Dupuytren's Contracture and the Medicine Woman
Donation protected
The Fundraising Goal
Pay hand surgery, $6500
Whatever succeeds goal helps to pay for acupuncture exams, & truck accident repairs
YouTube Story from Candace
Hello, I am Candace, and I am here today to ask for your support now and into January 2020.
I am scheduled in January for a non-scalpel hand surgery using xiaflex injections for an aggressive hand disease called Dupuytren's Contracture. Unexpectedly many things have happened all at the same time. My return to CSTCM in the Fall was rescinded, I got caught on a highway on ice and had serious truck repairs, meanwhile an aggressive form of Dupuytren's Contracture in my hands is causing great pain and grief and in need of surgery. All of these events aligning, I am forced to ask for help and find myself on this platform here at GoFundMe. Thank you for reading the story that follows and for any donation you can spare during this holiday season.
Dupuytren's Contracture and the Medicine Teacher
Dupuytren’s Contracture, also known as Viking syndrome, is a genetic disease of the fascia that affects the hands, feet and the penis. It usually appears with elder age and in men, but I have the unfortunate appearance of the disease in my 40s, being female and a climber. no one knows the cause or the trigger, but it is a wound healing adaptation. The disease is a fascia overgrowth forming nodules in the palms and then sending cords out into the little finger or ring finger usually. For me it started in my left hand with a nodule in my left palm and little finger which is now contracted 60 degrees. After a xiaflex injection (enzyme from flesh eating bacteria) in May 2019, the cord dissolved but my little finger was unable to be released, and in aggressive retaliation the palm has now developed 4 other cords on each of my finger tendons pulling the entire palm into contraction. Just a few months ago on my right hand cords have developed in my little and ring finger. I have a very good hand doctor in Bend, Oregon, Dr. James Verheyden, who has performed thousands of these non-scalpel injection surgeries, and I am due for another surgery in January 2020 to try to stop the deformity of my hands. What a gift I have been given to someone that uses their hands so much. This has become a learning lesson for me to help others. Sometimes all the best medicine needs help. In early January I will need to undergo another surgery on both hands. this requires me to fly to Bend, Oregon, stay for several days for the procedure which is outpatient, and recover. Each vial of xiaflex costs $4k. For the left hand they will use one, and the right a cortisone to delay the progression, as two hands cannot have surgery at the same time. There is still other added costs. (airfare+motel+car rental+incidentals and recovery time without work. ($6,500)
Urgency and importance of this campaign
In Early November, at the first ice storm I had an accident on 6th ave on my way to Golden, Colo. on an early Sunday morning. My truck (a 2003 Toyota Tacoma) in the middle of a 3 lane highway aught ice and veered across the inside lane smashing into the concrete barrier then bouncing off in the opposite direction across three lanes of traffic, down a ditch, across steel pipes and caught by barbed wire. I am ok, traumatized, but ok. I am very grateful that something very big was watching over me. it could have been fatal. anyone could have hit me, or I them, and had not the barbed wire caught the truck I would have flipped.
The truck got beat up with a buckle in the front, However, thinking after aligning the truck and fixing the cosmetic lights that were smashed that it was all in good running shape again. ($200) The left strut damaged and leaking the front struts had to be replaced ($800). The truck was still shaking at speeds higher than 60mph, and after multiple wheel balancing and alignment, the steering bushings and fluids were replaced ($700). New tires ($1000) This is all over the last couple of weeks.
I have no backup and a catering job that is ending Dec. 20. Vital help over the next month is crucial. (Total Truck $2700)
The long Story continues with Exams
In august of 2019, I graduated from CSTCM with a Masters in Acupuncture. And was to return a week later for an herb program that is required in certain states to practice. However, the school decided not to teach many classes, those I needed, and rescinded the acceptance of me into the program. I was left last minute without a program to continue, without a new place to go as the terms had already begun and without financial aid which was to help me pay for the National Board Exams upcoming. ($620)+ TCMTests ($325) 2 month test Prep.
