Support Vanessa's Brain Surgery Journey

Vanessa needs your help with the costs associated with her upcoming brain surgeries.

A bit of background...

Earlier this year Vanessa experienced two episodes that were suspected to be TIA’s (mini-strokes) or strokes.

Based on her symptoms and further testing, it was determined that Vanessa has Moyamoya disease, which is a very rare disease. It's a progressive cerebrovascular disorder caused by blocked arteries. That's a fancy way of saying the pathways that carry blood in her brain either are not present, made newer (more fragile pathways), or were delayed in getting blood to the right places.

After seeing a neurologist in Austin, they recommended monitoring her condition and waiting for multiple medical interventions before considering brain surgery. In other words, wait for more TIAs (mini-strokes) or strokes, which Vanessa was hesitant to do and as such sought out a second opinion.

She consulted Stanford Moyamoya center who did a case review, and they suggested surgery due to damage identified from strokes on her more recent scans.

Vanessa plans to fly to Stanford on September 4, have her first surgery on September 10, and the second surgery on September 17. She will be followed until the following week. Assuming no complications, she would return home to Austin and recuperate for 8-12 weeks.

Based on statistics, the surgeries are usually very successful and have low complication rates, so we are hopeful this will help prevent future problems.

Why $20,000?

It's extremely expensive to be sick, fly to another state for at least three weeks, and be out of work for an extended period of time.

The rough estimate is that a hotel may cost about $5,250 for three weeks (the Stanford area is not cheap!), $1,200 for flights, $1,000 for food while Miguel is there since he can't eat at home, and her insurance max out of pocket is $4,000 if in-network and $8,000 if out-of-network (we don't know which the surgery is yet).

If you add in transportation costs, Vanessa only receiving 60% of her salary while she is on medical leave, and other miscellaneous expenses that always come up during medical events, $20,000 is our best estimate of what it could cost.

Vanessa has a lot to worry about already. Removing even some of the financial burden would be a huge weight off her shoulders.

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