Sarah's Cleveland Clinic Fund
Donation protected
Why I Need Your Help
As many of you know I have suffered from migraines for the last twelve years of my life. I was first diagnosed in my sophomore year of college. At that time I was having one migraine about every 3-4 months. This continued for the next several years until in 2007 I contracted spinal minangitus. To treat this I was referred to a neurologist who then took over my medical care. This began my journey through the joyous world of medications to treat migraines as well as ones to end migraines once they have begun. From 2007 to about 2013 the amount of migraines, intensity and duration began to increase year by year even though during this whole time my doctor was trying different combinations of preventative and deletion drugs. By 2013 I was having 2-3 migraines a week. I also began having cluster migraines as least once a month. For those of you who might not know cluster migraines are migraines that will seem to begin to disparate then not fully go away but instead come back worse. I feel it is best to describe them as a roller coaster, up down up down. For me I have had cluster migraines that have lasted for 3-14 days. They are horrible! By the beginning of 2014 I began having migraines 5-6 days a week. These began to affect EVERY area of my life. I struggled with keeping up with my responsibilities as a teacher, wife, friend, sister and daughter. I felt that I was slowly loosing myself. Thankfully I work for a wonderful school system. When I spoke with my head of human resources, he was so kind and told me that he felt that I really needed to consider going on short term disability so that I could emerge myself in finding the answers to what was happening to my body. This was the hardest and most painful decision that I have ever made. As many of you know, I LOVE my job as an interevntion specialist and I care deeply for my students. It was horrible to leave them. However, my mother has always told me "you can't care for others if you don't care for yourself". With all of that being said, after days of praying and many tears I made the decision to go on short term disability. During the three months that I was on short term disability I began to become displeased with my neurologist and her lack of compassion for my situation as well as the care that she was willing to give. At that point, we set out to try and get me excepted into the care of a team of migraine and pain specialists at the Cleveland Clinic. I know that it was only through God that I was somehow able to get an appointment in November of 2014 even though there was a 6 month waiting list. After my initial appointment with my team of doctors, some of my medications were adjusted and it was suggested that my next step was to begin Botox injections every 3 months. My doctors explained that they have an 85-90% success rate with patients suffering with migraines to experience a significant relief from the shots. However as with all medical treatments they explained that there was a 10-15% chance that I would not experience this relief. But they were very encouraged that with my medical past that this form of treatment would get me back to my job and life. They told me that they would not be able to know the clear extent of my success until I had been receiving the shots for a full year. And so I set off on that portion of my journey, making the 3 hour trip to the clinic every 3 months. When I first began the Botox injections I was having migraines 7 days a week with many of them actually being cluster migraines. I was pretty much bed ridden. Over the last 11 months I did begin to slowly notice that the intensity of my migraines was decreasing slightly but the amount of migraines that I was experiencing still remained at 5-6 a week with about one cluster migraine every other week. During this time my team continued to feel that it would be unwise to release me back to work and so I was placed on long term disability. At the most recent visit to Cleveland Clinic my team sadly confirmed what I already knew in the back of my mind, that I fell into the 10-15% of patients who don't experience relief that Botox. After weighing all of the options for my next step, it was decided that I should complete the three-week iMatch program at Cleveland Clinic. This program is intense and is meant to help migraines suffers who have not found success with other avenues of treatment. This is an out-patient program where I will spend Monday through Friday; 8-5 o'clock at the clinic receiving multiple options of care. These will include four days of infusions (I will be hooked up to a needle receiving different medications to flush my system), physical therapy, psychiatric care, attending education classes, EKG testing, bio feedback as well as several other things. Thankfully, we have a good insurance plan and have already met our deductible for the year (thanks to all of my medical care). However, this is where we need the help of others. We will still need to pay $840 out of pocket for the program as well as my room and board. Since this is an out-patient program I will have to stay in a hotel for 5 days for 3 weeks as well as providing my own food for three meals a day. We have gone with a hotel in Cleveland that actually gives discounted rates to patients going through the program and we have roughly estimated how much it will cost for me to eat each day. We have roughly estimated that all of this combined will cost $3,500.
It has been a struggle for Justin and I to admit that we needed to reach out to others in order to continue with this next step in my care. There is no way that I will be able to attend this program without the help of all of you-our family and friends!! We also need your prayers!! I am quickly running out of options and I refuse to continue this way-this is no life. So we really need your prayers. If you are able to give, we thank you beyond what words could ever say. But we also want you to understand that your prayers are so very needed as well. Please do not feel pressured to give.
