Hi y’all, I’ve posted on here before, but for those that don’t recall, I would gratefully appreciate any amount of donations. If you could donate $10-50, I would be able to afford the necessary traveling expenses.

A little background info: I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and one of the conditions it causes is called Tethered Cord Syndrome. My surgeon is located in South Carolina. For patients with EDS, traveling to meet with a surgeon or doctor is almost a requirement. Due to the comorbidities EDS carries with it, a patient will very likely have some kind of flare following surgery.

In a nutshell, a tethered cord release involves the surgeon making an incision around the L5-S1 area of the spine. He will then perform a laminectomy to access the spinal cord, where he will disconnect the spinal cord from the wall of the spinal canal.

There are several reasons I desperately need this operation:

1. Lodging expenses: I was originally scheduled for surgery in mid-April, but we had to postpone due to COVID-19. The surgery is currently scheduled for early June. I’ll spend 1-2 nights in the hospital and 7-9 days in the hotel. The main reason for the lengthy stay is, this surgery causes patients with EDS to be susceptible to spinal fluid leaks. If this were to happen, my surgeon would bring me back to the OR to seal the leak.

2. Food: At the moment, we don’t know what will be open, closed, offering curbside and/or delivery. Generally speaking, most hotels provide some kind of breakfast. Unless you’re staying in a large hotel, you can expect to have to pay for lunch and dinner. We estimate spending $50-75 for food.

3. Car rental: We are considering driving in place of flying. If we drive, we have a vehicle that can easily handle the trip. If we fly, we will need a rental. Due to the nature of the surgery and my needs, we will very likely rent an SUV. We rented a Chevy Tahoe in September 2019; It was the perfect car for me. I was able to adjust the front passenger’s seat, configuring the seat to lay down. This was extremely helpful following neck surgery. While this seems like minor needs, having the ability to adjust the seat made the ride much more manageable and less painful. Currently, the average cost to rent a large SUV is around $100.

Please message me here on Reddit if you would like to donate. I’ll send you my username information. Venmo and PayPal.