Help Brittany with Surgery Expenses

For 12 years Brittany has suffered from constant vomiting, digestive problems, migraines, and difficulty breathing that has frequently made simple tasks of life difficult. In the first year of these symptoms, Brittany went to the ER 3 times feeling like she was having a heart attack. It took 72 doctors and a mountain of medical bills for Brittany to finally get a diagnosis.

In August 2022 her doctors finally figured it out: Brittany has three vascular compression syndromes: Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS), Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome (SMAS), and Nutcracker Syndrome (NCS).

To learn more about these conditions, please check out these links:

MALS - https://malsawareness.com/what-is-mals%252525253F#bfd0f8ea-4015-43be-a5b3-2ddc51f582fc

SMAS - https://www.smasyndrome.org

NCS - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutcracker_syndrome

Her doctor in California scheduled a surgery for Tuesday, February 7th that has a high chance of ending Brittany’s suffering and saving her life. This surgery could not have come at a better time. Brittany has not been able to hold down solid food for 4 months. She’s been on a liquid diet and lost 40 pounds and is becoming malnourished.

Unfortunately, BCBSNM has denied the SMAS portion of the surgery, which would fix the SMAS and likely address the NCS. Now the plan is to move forward with the MALS surgery to handle that layer of pain and place a GJ feeding tube while they continue to battle BCBS for surgery approval. This means another surgery hopefully sometime in the future.

After having hefty medical bills in college, Brittany has always tried to be as financially independent as possible. You may remember Brittany’s love for baking and her cake business. Brittany started baking cakes as a way to pay for the medical bills she accumulated in college. It took 5 years, but she did it. But now she is in need of help. Due to not being able to work since October, Brittany has been on short term disability which only covers a portion of her income. Brittany also met her insurance out of pocket maximums for the year at the end of January and travel costs for the required 2 week stay in Los Angeles are adding up. All money raised goes directly to Brittany and will help cover the cost of surgery, travel expenses for the surgeries, and to help her financially during the recovery period.