As many of you know I have suffered from migraines for the last twelve years of my life. I was first diagnosed in my sophomore year of college. At that time I was having one migraine about every 3-4 months. This continued for the next several years until in 2007 I contracted spinal minangitus. To treat this I was referred to a neurologist who then took over my medical care. This began my journey through the joyous world of medications to treat migraines as well as ones to end migraines once they have begun. From 2007 to about 2013 the amount of migraines, intensity and duration began to increase year by year even though during this whole time my doctor was trying different combinations of preventative and deletion drugs. By 2013 I was having 2-3 migraines a week. I also began having cluster migraines as least once a month. For those of you who might not know cluster migraines are migraines that will seem to begin to disparate then not fully go away but instead come back worse. I feel it is best to describe them as a roller coaster, up down up down. For me I have had cluster migraines that have lasted for 3-14 days. They are horrible! By the beginning of 2014 I began having migraines 5-6 days a week. These began to affect EVERY area of my life. I struggled with keeping up with my responsibilities as a teacher, wife, friend, sister and daughter. I felt that I was slowly loosing myself. Thankfully I work for a wonderful school system. When I spoke with my head of human resources, he was so kind and told me that he felt that I really needed to consider going on short term disability so that I could emerge myself in finding the answers to what was happening to my body. This was the hardest and most painful decision that I have ever made. As many of you know, I LOVE my job as an interevntion specialist and I care deeply for my students. It was horrible to leave them. However, my mother has always told me "you can't care for others if you don't care for yourself". With all of that being said, after days of praying and many tears I made the decision to go on short term disability. During the three months that I was on short term disability I began to become displeased with my neurologist and her lack of compassion for my situation as well as the care that she was willing to give. At that point, we set out to try and get me excepted into the care of a team of migraine and pain specialists at the Cleveland Clinic. I know that it was only through God that I was somehow able to get an appointment in November of 2014 even though there was a 6 month waiting list. After my initial appointment with my team of doctors, some of my medications were adjusted and it was suggested that my next step was to begin Botox injections every 3 months. My doctors explained that they have an 85-90% success rate with patients suffering with migraines to experience a significant relief from the shots. However as with all medical treatments they explained that there was a 10-15% chance that I would not experience this relief. But they were very encouraged that with my medical past that this form of treatment would get me back to my job and life. They told me that they would not be able to know the clear extent of my success until I had been receiving the shots for a full year. And so I set off on that portion of my journey, making the 3 hour trip to the clinic every 3 months. When I first began the Botox injections I was having migraines 7 days a week with many of them actually being cluster migraines. I was pretty much bed ridden. Over the last 11 months I did begin to slowly notice that the intensity of my migraines was decreasing slightly but the amount of migraines that I was experiencing still remained at 5-6 a week with about one cluster migraine every other week. During this time my team continued to feel that it would be unwise to release me back to work and so I was placed on long term disability. At the most recent visit to Cleveland Clinic my team sadly confirmed what I already knew in the back of my mind, that I fell into the 10-15% of patients who don't experience relief that Botox. After weighing all of the options for my next step, it was decided that I should complete the three-week iMatch program at Cleveland Clinic. This program is intense and is meant to help migraines suffers who have not found success with other avenues of treatment. This is an out-patient program where I will spend Monday through Friday; 8-5 o'clock at the clinic receiving multiple options of care. These will include four days of infusions (I will be hooked up to a needle receiving different medications to flush my system), physical therapy, psychiatric care, attending education classes, EKG testing, bio feedback as well as several other things. Thankfully, we have a good insurance plan and have already met our deductible for the year (thanks to all of my medical care). However, this is where we need the help of others. We will still need to pay $840 out of pocket for the program as well as my room and board. Since this is an out-patient program I will have to stay in a hotel for 5 days for 3 weeks as well as providing my own food for three meals a day. We have gone with a hotel in Cleveland that actually gives discounted rates to patients going through the program and we have roughly estimated how much it will cost for me to eat each day. We have roughly estimated that all of this combined will cost $3,500.
It has been a struggle for Justin and I to admit that we needed to reach out to others in order to continue with this next step in my care. There is no way that I will be able to attend this program without the help of all of you-our family and friends!! We also need your prayers!! I am quickly running out of options and I refuse to continue this way-this is no life. So we really need your prayers. If you are able to give, we thank you beyond what words could ever say. But we also want you to understand that your prayers are so very needed as well. Please do not feel pressured to give.
Organizer
Sarah Spencer Shipper
Organizer
Canal Winchester, OH