Katie's challenge - Embracing Lipoedema

Hi, my name is Katie. I am 31 years old and have recently been diagnosed with a disease called lipoedema. Unfortunately this is a disease that has no recognition from Medicare. Lipoedema is a painful disease that impacts my day to day activities and hinders my physical capabilities.

There is no cure for this disease, only conservative management measures I can implement. The only way to get rid of the lipoedema fat is liposuction. Which as you can imagine is a costly process and I have been told I will need no less than 3 lipo surgeries at approximately $13,500 (*3 = $40,500 total) each. Through the process of looking into whether removal of the lipoedema fat is an option for me it had been discovered that I needed surgery on the veins in my right leg at approximately $10,000. Before I could consider having any of those surgeries my doctor did a bubble test on me and it has been found that I have a grade 4 PFO (hole in my heart) and the risk of blood clots post surgery is too risky to have with a hole in my heart. I have consulted a cardiologist and decided to get the surgery to close the hole, which was another cost of approximately $25,000.

That final number creeping towards $80,000 is what has brought me to starting a Go Fund Me.

Your small change can go a long way to changing my life.

 

Thank you for reading this far, and thank you for supporting me in this medical struggle that I am facing.

I started blogging about my diagnosis a few weeks back hoping to raise awareness for lipoedema.

Follow more of my story here: https://embracinglipoedema.wixsite.com/embracinglipoedema/post/let-me-introduce-myself