Sarahs May Thurner story

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am starting a fundraiser for two reasons. One to raise awareness, and two to help with my cost of living while I am out (mandatory bedrest for a few weeks after a stenting procedure) I am a single mother who works in the medical field. I have no PTO due to the sudden death of my brother and this illness which has caused me to miss work due to debilitating pain. Here is my story leading up to my final diagnosis.

Starting in November of 2021 I went to the ER for severe pain in my kidney. After CT revieled I did in fact have a kidney stone, I had surgery 2 months later after it failed to pass. After the surgery I was still having TERRIBLE pain in my kidney. I still had blood in my urine. I still had chronically elevated WBC and RBC in both urine and bloodwork. After being at the ER over 12 times,not taken seriously. After seeing Obgyn (to rule out benign things such as cyst, benign tumor, endometriosis, fibroids, ect), neurology (to rule out MS), hematology (due to my chronically elevated WBC and RBC) urology (to confirm I no longer had any residual kidney stones), primary care, cardiology (because I have chroniclly fast heart rate) , GI ...... I felt like everyone kept punting me. Noone could figure out why I was passing out. Why I had blood in my urine. Why I had pain in my kidney. No one took me serious. They said "you're 30. You are fine. " "your D dimer is elevated but were not sure why. " I felt so defeated. I struggle to work with patients throughout the day, running in and out of rooms. I struggle to come home to cook dinner for my son. I struggle to even get in the shower at times. I chronically hurt.

Finally, my last resort was to go to vascular. Since I had a whole work up over the last year I was already prepared with my MRIs, CTs, bloodwork from the start (Nov 2021) My physician looked at my MRI and said "I can fix you,you definitely have pelvic congestion syndrome which also falls hand in hand with May Thurner syndrome " ect. I never in my life have felt so relieved. He diagnosed me with venus compression syndrome. My iliac vein gets compressed when my blood pumps. The valve in my vein(s) do not open and close properly which creates a "pool of blood" around my kidney and explains why I have pain in my kidney/abdomen! (which also puts me at risk for a DVT and explains why I pass out) I recently had a blood clot in my left leg and will more than likely be on eliquis for the rest of my life. (Even after my stent surgery. The plan is my Dr. will place a few stents and coils in my veins to open up the compressions. I have significant stenosis on both the right and left side of my pelvis. May Thurner is a diagnosis that is often under diagnosed. It is not well studied. Only 2 doctors in the state of Georgia work on patients with MTS/PCS. It causes excruciating pain. Pain that will literally cause you to faint. It took an entire year to finally get a diagnosis. I am relieved, however stressed that this will take me into a financial hardship due to not having any PTO at work. I have lost so much due to this syndrome and am SO CLOSE to recovery. Thank you so much for reading my story.

Sarah

My cashapp is $Jewishprincess22