The doctors that are currently treating me are as follows. Feel free to call and request any kind of information to verify my GoFundMe page and my disease. Dr Vikram Reddy, Yale University colorectal specialist. Dr Rafal barzak, Midstate Hospital, Dr Tung, Core Medical Group Hamden, new Solutions pain management, Orange Connecticut.

........My name is Al Leone. I’m a 67-year-old concert and jazz pianist from Branford, CT. I have been playing professionally since I was 12 years old. Playing piano Is Like Oxygen to me and this disease is sucking the oxygen right out of me.

I have Levator Ani Syndrome — INCURABLE BUT TREATABLE... violent spasms of the pelvic floor that feel like dozens of charley horses in the rectum and low back which can last for 5 or more hours, regardless of medications, ice ,heat or rolling around on the floor which is what I usually end up doing. It starts 10 minutes after each morning's bowel movement and usually last four to five hours but can last all the way up to bedtime and then interrupt your sleep as well.

I have gone through 19 surgeries in 18 years to find answers. I've also seen over 60 doctors over that time. The pain was and still is so bad I actually agreed to allow a doctor to remove my tailbone, a very dangerous surgery because of the frequency of sepsis. I almost died twice from the sepsis after the surgery. And still the pain remained! , , injections, two pudendal nerve procedures, and everything else imaginable has been done to me. None of it has helped. All it has done is created mountains of scar tissue in the area which itself causes so much pain now.

As many of you know , billion dollar insurance companies have been denying claims at an unbelievable rate this year. My nurse said over 40%! They have so many ways to deny you the surgery or procedure that you need and I'm scared to death but at the last minute they may do this to me trying to call this experimental or not a normal procedure. This is why I'm hoping that all of you will help me in this fight so that even if they deny me this life saving surgery that I may be able to just pay them out of pocket as the doctor says the fee would be just under $4,000 in total which I thought was considering. He said if I could do it without anesthesia it would be a little less expensive but I would have to go through some pretty bad pain. What else is new. I have to keep in mind of the recovery afterwards and being out of work until September. I'm very very frightened on all sides. I was schedule to have a procedure where Botox and other chemicals would be shot directly into the levator muscles. This procedure could cut my Pain by 70% for 6 months. For me, that’s a lifetime.

Of course they just called me and said that Aetna denied my surgery claiming that it is experimental! I can tell you this the pain that I suffer from every single day that ruins my life and my career is not experimental. It's as real as real gets! Screw these people! I know with all my friends out there that you guys will share this with everyone you know and help me raise this money and I will be forever grateful! They told me to consider a colostomy! For those of you who know what that is you know without I would rather be dead than walk around with a bag of feces on like shoulder! Unbelievable!

I know there are enough incredibly empathetic and generous donors out there to help me. I just can't envision the thought of having a colostomy at this point in my life, when I feel like I have so much life that I could live.

So many of you have been so kind to help me and get me through to this point so I need the help of others at this point to try to survive the next 2 months of expenses ....copays, surgery, procedures, living expenses, medications Etc. And many people have seen me actually out trying to perform even with this unbearable pain because every penny is critical at this point. Thank you so much to those who have contributed up to this point and got me through these horrible horrible times.

I’m not asking for pity. I’m asking for your help and am so grateful for it.

If you can donate, thank you. If you can pray, thank you.

But if you SHARE SHARE SHARE this post, you might reach a doctor who’s seen this condition before. You might reach someone suffering like me. You give me one more chance to sit. To play piano. To live. Thank you 100 times over and

PLEASE...... SHARE SHARE SHARE this story with all your online friends and family! I am eternally grateful! GOD BLESS.

Thank you.

– Al