Shana Rose Maschak - HOPE

Shana Rose     January  3, 2017

For those of you that know Shana, you know that she’s the person that always has a smile on her face and would do anything to help others.  She’s happily engaged to her fiancé, Josh and they are living in Maryland with their two dogs.

What you might not know about Shana, is she is severely sick with a very rare syndrome that has been wrecking havoc on her life for the last two years, causing debilitating pain, unintentional weight loss, and a lot of emotional distress. Shana has  had stomach problems for years now, but was finally diagnosed correctly with Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome in June 2016.

Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome or MALS, involves the median arcuate ligament, which goes around the aorta and connects the diaphragm to the spine. When the MAL presses too tightly on the celiac artery and the celiac ganglion nerves, this causes severe abdominal pain that is worsened by eating. For Shana, she has 70% stenosis (compression) in her celiac artery and her superior mesenteric artery. These arteries are major branches of the aorta that deliver blood to the stomach, liver and other organs in the body.

In August 2016, Shana found a surgeon in Washington, DC and had a laparoscopic surgery to release the median arcuate ligament from compressing the arteries. Unfortunately, the surgeon did not know enough about MALS that her nerves are still causing severe pain.

Shana continues to lose weight because everything she eats makes her so sick that she throws up and will have stomach issues.   So she refuses to eat due to how bad the pain is and what it does to her.  She’s missing days at work because the pain has her curled in the fetal position in bed. She barely can sleep and her energy and out going personality  is slowly diminishing. She’s constantly in tears trying to hold onto HOPE that she will soon be pain free.

The reason for creating this page is because Shana is set to go see a top MALS surgeon who is located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He will do an open heart surgery that will cure Shana of this terrible, life altering syndrome. The surgery date was scheduled today for February 1st.   This was my Christmas wish and we all have been praying for.

Everyone who knows Shana knows that she’s very stubborn and rarely asks for help but this page is where you can help her. She will be in the hospital for 5 to 8 days and then has to stay in a hotel close to the hospital for another 7 to 10 days. With her surgery happening soon, she needs help with expenses for the hotel stay, gas, and food. Anything that you can give will be put to her travel expenses to and from Connecticut.