Hello everyone. I started this fundraiser to assist me in paying my medical debt and bills during my possible two-month recovery time from my head biopsy due to a mass in my brain. These funds will help me cover the cost of the testing, the brain biopsy procedure, bloodwork, copays, and other associated costs with all of the doctor's appointments and scans I have been needing and will continue to need. It will also help to pay my bills such as car costs/rent or household needs that my short term disability will not cover.

In May 2024, I was sent to see a migraine specialist for my chronic migraines I have suffered from for over a decade. He sent me to get an MRI brain scan done, and they found out that I had a relatively big mass under my skull, right next to my brain. He referred me to a neurologist to get more testing done and hopefully figure out what this could be and if it was causing any of my chronic migraines or other conditions, such as migraines with auras (intense rainbow worms or zig-zagging rainbow lines in my vision at random times). I had asked my optical doctor about these symptoms at the beginning of 2024 at an eye exam, and she had said it was neurological, nothing to do with my vision itself.

I started seeing a neurologist who ordered lots of tests, such as C/T head scans, nuclear bone scans, MRIs with and without contrast, bloodwork, and other tests to try determining what it could be/rule out the possibility of a cyst or cancer. However, none of these tests can give you a true diagnosis, so that is why I was sent to a neurosurgeon to perform a brain biopsy. During this procedure, they put you to sleep and clamp your head into place in order to cut open your scalp, drill a small burr hole, and remove a few small samples to send out to different places for testing. They also did a FISH test to rule out some genetic abnormalities such as some cancer cells, which did come back negative (yay!).

Apparently, I had gotten an MRI done at the age of 18 at Dayton Children's, which neither my parents nor I remember, and there is no information available about what doctor did the testing a decade ago. They were able to pull up the image from this MRI and see that the mass was there 10yrs ago but has grown in size since.

My neurologist team believes it is fibrous dysplasia (extra bone growth of the skull) based on the tests that have come back, and hope to treat it with medication and other methods to decrease the size before considering a full removal, which would require a major reconstructive surgery of my skull. If they did have to remove the mass, a large chunk of skull that has been bulged out from it growing would have to be removed and replaced with a custom 3D printed plate to cover my brain.

Going forward, I will continue to have a lot of testing, and even with my good insurance from working at Costco, each test has been costing between $700-900. All of these costs plus only getting 60% of my part-time pay will make it difficult to stay financially stable during these coming months. Regular testing will be continued to be needed over this time to monitor the growth of the mass.

Any support over this time is appreciated. If you are unable to donate (I know that everyone is struggling financially with the current economy) please consider commenting or sharing my fundraiser to help me spread my story. I appreciate my support system coming together to take care of me while I am homebound and on restrictions. They have been visiting me, feeding me, helping me with tasks I am currently unable to do such as laundry, bending to load the dishwasher, showering, making food and so many other things. I could not do this without the help and motivation from all of my loved ones.