Tarlov Surgery for Candice Towles

Hello everyone, my name is Susan, and I am creating this fundraiser for my wife Candice. Candice has been a Registered Nurse for the past 22 years and continues to care for those in her community she is also a fun-loving, carefree, empathic person who would give you the shirt off her back. In 2014 Candice started to have lower back pain with bilateral leg radiculopathy. In 2015 an MRI reported perineural cysts on each exiting nerve root from T12-S3, as well as numerous cysts in the sacral area the largest cyst at the time, was 26mm in the spinal canal at the S2 level. She was referred to Harbor View Neurosurgery in Seattle and they told her there were limited options to treat these types of cysts and the risk was greater than the reward.

We learned that these cysts are called Tarlov cysts and there is little knowledge of these types of cysts. They are typically silent however Candice has symptomatic Tarlov cyst disease. This medical condition gets more confusing every day. She never knows how she is going to feel when she wakes up, and how painful the day will become. She never knows from hour to hour. That is one of the hardest and most frustrating components of living with Tarlov cysts and chronic pain.

Over the years leading up to today, Candice has pushed through with these Tarlov cysts and chronic pain without using any type of pain management. After being told there was nothing that could be done, she figured she would just have to live like this for the rest of her life. An MRI on 3-10-2023 has reviled cysts at S1-S2 right side 12mm, left side 14mm, and at the S2-S3 right side 33mm, left side 25mm. These cysts are starting to cause more severe problems in her day-to-day life. When you see Candice all you see is her loving, compassionate self because that is what she wants you to see, what you don’t see is she is hiding extreme pain. As her wife of 14 years, I see how the pain affects her body. Her carefree adventurous mentality has been drastically affected. She has unbearable muscle spasms almost nightly that wake her. The broken sleep is wearing on her. She has constant pain from the hips down. When she gets home from work, she is exhausted mentally and physically. Even the small things that she loves to do causes her pain, so she rarely does them because it hurts too much. Her symptoms over the last few months have increased and the pain has become sometimes unbearable.

Currently, there are only a handful of courageous Neurosurgeons and Interventional Neuroradiologists in the world who are seeing patients with this rare disorder and are willing to attempt treatment. One of those Neurosurgeons is Dr. Frank Feigenbaum in Dallas, Texas. Website for Doctor: Feigenbaum Neurosurgery

Candice has an appointment scheduled for April 13th, 2023. This is an in-person consultation to see if Candice is a candidate for surgery. We need a little help getting to that appointment.

I have set the fundraiser lower to help with the initial travel expenses getting to the consultation, if Candice is approved for surgery I will adjust the goal as that will require a second trip to Texas for up to 10 days, she will be in the hospital for 2-3 days, then will be discharged to a hotel until the follow-up on day 7 or 10. She will have a long road to recovery after the surgery and be on leave from work.

Please consider donating to help us cover the various expenses such as copays, airfare, lodging, and food. We do not like asking for help, but we need some at this point. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you from the bottom of both of our hearts.

Please read about these rare cysts: Tarlov Cyst Foundation