Hello, friends! I come bearing updates. First, though, I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for all the support over the past 6 months. You almost literally saved my life. The great news: I don’t seem to have any issues from the brain surgeries. My hair is coming in nicely, my shunt is working properly, and I’ve even been taken off the hydrocortisone because my body is making enough cortisol on its own. In less-great news, my financial aid only covered the necessities and I’m really, really struggling again; I’ve also been really depressed which is making me even more exhausted than I usually am; and I keep landing in the ER because I keep running out of blood pressure meds right before medical appointments. This all sucks. In good-but-bad news, my youngest niece (she’s not quite 19) was finally given a diagnosis and four years of chronic pancreatitis may be nearing an end. Unfortunately, the “cure” is a pancreatectomy and islet cell transplant. The current plan is to transport her to Minneapolis (from Orange County, CA) for the surgery when she’s strong enough and I plan to be there to both support and entertain my niece and to provide my sister some respite (and entertainment—I’m nothing if not entertaining, I tell ya). The bus is really reasonable, but I don’t have enough money for my $16 of meds much less a bus ticket, food, and whatever else for the trip. That’s why I’m updating today. Any help at all is appreciated. As a 14-year-old I spent more than two weeks in hospitals hours away from home and I know just how boring and lonely it can be and how easy it is for mom and kid—no matter how much they love each other—to get on each others’ nerves. Besides, how could I possibly pass up a chance to see one of the two most awesome young ladies in the world? The story so far: My name is Shayla. I have had Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (http://www.ihrfoundation.org) for the past 20+ years. A little more than three months ago, I was also diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma (you can wiki this) which was successfully removed. For a fat lady like me, the odds of developing both are one in five million. The combination of the brain surgery and its recovery (4 days in ICU and 5 more days in the hospital as well as a month of restrictions inlcuding no sniffing, snorting, sneezing, blowing my nose, bending at the waist, lifting more than 10 lbs, sleeping flat...) have really messed up my life. I've done plenty of stupid things to mess up my own life in the past, but this came out of the blue. I was just a couple weeks from successfully finishing the spring semester at Madison College and looking forward to starting the summer term. Student financial aid is how I get by but because I had to take several incomplete grades, I am on financial aid suspension. I am now pretty much destitute. It is now the first week of August and I am recovering from the insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt which will hopefully help to control the pressure inside my brain. The surgery itself went well and, as of today (August 7), I was even able to shower, but I am still not friendly with food so I am back in the hospital for a couple days on IV fluids. My financial aid situation is still up-in-the-air and I am still pretty stressed and incredibly poor. I'm still at the point where I should be worrying about my health and taking care of myself, not flogging myself for spending a dollar at Taco Bell so I can justify using their wi-fi or obsessing about how I'm going to feed my two cats or wipe my butt once I run out of TP. I should be worrying about what to do with what's left of my hair and looking forward to my next shower and being able to lift things again. That's why I started this fundraiser: I'm just flailing. You may know me, you may not. You may think this is a scam, you may believe me. Regardless, I need the luxury of being able to worry about my health right now, not how I'm going to get through the the next couple months. So I'm asking for help. You can donate 50 cents or a few dollars. You don't have to donate anything at all, but if you boost the signal, I would deeply appreciate it. I'm not going to tell you that I'm a good person or have some sort of special talent that makes me especially deserving. EVERYONE deserves help when they need it. I'm just a regular lady trying to get by and when I am able to pay it forward, I will.