Her head isn’t fully attached to her body and now this Rigby woman is preparing for ‘critical’ skull-spinal surgery

IDAHO FALLS – For the last five and a half years, Emily Farmer has unknowingly lived with her skull not fully attached to her body. Now she’s preparing for a life-altering surgery to fix it.

The 33-year-old Rigby woman, a musician who recently released an album, is headed to Maryland next month for a cranial fusion surgery that will “screw her skull, C1 and C2 vertebrae to her spine.” It’s a procedure Farmer says isn’t currently available in this part of the country.

In a conversation with EastIdahoNews.com, Farmer says she’s been in and out of hospitals since 2019. Despite living with what she calls “exploding head pain,” which made doing the most basic tasks painful and difficult, doctors told her it was a concussion.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s normal to throw up every single day and have blurry vision and numbing in the face and limbs,'” Farmer says. “I feel like a bobble head. That’s the best way to describe it.”

Over time, the pain gradually got worse to the point that Farmer could no longer function.

Farmer persisted and eventually found Dr. Fraser Henderson at The Metropolitan Neurosurgery Group in Lake Arbor, Maryland. After an MRI and CT-scan in February 2024, he found the problem — 50% percent of her skull was not attached to her spine.

Farmer was shocked.

“I cried,” she says. “I’ve visited 60 doctors and only three of them tried to help me. He (Henderson) gave me a big hug and I just knew that God led me to (him).”

Emily Farmer getting her MRI, left, and CT-scan in Feb. 2024. | Courtesy Emily Farmer

The crash that started it all

It all started on July 27, 2019. Farmer was on her way to visit a friend in Salt Lake City. Not far from her destination, a reckless teenage driver side-swiped her on Interstate 15.

“He hit me, cut right in front of me and took off,” Farmer recalls.

Though Farmer was wearing a seatbelt, the impact flung her head to the left and right side of the vehicle, causing whip lash.

She swerved through five lanes of traffic to pull over on the side of the highway.

“I was in shock,” says Farmer.

After arriving at her friend’s house, something didn’t feel right. She felt the initial exploding head pain and went to a doctor. The doctor told her she had a concussion and provided instructions on how to take care of it.

“No one would take seriously the head pain, which was frustrating,” says Farmer. “I felt so much pressure in my head, it felt like it would explode if it got any tighter.”

After a gradual downward spiral over the last five years, Farmer is grateful to finally have some answers. Pinched blood flow to the head is the cause of the pain, which she says is the result of what doctors call “cranial cervical instability.”

This is the device doctors will put in Farmer’s neck during surgery. | Courtesy Emily Farmer

The cranial fusion surgery is happening on March 4. Farmer’s prognosis is positive. She’s excited at the prospect of regaining her mobility and the ability to do basic tasks again, including playing the piano.

“The surgeon says I’ll likely get 90% (mobility) back. It’s really hopeful to hear that,” she says.

Henderson has not responded to a request for comment.

The procedure is expensive. Farmer says the clinic does not accept insurance and her hospital visits through the years have left her financially exhausted. A friend launched a GoFundMe on her behalf this weekend to help pay for medical expenses. As of Monday afternoon, it’s raised more than $4,000 of its $80,000 goal.

Despite everything that’s happened, Farmer is in good spirits. She says it’s only “by the grace of God” that she’s still alive and she’s grateful for the support from family and friends.

To anyone dealing with their own struggles, Farmer offers some perspective.

“The letters of the word hope (could stand for) ‘hold on pain ends.’ That’s been my motto through this whole journey,” she says. “Anyone who has suffered (can) feel hope that they can continue on and get the help they need.”

Recent photo of Emily Farmer taken from the GoFundMe page