My daughter Shaylee Mason is one of the strongest, bravest, smartest, most beautiful 15-year-old young ladies you would ever have the pleasure of meeting. I'm so lucky to be able to raise her and call her my daughter. My daughter has never had it easy in this world with health issues. From severe allergies to Type 1 diabetes to aggressive thoracic scoliosis end even more rare things unique issues. She has always stayed positive through these things and fought to live as normal of a life as possible. Some things Shaylee has always loved and enjoyed doing is dance, listen to music, art, and school. Shaylee takes pride in being an A B student. Somehow through everything she has been through health wise she always seems to pull it off.

On June 26th, Shaylee underwent a routine scoliosis surgery to try to help her get back to the things she loved to do. She had progressed to over a 50° curvature which caused lots of pain and limited her from doing things she loved to do.

We walked in and checked in at 5:30 am on Thursday, June 26th. She was wheeled off to surgery around 8am, I received a phone call from the OR that they were starting the surgery around 8:45 am. Surgery was to last about 5 hours with 1 hour in recovery.

I received a call around 12:50 pm that surgery went well and she was headed to recovery and we should see her in about an hour. An hour came and went, then another. I was updated that she was slow to wake up and that they have her in recovery but she was fine. Her neuro check was good right after surgery, but she was in pain, so they gave her a bolus in the spinal epidural they placed during surgery for pain. After the bolus she went really numb and was unable to feel anything from her chest down. It didn't wear off as fast as it should have, so they were going to watch her closely a little longer in recovery. Another hour went by, and I started to get super anxious and wanted to see my daughter. The anesthesiologist came down and told me they gave her medicine in her epidural, and it should have worn off in an hour but hadn't, so they think she is just slowly metabolizing it, but she was moving before they gave it to her, so they just wanted to give her more time. At 5:30 pm, 4 hours past her predicted time of returning to the room they brought her down, still unable to feel her lower half.

Around 7 pm, she said, MOM, I can feel you touching my legs! We both were relieved! Shortly after regaining her feeling in her lower extremities her pain started getting worse as time went on. The anesthesiologist ordered for the epidural to be turned back on at a lower rate and with a different kind of medicine. By 11 pm, June 26th, she had lost all feelings again in her lower extremities.

After 36 hours of not regaining feeling and my concern becoming unbearable, the surgeon finally ordered an MRI. She had her MRI on Saturday, June 28th at 10 am. By 11:15 am, it was determined that she had a compressed spinal cord. Shaylee was then taken back for a second surgery to decompress her spinal cord.

The morning of Sunday, June 29th, I demanded the best neurosurgeon or neurologist to evaluate my daughter.

The neurosurgeon wanted her in ICU at their hospital to elevate her blood pressure and try to get as much blood flow back to her spine as possible as quickly as possible. We were in ICU for 7 days with no changes. Shaylee spinal injury is complete. She is now a paraplegic.

She will need extensive rehabilitation and the need for medical visits, supplies and medical equipment is extensive..

I've never been one to ask for handouts, and I do my best to provide what I can for my kids, but this one I'm swallowing my pride and asking for anything anyone is willing to donate because I'm needing as much support financially as well as a wheelchair accessible van to transport her safely to and from all her therapy sessions.

I'm hopeful and praying every second of the day that with the extensive rehabilitation she will regain something back. All thoughts, prayers, and positive vibes are also requested if you aren't in a position to donate. I understand times are hard, and everyone is struggling to make ends meet. I'm thankful to each and every person that's willing to support and pray for us through this time.