As a lot of you know, Megan and I recently moved the family from the beautiful Yampa Valley back to the front range to Severance. The primary reason we moved was so we could afford to pay for Megan’s surgery.
We are not usually ones to ask for help, but our circumstances are extraordinary. This started two years ago when Megan’s dentist referred us to Dr. Brian Shah in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Megan has been dealing with issues of TMJ since she was a kid. We had seen multiple surgeons who either said they couldn’t help or completely ghosted us.
Then came Dr. Shah. After a ton of research, it was clear Dr. Shah was the best in the country and possibly one of the best in the world when it came to TMJ treatment and maxillofacial surgery.
In August of 2023, we had our first consultation with Dr. Shah. It was determined that Megan’s jaw joint had deteriorated to merely nothing but toothpicks, causing breathing issues, which caused spine and back issues, which caused headaches. She was unable to eat properly since only her back two teeth actually made contact.
As a result, it was determined that Megan would need a total jaw joint replacement and an osteotomy of her upper jaw to fix this.
Dr. Shah did not accept insurance, but we wanted the best. Ultimately, the surgery for Dr. Shah would cost us $112,000 out of our own pocket. This did not include the hospital fees, anesthesiologist, travel, and hotel. Altogether, this procedure has exceeded $130,000.
Fast forward to June 11th, 2025. We have been to Florida 3 times for pre-op appointments and have arrived for the surgery. Megan is wheeled into the operating room and suffers a severe allergic reaction to medication used to assist in the intubation process. She goes into anaphylaxis. The doctors are able to pull her out and reverse it without having to do an emergency tracheotomy, but they had to cancel the procedure.
Now we have to reschedule, possibly in July, and fly back out to Florida for 16 days. This has been a huge setback. We are still looking forward to this life-changing procedure and will still have follow-up appointments for two years after the surgery.
We aren’t looking to cover the $100k, just something to help ease the burden.
Thank you for reading Megan’s story. Updates will come once we reschedule the surgery.
