Help Lauren Have Surgery

I am not good at asking for help I am especially not good at asking for money. No matter how I feel about that I have to do this for my health and my family.

I have struggled with my weight for many years and it is my own fault. As many of you all may know over the past few years, I have been battling with some health issues.

In August of 2020 I went to the hospital after having chest pains for 3 weeks, like I said I'm not good at getting help. After several tests and a CT scan they found out I had a large pericardial effusion (A condition with the accumulation of too much fluid in the pericardium, a sac surrounding the heart.) I was immediately admitted to the hospital because of the size of the pericardial effusion I was in cardiac tamponade. In this condition, your heart becomes too compressed to function normally. Cardiac tamponade is life threatening and must be treated immediately. I found out later on that they had the crash cart outside of my room and the surgeon on call in case I coded overnight. The next morning, they took me down to the Cath Lab to perform a Pericardiocentesis. (Pericardiocentesis is an invasive procedure. It uses a needle and catheter to drain fluid from your pericardium. The fluid can then be sent to a laboratory for microscopic examination for abnormal cells. When too much fluid is trapped in your pericardium, this is called pericardial effusion. This can prevent your heart from pumping normally because the extra fluid causes compression. Pericardial effusion can lead to a life-threatening condition called cardiac tamponade.) During the procedure they drained a litter of fluid from around my heart. I was in the hospital for 5 days while they waited on my heart to continue to drain more fluid.

After a lot of questions by me and testing by my doctor, he concluded that the condition was idiopathic meaning they really don't know what caused it. He said possibly some sort of virus and that's how my body dealt with it. After that I had many follow up appointments with my cardiologist and multiple scans. Everything seemed to be fine, he weaned me off my medication and I went about my daily life.

In May of 2021 my chest started to hurt again but it came on very fast this time and hurt much worse. I was seen at 2 different hospitals and my cardiologist concluded that I had a small pericardial effusion. This one did not need to be drained like the first one, I needed to take medications to resolve it. At this point I was also referred to a rheumatologist who ordered a plethora of tests including tests for auto immune diseases. My tests came back to show that my inflammation levels in my body were extremely high. She was able to put me on a medication that is immunosuppressant, it has started to slowly bring down my inflammation levels. But we still don’t know what is causing all of the inflammation.

I have been trying to eliminate inflammatory foods from my diet I have I have gone from my highest weight of 346 pounds to 301 pounds. My doctors seemed to agree that if I had the gastric bypass surgery it would lessen the stress on my body and potentially and potentially resolve my inflammation issues.

In July I was also diagnosed with Adenomyosis (A condition when the inner lining of the uterus grows into the muscle wall of the uterus. This results in painful and heavy menstrual bleeding.) My OBGYN has suggested that I need to have a hysterectomy but recommends that I wait until after I lose more weight so that the surgery and recovery is safer and easier.

Here's the catch my insurance does not cover any kind of weight loss or bariatric surgery and it is way out of my price range. I was just diagnosed this week with a Hiatal hernia my insurance will pay for that surgery which would make my gastric bypass portion cheaper. At that point I am looking at a out of pocket expense of around $10,000.

With everything that has gone on in my life over the last few years I am barely able to pay the bills I already have and put food on the table. There is no way that I will be able to save that amount of money that quickly for the surgery. So, I am humbly asking for help. Any amount helps.

I assure you that I am dedicated to this process and I am ready to feel better, prolong my life, be able to take care of my children and live a healthy life.