Emily's Brain Needs Your Help
Donation protected
2020 and Some Unexpected Brain Surgery
Emily has had an interesting year. Like most of you, it's been a roller coaster of stay at home orders, reduced hours at work and dealing with a new potential normal. In addition to the difficult events of 2020 so far, Emily's life took an unexpected and scary turn. She started getting blurry vision and headaches earlier this year. This persisted for a few weeks and was getting worse right around the time the country was first shutting down. The symptoms started to impact Emily's day to day and ability drive so she sought out medical advice. After a handful of virtual doctor visits and multiple MRIs, Emily was diagnosed with a cyst on her pineal gland. This type of cyst is rare, between 1-5 % of the population has them, but it is extremely rare to be large enough to show symptoms. The only real option was surgery. The goal was to reduce the swelling and reduce the symptoms or more serious problems could occur. We are very lucky to have so many doctors and specialists in the RDU area and Emily was able to find a specialist at UNC that could do the surgery.
In early June Emily had brain surgery. The pineal gland is right in the center of the skull, but they were able to reach the gland endoscopically to reduce and remove the cyst. The surgery was a success and the path to recovery has began. Although the surgery was minimally invasive, in the words of the surgeon "I went into your head, banged around a bit, pulled some things out and sewed you back up." He was joking to make the pain feel better but the recovery has been an evolving process. The past few months have been difficult but if you know Emily, she'll be back to normal in record time. She's already back to teaching!
So where do you come in? You hope the conclusion to a story like this is "Glad she’s okay and glad she had insurance." The okay part is something we can all be thankful for, but about that insurance.... Emily is a dance teacher. She teaches tap and enriches the lives of hundreds if not thousands of students a year and has done so for over 15 years. The downside to a career in the arts is that it doesn't always come with insurance or resources other jobs do. Emily purchases her own insurance. It was the plan she could afford but it was never a plan suited for a situation like this. The surgery that Emily was going to have would actually cost MORE if charged through her insurance than with no insurance at all. This boggles the mind a bit but it's true. She would play less if the doctor didn't charge the rate they would for insurance. The only option is a payment plan for the full cost of the procedures and the bills would be 100% out of pocket.
Emily is reluctant to ask for help because she's the type of person that would rather make sure others have what they need before asking them to help her. The bills are coming in and the total is more than $30,000! A financial blow like this has drained her savings pre-surgery. The follow up MRIs and payment plan will continue to burden her for years.
As family and friends of Emily, we wanted to ask for help. We know that times are tough. We'd really appreciate a contribution if you can afford one. If you can't, please share this link on social media or pass it along to others who may know Emily. We'd like to get the awareness out to as many people as possible.
Thanks,
Family & Friends
Post Op Thumbs UP!
Already back at it!
Emily has had an interesting year. Like most of you, it's been a roller coaster of stay at home orders, reduced hours at work and dealing with a new potential normal. In addition to the difficult events of 2020 so far, Emily's life took an unexpected and scary turn. She started getting blurry vision and headaches earlier this year. This persisted for a few weeks and was getting worse right around the time the country was first shutting down. The symptoms started to impact Emily's day to day and ability drive so she sought out medical advice. After a handful of virtual doctor visits and multiple MRIs, Emily was diagnosed with a cyst on her pineal gland. This type of cyst is rare, between 1-5 % of the population has them, but it is extremely rare to be large enough to show symptoms. The only real option was surgery. The goal was to reduce the swelling and reduce the symptoms or more serious problems could occur. We are very lucky to have so many doctors and specialists in the RDU area and Emily was able to find a specialist at UNC that could do the surgery.
In early June Emily had brain surgery. The pineal gland is right in the center of the skull, but they were able to reach the gland endoscopically to reduce and remove the cyst. The surgery was a success and the path to recovery has began. Although the surgery was minimally invasive, in the words of the surgeon "I went into your head, banged around a bit, pulled some things out and sewed you back up." He was joking to make the pain feel better but the recovery has been an evolving process. The past few months have been difficult but if you know Emily, she'll be back to normal in record time. She's already back to teaching!
So where do you come in? You hope the conclusion to a story like this is "Glad she’s okay and glad she had insurance." The okay part is something we can all be thankful for, but about that insurance.... Emily is a dance teacher. She teaches tap and enriches the lives of hundreds if not thousands of students a year and has done so for over 15 years. The downside to a career in the arts is that it doesn't always come with insurance or resources other jobs do. Emily purchases her own insurance. It was the plan she could afford but it was never a plan suited for a situation like this. The surgery that Emily was going to have would actually cost MORE if charged through her insurance than with no insurance at all. This boggles the mind a bit but it's true. She would play less if the doctor didn't charge the rate they would for insurance. The only option is a payment plan for the full cost of the procedures and the bills would be 100% out of pocket.
Emily is reluctant to ask for help because she's the type of person that would rather make sure others have what they need before asking them to help her. The bills are coming in and the total is more than $30,000! A financial blow like this has drained her savings pre-surgery. The follow up MRIs and payment plan will continue to burden her for years.
As family and friends of Emily, we wanted to ask for help. We know that times are tough. We'd really appreciate a contribution if you can afford one. If you can't, please share this link on social media or pass it along to others who may know Emily. We'd like to get the awareness out to as many people as possible.
Thanks,
Family & Friends
Post Op Thumbs UP!
Already back at it!
Organizer and beneficiary
Aaron Shoemaker
Organizer
Raleigh, NC
Emily Shoemaker
Beneficiary