Hello,
My name is Candice Pioche, and I am the mother to Ms. Heaven L Nakai. In 2016 Heaven was diagnosed with Ganglioglioma which is a rare brain tumor and is also cancerous. She had surgery on April 8, 2016, to remove as much of the tumor as possible, which was described to me as the most horrific tumor the neurosurgeon has ever seen. The neurosurgeon stated that the tumor has mingled itself in every small section it could find and was very bloody. After the surgery, Heaven woke up totally blind, in both eyes. As her brain healed and the swelling went down, she did regain some vision in her right eye, but not her left eye. Heaven has been on oral chemotherapy for the past 5 years, did 3 months of radiation therapy and is now in “remission”. Heaven has also suffered a stroke, which left her with dystonia, she also has hydrocephalus, osteoporosis and suffered from auto-immune encephalitis in 2019. She had to relearn how to feed herself, eat, self-hygiene and other daily routine, twice so far. She has also recently been diagnosed with POTS this year (2023), from all the trauma to her brain. It has been a hard, stressful 7 years for her, as well as our family. She continues to fight and refuses to give up. I have never heard her say she was sad about her condition, nor has she used it as an excuse to give up. I am asking for any type of help to help pay for our rent, electricity, gas and also rebuild Heaven’s emergency fund. We did have an emergency fund for her, but this past month took a toll on us financially. We travelled 300+ miles (one way) about once a week, to the nearest hospital that had all the resources we needed. There at UNM Hospital, they were able to pinpoint POTS as the diagnoses and we are currently finding ways to help her. Any donations would be appreciated, and we are greatly appreciative.