (gMG) This is an AID that affects you neurologically blocking the communication between the nerves and the muscles. It’s a life long disease so once you have it, it stays. It can be controlled by meds but it can also progress to where it can affect eating and breathing.

This was the cause of the droopy eyelid, half smile, difficulty swallowing and muscle weakness.

The second thing they found is an aneurysm in my left frontal lobe. This has been the cause of many headaches I didn’t realize had a reason other than stress. After having a procedure that confirmed the presence of the aneurysm they measured it. And said that it can be fixed using stents and coils.

The third and final thing that they found was that I have a malignant mass on my thymus gland. This will require surgery to remove the entire thymus gland called a thymectomy. This will have to be performed prior to fixing the aneurysm because once the aneurysm is repaired, I will need to be on blood thinners and you can’t be on blood thinners for surgery. Once the tumor is removed, it will go to pathology and will be staged. Then, I will find out if I need chemo or radiation.

The procedure to fix the aneurysm will be one month after the thymectomy.

I will be out of work for about a month without pay.

I'm asking for your support to help cover medical and living expenses during this time. Any amount means the world to me and my family.

Thank you so much for your kindness and support.

-Darlene