Current Events

I have been battling a severe chronic nerve pain condition known as RSD for the past 15 years of my life. RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) is a chronic neurological disease. It is a malfunction of part of the nervous system and the immune system as they respond to tissue damage from trauma, such as an accidental injury or medical procedure. Even a minor injury, such as a sprain or deep bruise, might trigger RSD causing nerves to misfire, sending constant pain signals to the brain.
This disease continues to spread throughout my body and is making the little things in life a bit harder each day. I continue to have Ketamine infusions every other month which allows me to continue to teach, for now. However, I have finally come to the point where I need to try a more intensive treatment and my last option at this point to give me some relief from the pain. I am scheduled from June 7-June 11 for the 5 day ‘awake’ coma of Ketamine infusions in the ICU at the Hospital for Special Surgeries in New York City. (Which is why I will need to be done with all my assignments for this class by May 31.) This procedure is not FDA approved and therefore it is not paid for by my insurance company.
So, the time has finally come that I had to reach out and ask for help from my friends and family. Our goal is to raise $40K-$60K in order to have the medical charges and expenses covered. We currently have two fundraisers planned. We are holding a dance and silent auction on May 29th, at the Cocheco Country Club in Dover, NH. On May 15th we are doing “A Walk in Hope” 5K run/walk at Spaulding High School track in Rochester, NH along with a raffle. We have set up a blog site at, http://allisonsfightwithrsd.blogspot.com/ to see more information about these efforts.
I often question if this decision is the right one, for me as well as my family, but I want to be able to tell my son one day that I did everything possible to try to get better. Hopefully with a little luck and lots of prayers it will work!