Brain Surgery for April

***update: April went with a different surgeon. Dr.Patel of MUSC (medical university of South Carolina) she had her  surgery on March 9th! She's doing great. Donations helped with travel/hotel for flight consult and for flight/hotel to go back for surgery. Deductiable for her surgery was almost 7000 and was put on two credit cards... So any donations made at this time, will help us pay of this debt. Thankyou everyone! 



****2015****
I am making this gofundme for my wife and mother of our two beautiful young children, our son Charlie who is Seven years, and our daughter Zoey who is five.


We recently found out that what we thought was a pineal cyst, may actually be a rare benign Pineal tumor called a Pineocytoma.

Though Benign it causes April to experience many symptoms such as:  Dizziness, vertigo (she has fallen many times), migraines, severe nausea, head pressure, stabbing pain behind eyes, shaky eyes (April describes it as going over a bumpy road on roller blades.) Flashing lights (like of one was in a room with strobe lights), Numbness in different parts of her body, ringing in ears, foggy brain, fatigue, and much more.

In May of 2014 April’s local doctor finely agreed upon a MRI after years of her complaining of her problems.  Her local Doctors nurse told her the results where normal.  April didn’t feel comfortable with taking her Doctors word for it, and requested her MRI and the results.  This Is when we found out April had a Pineal Cyst. She decided to see a different Doctor, to address her concerns about this, who told her it was likely not her cyst causing her problems and that symptomatic ones are rare.  He kindly referred us to neurologist, who wasn’t of any help.

Research lead her to a support group on Facebook for people with symptomatic pineal cysts.  She found, she had a lot of the symptoms they did, and through this group we found Dr. Shahinian of the Skull Base Institute in California.

On March 2nd Dr. Shahinian informed us that what we thought was a Pineal Cyst may actually be a benign Pineocytoma. This is a rare tumor of the pineal Region of the brain. Though we will not truly know until its out and pathology is done on it.

Do to Protocol he requested one more Mri on March 13th. This Mri showed some growth, and helped him see the pineal lesion more clearly as the last Mri was not the best quality. He still stood by what he had said when we first talked to him.

The cost of surgery is high, and though we have insurance, they refuse to pay, do it being out of state. No provider in our area has been willing to help. Also no Doctor in our area is qualified to do such a surgery.

April has been struggling for many years, and we would do anything to get this brain invader removed. We are forever grateful for every like, share, and donation we get.

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Update: We Decided to Go With Dr. Patel Of MUSC. All the details of why are in the updates above

Thank you!
Local News Report:

MRI From May 2015