My name is Courteney and I appreciate you taking the time to read this. I was recently diagnosed with Lyme Disease, and now I am asking for help to treat this as aggressively in the first 6 months as possible so that I might have a chance of beating this.
My Story
A few months back I had woken up and my head felt “soupy” (I don’t know how else to describe it). I hadn’t been drinking the night before or anything, but I assumed it might just be caused from lack of sleep or something. It lasted through the day and then subsided the following day. I would start having days like this more frequently until the feeling eventually just stayed.
As this “soupy” feeling continued to progress, I started also experiencing some other weird things: explosive rage and depression, blurry vision, chronic fatigue (like could sleep 14 hours and still fall asleep at any point type of fatigue), body aches, chills, dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness, and significantly reduced strength. One day I woke up and realized I did not have enough strength to pick up my baby and that’s when I became scared.
I went to visit my doctor a few times, and he ran some tests and he could not find any issues other than having orthostatic hypotension and low sodium levels. I felt defeated, frustrated, and crazy. This had been my third time going in to see him with everything coming back as normal. I didn’t feel normal. I was struggling to get things done at work and I couldn’t keep up with my children. My partner was also at a loss on how to help me and I can only imagine what kind of pain that was.
While the doctor continued running labs, I researched symptom relief and found some something that helped me feel 100% better- I had thought that maybe I was dealing with and adrenal issue or some sort of chronic fatigue syndrome, so I found something to help with cell regeneration. Unfortunately it costs 1k per treatment and should be frontloaded otherwise it will only last two weeks. It was enough to get me through my work trip (I am dedicated to serving our veteran population through adventure-based psychoeducation).
When I returned, the symptoms came back with a vengeance. I started experiencing all of my symptoms again with the inclusion of light sensitivity, tremors, and these headaches that make my brain feel like its ripping in half. The “soupy” brain now felt like I was constantly drunk and my ability to process/ respond to what people were saying was compromised – I swear it takes me 2 minutes to process what someone is saying and the same amount of time to respond now. I was tested for Lyme Disease and came back with a CDC-positive Lyme diagnosis.
I don’t remember a tick being on me or any rash, but at least I had an answer. Unfortunately, if you go down the rabbit hole of what Lyme disease is and how you treat it, there is some controversy. What I have been able to gather is that it is a bacterial infection that is shaped like a corkscrew and can hide anywhere in the body. It must be released from the cell and broken down in order to vacate. However, it reproduces itself, so aggressive treatment is necessary.
I have to take antibiotics to tackle the biofilm outside that protects the bacteria, take another antibiotic of a different class to attack the actual bacteria and take supplements to help break down the bacteria and detox it from my body. This will help with symptom relief in the long-run if I can beat this disease, but it requires 6 months of aggressive treatment, a “Lyme Literate” doctor, and some symptom relief practices.
There is a lot of controversy around Lyme Disease and some doctors have been penalized for their aggressive treatment (see the movie “Under My Skin” or “The Quiet Epidemic”). Insurance does not cover “Lyme Literate” doctors because of the length of treatment.
I am embarrassed to be asking for help as I am usually on the other side of it. I found as many resources as I can to help combat the costs of treating this disease, but I need help paying for these doctor’s visits and the treatment so that I can continue to serve the community I do and be the best friend, wife, mother, and advocate I can be. I won’t know how well the treatment worked until we reassess at 6 months, but I am doing everything in my power to set myself and my family up for success.
The amount is a guestimation of costs related to doctor’s visits, supplementation, and medication (after many phone calls and research). If you are able to make any sort of donation (no matter how small) or share this campaign with others, I would appreciate it. I plan to keep people updated on this platform on a monthly basis as I continue my journey. Thank you for your consideration and for reading my story.