Fortunately I have passed my BioMed Exam, and await the reopening of Exam taking on January 13-Feb 1, in which they will close again until May, reopen for 2 weeks, then shut again until August. Its a critical time to schedule the exams now as there will be a whole group of graduates trying to get into exams real soon with limited availability. So I must pay and register now to secure my spot.
The Creation of a Medicine Practice
Once the exams are complete and passed then I can apply for licensure ($600), Obtain Insurance ($600), Rent a space ($200-800 monthly), buy equipment, needles, etc (estimated start up costs $3500).
Then I begin practicing! and can begin to help you on an individual healing journey.
Will you help invest in this journey of a medicine-Spirit Practice? First and foremost you will be helping to heal my deforming hands so that i may live a normal life and practice acupuncture. Secondly, the hardship of the accident to my truck and a rescinding of my return to CSTCM took away options for paying for the surgery, and basic living expenses. I cannot work as an acupuncturist until I get licensed so I am caught in between being finished with school and no Financial Aid, and working every job I can find making ends meet. I will get through this, but right now any help is welcome.
In short, I am making a change in the chapters of my life as an adjunct asst. professor, low pay, term to term, no benefits, but loving teaching earth science and all the students I get to teach. A few years ago, while working in the jungles and coring lakes in the South Pacific, I nearly died of a malaria infection. During that process, I lost my house, my teaching, and my life in Portland, Oregon. In that healing process I was introduced to Chinese Medicine and it helped me heal over the long time that followed. As a Yoga teacher, I found Daoist Qigong and acupuncture. Mending a broken a heart in the loss of everything, I turned to the medicine that healed me and started an acupuncture program in Denver Jan. 2017. This past August 2019 I graduated and am taking my National Board Exams soon, on my way to becoming licensed.
Help me to heal my hands. Any donation is welcome. You are greatly appreciated, Thank you for believing in me, and helping when things are tough!
Pay hand surgery, $6500
Whatever succeeds goal helps to pay for acupuncture exams, & truck accident repairs
YouTube Story from Candace
Hello, I am Candace, and I am here today to ask for your support now and into January 2020.
I am scheduled in January for a non-scalpel hand surgery using xiaflex injections for an aggressive hand disease called Dupuytren's Contracture. Unexpectedly many things have happened all at the same time. My return to CSTCM in the Fall was rescinded, I got caught on a highway on ice and had serious truck repairs, meanwhile an aggressive form of Dupuytren's Contracture in my hands is causing great pain and grief and in need of surgery. All of these events aligning, I am forced to ask for help and find myself on this platform here at GoFundMe. Thank you for reading the story that follows and for any donation you can spare during this holiday season.
Dupuytren's Contracture and the Medicine Teacher
Dupuytren’s Contracture, also known as Viking syndrome, is a genetic disease of the fascia that affects the hands, feet and the penis. It usually appears with elder age and in men, but I have the unfortunate appearance of the disease in my 40s, being female and a climber. no one knows the cause or the trigger, but it is a wound healing adaptation. The disease is a fascia overgrowth forming nodules in the palms and then sending cords out into the little finger or ring finger usually. For me it started in my left hand with a nodule in my left palm and little finger which is now contracted 60 degrees. After a xiaflex injection (enzyme from flesh eating bacteria) in May 2019, the cord dissolved but my little finger was unable to be released, and in aggressive retaliation the palm has now developed 4 other cords on each of my finger tendons pulling the entire palm into contraction. Just a few months ago on my right hand cords have developed in my little and ring finger. I have a very good hand doctor in Bend, Oregon, Dr. James Verheyden, who has performed thousands of these non-scalpel injection surgeries, and I am due for another surgery in January 2020 to try to stop the deformity of my hands. What a gift I have been given to someone that uses their hands so much. This has become a learning lesson for me to help others. Sometimes all the best medicine needs help. In early January I will need to undergo another surgery on both hands. this requires me to fly to Bend, Oregon, stay for several days for the procedure which is outpatient, and recover. Each vial of xiaflex costs $4k. For the left hand they will use one, and the right a cortisone to delay the progression, as two hands cannot have surgery at the same time. There is still other added costs. (airfare+motel+car rental+incidentals and recovery time without work. ($6,500)
Urgency and importance of this campaign
In Early November, at the first ice storm I had an accident on 6th ave on my way to Golden, Colo. on an early Sunday morning. My truck (a 2003 Toyota Tacoma) in the middle of a 3 lane highway aught ice and veered across the inside lane smashing into the concrete barrier then bouncing off in the opposite direction across three lanes of traffic, down a ditch, across steel pipes and caught by barbed wire. I am ok, traumatized, but ok. I am very grateful that something very big was watching over me. it could have been fatal. anyone could have hit me, or I them, and had not the barbed wire caught the truck I would have flipped.
