Answers for Alison: DETOUR, Brain Surgery!

The “Revised” Story: BRAIN SURGERY DETOUR

***An important note about giving if you’re not up for reading the whole story right now***

GoFundMe charges nearly 10% per contribution on their platform. If you’ve given in the past, you know we record every donation on the GoFundMe page no matter how it's given so we can all track the progress. I really need every dollar, and taking out nearly 10% for donations via GoFundMe directly adds up.

Would you consider giving by another method to maximize the impact of your donation? Here are options that would be more helpful than donating via GoFundMe:

Alison Singewald

3205 Ivey Wood Lane

Durham, NC, 27703

*Venmo and CashApp are both user-friendly apps allowing free transfers from your bank account to the username you select.

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THE NEW STORY: DETOUR TO BRAIN SURGERY

THANK YOU to everyone for caring for me and contributing through meals, medical bills, prayers, and stepping into roles that my family can't. It helps me to remember I’m not alone or forgotten. My friends and community around the country and world have generously rallied around me for 7 years now- I know it’s hard to still care about my life and health years later, and I will never take that for granted! Thanks for especially helping me when I have a big need or when I receive devastating news. Unfortunately, that time has come again, and there’s just no way I can do any part of this alone.

THE BIG ASK: I am having brain surgery on Aug. 30, 2022, with a world-renowned neurosurgeon at the University of Cincinnati hospital and need your help.

I am asking if you could help by:

Donating miles, points, or funds to help with plane costs.

Donating financially towards medical bills.

Please contact me, Allison Grubbs, or Ashley Cobb ASAP if you can help in any way with plane flights (find us on social media or the apps above and send us a message, etc!) because we need SEVEN FLIGHTS booked ASAP as prices are increasing daily. I will adjust the overall goal total depending on how much people can help with flights directly.

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The Longer Story:

After stumping 2 Lyme specialists with progressively increasing headaches, my last lab results for Lyme/Bartonella after treatment 2019-2021 were GREATLY improved—both of my Lyme doctors were absolutely thrilled! Your donations gave me access to treatment, and some symptoms I’ve had for 10+ years have gone away entirely! I even went on 3+ mile walks multile times/week at one point as the Lyme treatment was seeming to heal my POTS (but had to stop that treatment because it made my head pain unbearable). Also, I’ve gotten off of several medications I’ve been on long-term and never thought I'd be able to get off of...I could go on and on but you get the point - I'm forever grateful for everyone’s generosity.

Despite the labwork improvement, my head pain and function continued to worsen. As a result, I had a brain MRI which was “extremely abnormal.” We followed up with 4 additional MRIs + 2 CT angiograms, and all were abnormal and potentially dangerous, revealing I need a very major brain surgery ASAP.

I was devastated at this development but thrilled at the Lyme/Bartonella improvement. My neurosurgeon + Lyme doctors all think this surgery could significantly help me. For various reasons, I’m feeling WAY more worried than previous surgeries. It’s the most invasive and complex surgery to date, and I'm pretty sure brain surgery isn't something anyone ever can get used to, HA!

Since I don’t have family who can help and can’t be alone during the 2-3 weeks I have to stay in Ohio, I’ve asked several people to help for the surgery and recovery. 6 people are planning to help by "taking shifts" and flying in and out to help me before, during, and after surgery. So we need 7 plane flights to make this work. Flight costs are increasing daily, so we need to purchase tickets ASAP.

The GoFundMe “goal” of this surgery is based on the estimated cost of surgery after insurance. (The hospital and neurosurgeon are both in-network, but since I’m currently disabled and forced to be on Medicare, I still will have to pay a lot of money to even reach my astronomical in-network deductible). The current list of obvious needs are paying for the surgery + hospital bill, flights for myself and others (7 total!) who are helping me, rental cars, and money for meals/groceries while we are in Ohio. One of my friends grew up in Cincinnati where I’m having surgery, so we will have FREE lodging which is a HUGE deal financially. If you have extra points/miles they would be willing to donate/transfer, please contact me ASAP.

I have been wanting to share my Lyme treatment improvements with everyone (and I couldn't help to do that a bit above), however, part of “needing brain surgery ASAP” means I’m experiencing excruciating pain nearly 24/7 at this point—which isn’t exactly conducive to writing or honestly engaging with anyone. I will be continuing with my new Lyme doctor once I heal from this surgery, but my lab results have GREATLY improved as my physical decline got worse and so there’s a lot of hope that having this surgery brings me.

Forever grateful for each of you—no amount is too small to give, and if you know me, you know there’s not much I’d rather avoid than asking people for anything at all, especially money. But with my brain MRI and the low degree of function I currently have, I desperately need this surgery ASAP to fix the structures in my brain to avoid very serious permanent damage (like paralysis, stroke, and seizures).

Finally, can you please “engage” with the post on social media whenever you see it posted by anyone (like, comment, and please consider sharing it as ⅓ of people who donated to my last GoFundMe are people I don’t know)?

Thanks for everything,

-Alison

Medical Note: For those interested in exactly what’s going on in my brain and spine, I will try to post a couple of pictures of imaging and a diagram that you don't need to be in the medical field to understand something is majorly wrong because it's so blatantly obvious. #chronicallyrare #chronicallyfabulous as always...