Hello! Thank you for being here. My name is Taylor, and I’ve made this GoFundMe on behalf of my beautiful mother, who I would guess many of you reading this know well. My sister and I were asked if we wanted to start a GoFundMe by some of my mom’s close friends, and we were both floored and touched by the knowledge that many of you wanted to contribute to help.

After a decade of episodic vertigo, nausea, vomiting, unreliable balance and hearing loss with little symptom mitigation, my mom recently switched to a new doctor. They’ve known she has Ménière’s disease for a while, but what they didn’t know is she has a tumor which has likely been growing for the better part of a decade, pressing on my mom’s vestibular system and causing any number of health problems. She’s having surgery on Friday, January 17th, where they’ll drill a hole in the base of her skull to remove her inner ear and the tumor before putting in a cochlear implant. Because of her variable health and extensive, difficult recovery, my mom has had to stop working as a caterer, a job she loved and will miss. My mom has some savings, but there will be no income coming in for her while she heals.

The recovery process for this surgery is expected to be difficult. She’ll spend the first three to four days after the surgery in the hospital. Without her vestibular system on the right side, her brain will have to relearn how to tell up from down which could make even the most basic things, like walking, difficult. We’ve been told extreme nausea and dizziness for a week or longer post surgery is a real possibility. She’ll be undergoing months of extensive vestibular and hearing therapy to recover. She’ll lose all hearing in her right ear, but she hilariously is looking forward to that as it’s preferable to her current state of permanent tinnitus (ringing in the ear). Her cochlear implant will not provide directional hearing, but when she’s healed, her brain should be able to interpret the signals from the implant in about a year to help supplement her hearing. Quite a bit of swelling is expected in her brain from the surgery, and we’re not sure what that will look like for her recovery or her ability to communicate with us in the days afterwards.

I’m flying to be with my mom for the week of her surgery, but for the most part it’ll just be her and my sister in the apartment, and in the midst of taking care of my mom by herself, my sister will be studying for her nursing exams. Please know that nothing is expected at all- but if you’d like to help them, here are some ways:

Food donations

This one’s tricky as my mom has pretty heavy diet restrictions because of her Ménière’s disease, but we’d be grateful for any help. My sister and my mom are gluten free, but my mom can’t have anything processed, sugary or with high sodium as it triggers an episode of vomiting and dizziness. Hopefully that’ll change after the surgery, but we don’t want to take any risks while she’s still recovering. She pretty much eats dark leafy greens, unsalted protein, nuts and potatoes. Any gluten free food for my sister would be beyond incredible though, and that is her only dietary restriction.

Monetary donations

Since my mom will be bed bound, donations would be used to order food, groceries, cleaning services and copays on her upcoming medical costs and therapy.

Gifts

My mom adores reading, but is not sure she’ll be able to while recovering. Audible books would be incredible, and if you have any recommendations please send them along! Flowers are her favorite, especially if they’re rescued from being trash-bound. My mom loves living vicariously, and any photos, stories or happy thoughts passed along would be warmly welcomed.

Thank you for reading. We are so grateful to have such an amazing support system and it means the world to us that anyone’s interested in helping. If you’re someone who loves my mom as much as we do, then you know she’s tough. This isn’t going to be easy but we’re ready for this, and it’s the start of better years to come.