Support Kaala's Surgery

Some of you might know that my daughter Kaala has dealt with chronic health issues for about a decade, and she’s pretty open about it. She manages it very well, so a lot of people don’t realize how much pain she is in most days and how much she does to stay on top of it. She’s seen countless doctors who dismissed it as “just IBS” and sent her on her way or referred her to someone else, just to get more vague answers and dead ends.

She deep dives health info herself (a LOT) and for a few years she’s been wondering if she could have endometriosis, which is a condition where tissue that’s similar to the endometrium (lining of the uterus) grows in other places in the body. None of her previous doctors wanted to pursue it because diagnosis is so hard. But in December, her pain stopped being so manageable for her, and an ER visit showed a complex ovarian cyst on her right ovary.

Thankfully a new OBGYN immediately took her seriously from that, and a specialist said she has every textbook symptom of someone who needs to be checked for endometriosis, and it’s all been a HUGE blessing in disguise. An MRI in early March showed the complex cysts has all signs of an endometrioma (a type of cyst you get from having endometriosis) and also found a cystadenoma, a type of tumor that thankfully is almost always benign. That scan gives her a preliminary endometriosis diagnosis, but it’s a disease that can’t be officially diagnosed without surgery. She was back in the ER last week (mid March) cause her pain got so bad, and the scans showed her cyst is growing unusually fast, so they’re trying to see if they can get a sooner surgery date because her specialist is worried about the potential complications of it growing so fast. The biggest concerns right now are making sure there isn’t a rupture before surgery or ovarian torsion from how enlarged it’s making her ovary.

For now, she’s scheduled for surgery on April 21st where hopefully she’ll get an official endometriosis diagnosis and have all the tissue found and removed. Even if they don’t find endo, at the very least, they’ll remove the cyst and tumor and check for several other conditions that can only be assessed surgically, so we’re extremely grateful she’s getting this. She thankfully has insurance and is a very responsible kid, but between ER visits, the specialists and surgery, she’s still looking at $15,000 in medical costs even with insurance for all of it. I know she’ll figure it out no matter what, but I want to ask for support for her - even if it’s just a little bit towards the costs.

She’s insistent on giving something in return if anyone wants to support her surgery, so she’s offering mini photo sessions this summer after she’s recovered for any donation. If you’d like to support her and sign up for a session, you can put your info into this google form and she’ll reach out in late May to plan those.

https://shorturl.at/wTXRV

You can also donate through Venmo @shelley-wood-12 and I can give you a tax deductible receipt if you'd prefer that!

Don’t forget that cards, texts and hugs also go a long way right now in reminding her she doesn't have to figure this all out on her own.