World Surgical Foundation, Inc.

Thank you all for the amazing, generous donations. If you still would like to donate please reach out to Kerry or Karly directly! We really appreciate it! It means the world to us!! xo

i’m sure a lot of you already know some of my story, and i’m so appreciative of those of you taking the time to read and learn. Hi, I’m Karly, i’m a 21 year old artist who suffers from multiple chronic illnesses, including 3 rare abdominal vascular compression syndromes. In 2021, I was in college for expressive arts therapy. I started having frequent severe stomach pain episodes, nausea and vomiting, IBS-like symptoms, and more. I lost weight rapidly and went to doctor after doctor being told it was just anxiety. My symptoms worsened and I dropped out of college, quit working, and moved back home with my family because my pain was so severe all the time. I did a lot of tests and got a diagnosis of POTS and Gastroparesis, but it didn’t explain all of my symptoms. My abdominal pain was still unbearable, so we did further testing for MALS, a vascular compression that restricts blood flow to the abdomen, which causes severe pain (comparable to a patient with stage 4 pancreatic cancer). The results showed I have MALS, and two other vascular compressions: SMAS and NCS.

SMAS (Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome) is a compression of the third portion of the small intestine (the duodenum) by the abdominal aorta and superior mesenteric artery. This prevents contents from draining into the small intestine leading to malnutrition, weight loss, nausea/vomiting and debilitating pain. Just two days after receiving this diagnosis, I was admitted for 10 days for a feeding tube placement. At this point I had lost 60% of my body weight due to being so ill. After consulting with multiple specialists, my family and I decided to move ahead with fixing the compressions via robotic laparoscopic surgery with Dr. Danny Shouhed on the West Coast. Because they are such rare syndromes, there are very few surgeons that can treat multiple compressions at the same time. Dr. Danny Shouhed learned the Duodenal Derotation aka the Alvear Procedure (part of the SMAS surgery) from Dr. Alvear himself. Dr. Alvear has offered to fly out to assist my surgery and it would be a huge relief to have him there as this is such an intense, long surgery with many unknown factors.

For his assistance at my surgery, we’ll be donating $5000 to his foundation, the World Surgical Foundation. I’ll be hosting a fundraiser where 50% of my jewelry sales profit will go towards the World Surgical Foundation. Through their website, https://worldsurgicalfoundation.org, you can read about how the foundation and Dr. Alvear travel across the world to help children with rare diseases receive care that wouldn’t be accessible to them otherwise. If you’re interested in making a handmade jewelry purchase, please check out my instagram page @sicklypixiejewelry. Otherwise, 100% of donations from this GoFundMe will go to the World Surgical Foundation to support Dr. Alvear’s ability to assist my surgery. He is an incredible doctor whose procedure shows high success rates, and to have him there for my surgery would be a huge relief. With getting this surgery, the goal is I can go back to a somewhat normal life, be able to eat food again, and live daily with less pain. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for their donations and reshares, and I know Life 2.0 is so close for me❤️