The truck got beat up with a buckle in the front, However, thinking after aligning the truck and fixing the cosmetic lights that were smashed that it was all in good running shape again. ($200) The left strut damaged and leaking the front struts had to be replaced ($800). The truck was still shaking at speeds higher than 60mph, and after multiple wheel balancing and alignment, the steering bushings and fluids were replaced ($700). New tires ($1000) This is all over the last couple of weeks.
I have no backup and a catering job that is ending Dec. 20. Vital help over the next month is crucial. (Total Truck $2700)
The long Story continues with Exams
In august of 2019, I graduated from CSTCM with a Masters in Acupuncture. And was to return a week later for an herb program that is required in certain states to practice. However, the school decided not to teach many classes, those I needed, and rescinded the acceptance of me into the program. I was left last minute without a program to continue, without a new place to go as the terms had already begun and without financial aid which was to help me pay for the National Board Exams upcoming. ($620)+ TCMTests ($325) 2 month test Prep.
Fortunately I have passed my BioMed Exam, and await the reopening of Exam taking on January 13-Feb 1, in which they will close again until May, reopen for 2 weeks, then shut again until August. Its a critical time to schedule the exams now as there will be a whole group of graduates trying to get into exams real soon with limited availability. So I must pay and register now to secure my spot.
The Creation of a Medicine Practice
Once the exams are complete and passed then I can apply for licensure ($600), Obtain Insurance ($600), Rent a space ($200-800 monthly), buy equipment, needles, etc (estimated start up costs $3500).
Then I begin practicing! and can begin to help you on an individual healing journey.
Will you help invest in this journey of a medicine-Spirit Practice? First and foremost you will be helping to heal my deforming hands so that i may live a normal life and practice acupuncture. Secondly, the hardship of the accident to my truck and a rescinding of my return to CSTCM took away options for paying for the surgery, and basic living expenses. I cannot work as an acupuncturist until I get licensed so I am caught in between being finished with school and no Financial Aid, and working every job I can find making ends meet. I will get through this, but right now any help is welcome.
In short, I am making a change in the chapters of my life as an adjunct asst. professor, low pay, term to term, no benefits, but loving teaching earth science and all the students I get to teach. A few years ago, while working in the jungles and coring lakes in the South Pacific, I nearly died of a malaria infection. During that process, I lost my house, my teaching, and my life in Portland, Oregon. In that healing process I was introduced to Chinese Medicine and it helped me heal over the long time that followed. As a Yoga teacher, I found Daoist Qigong and acupuncture. Mending a broken a heart in the loss of everything, I turned to the medicine that healed me and started an acupuncture program in Denver Jan. 2017. This past August 2019 I graduated and am taking my National Board Exams soon, on my way to becoming licensed.
Help me to heal my hands. Any donation is welcome. You are greatly appreciated, Thank you for believing in me, and helping when things are tough!
Organizer
Candace Gossen
Organizer
Denver, CO
