I wish I was joking, but I be stroking.

Hi! For those who may not know my story, my name is Ambrosia! I'll be 34 in two days, but my body has me feeling so much older.

On August 25th, 2023 while at work I suddenly struggled with the ability enunciate my words. From there, my blood pressure shot up to critically dangerous levels and I developed a left sided facial droop. Fourtinately, I already worked at a local hospital, so no time was wasted when it came to medical response time.

After being admitted for a week, I learned that I not only had suffered from stroke(s) but that I had a rare brain disease called Moyamoya. This disease is a literal one-in-a-million diagnosis.

Moyamoya is a progressive disease where my carotid (main brain bloodflow) arteries are genetically constricting. This means my brain isn't getting the amount of blood it crucially needs to keep me alive. The term Moyamoya roughly translates to "puff of smoke" in Japanese. This relates because on the MRI, you can see little smoke like vessels that my brain created as a desperate smoke signal to send blood.

Being progressive means the condition will worsen without treatment. Left untreated. I can and will eventually have more strokes; with the high risk of them being catastrophic or causing death.

My treatment option besides medication is to have a brain bypass surgery on my left side, followed by a second surgery on my right side three months later.

These surgeries are usually noted to be successful but I'm at an increased risk of stroke before and during surgery.

My first of the two surgeries are scheduled for 12/19/23. Just a little over a month away.

Each one will require an ICU stay followed by short term leave from work.

While I'm incredibly thankful to have the option of short term leave; it only only covers 60% of my pay. My rest is to be covered by my PTO.

In a perfect world, my pto would be fully stocked. But after losing my mom to cancer 5 months earlier, my step father 11 months prior and my father a year before that as well as the process of gaining custody over my 6 year old nephew, I've had to exhaust basically all of my accumulated time.

These last two years have been horrible on my mental health, but I'm still going strong. I just, for once need to ask for help.

Did I mention that I am also going through a divorce and fighting to keep my son and home.

When it rains, it pours right?

If you would be willing to donate, it will help provide me the opportunity to heal, recover and move forward through these storms without worrying about rushing back to work too soon, just to make ends meet.

I have no idea what to set my goal at, so I guess this is a good start. I can always adjust it as appropriate. I'll be happy to provide any proof of costs/available pto as needed. If you have questions, simply ask.