
Reclaim my vision
Hi my name is Shandel Amezquita and I am fundraising for my daughter Alisa, she was diagnosed with a condition called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, formerly called pseudotumor Cerebri in 2016. She was attending MCLA at the time. Alisa came home for Christmas break, she started complaining that her vision would suddenly go black for a few seconds to a minuet, then her vision would then come back, also she had what she called shadowy vision, pain in lower back, neck and migraine like headaches; she could only sleep in 5 minute increments, I remember her baby cousin came over and fell a sleep on her bed beside her, Alisa looked down on her and said I wish I could sleep that soundly. we had to sit with her, using warm compresses on her forehead and eyes, at this time we took her to the emergency room, where they did a lumbar tap and MRI to confirm what they suspected was pseudotumor Cerebri. She was set up to follow up with an neurologist and ophthalmologist . she was placed on Diamox and amitriptyline. Moving to the events of 2021, Alisa got Covid in the middle of January, I believe on the 19th, at the time it seemed like she just had the flu, but her symptoms escalated so we took her to the emergency room on the 25th and and they tested for Covid, the test came back positive. We brought her home and she started having symptoms like she had when she was first diagnosed with Idiopathic intracranial hyper tension, this started after Covid ran its course . She was taken to St. Elizabeth hospital where she had lumbar tap, her CSF pressure was greater than 60, which is incredibly high. She had a basic eye exam; after the exam she was transferred to Mass General Hosp where she had another lumbar tap and transferred to Mass Eye And Ear. The doctors called us and together, it was decided she needed a Ventriculoperitoneal shunt on February 15th, pressure stabilized and some she was still having fuzzy and dimmed vision, they recommended she have a optic nerve sheath fenestration, it helped in the beginning, Alisa about 2 weeks in the hospital, she finally got to home. On her follow up appointment with vision rehab, she was declared legally blind. She got accepted to the Caroll center for the blind she attended a week and a few days before her eyes got severely fatigued. Alisa only got to attend MCLA for a semester, before leaving on a medical leave, we were not comfortable sending her back, the closest hospital was more than 2 hours away. Alisa is a fighter and refuses to accept her eyes the way they are because she sees it as temporary. we found a doctor in Berlin Germany (Federov Restoration Therapy) optic nerve and retina treatment. We are trying to get Alisa to Germany and give her a fighting chance to reclaim her vision.