First Update – August 31, 2026:
Unfortunately, GiveTaxFree only allows updates to be added within the campaign description, so if you’re visiting my page for the first time, please scroll down for the original campaign details.
I wanted to share a little update, and most importantly, say thank you again to everyone who has donated, shared, or supported me. It means so much to feel like there’s a community holding me through this.
We’re getting close to having raised enough to cover nearly one full month of my health-related expenses, which is an enormous relief. It gives me a little more breathing room while I keep working toward something more sustainable.
Health-wise, I’m still a bit wobbly. I overdid it recently and ended up setting myself back for a couple of weeks afterward. The encouraging part is that I did recover from that setback, and I’m having some genuinely good days again. That may sound small, but for me, being able to recover and return to a better baseline is real progress.
I’m also working on a new business idea that would complement my real estate business and, I hope, help me stand out in what has become a very difficult market. It’s still in the early stages, but I’m excited about the potential and am trying to build something that works with my strengths, my current capacity, and the opportunities that exist right now.
And if anyone following along has strong business or entrepreneurial experience and enjoys kicking around new ideas, I’d be very open to having you take a look at what I’m developing and give me your thoughts.
Thank you for helping give me the time and space to keep figuring out what a sustainable future can look like. It means more than I can say.
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Help Me Build a Bridge to a Sustainable Future
People meet me as a Realtor, a horse farm owner, or someone building a thriving fountain pen community. They see the life I’ve built, but they are unaware of the many times I’ve had to rebuild it because chronic illness has repeatedly changed its shape.
My health first began seriously inhibiting my life while I was running an equine psychotherapy program for at-risk youth in New Hampshire. I was exposed to ticks every day, and it left me carrying several tick-borne infections without knowing it: Lyme disease, Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichiosis, and more. This led me to develop many symptoms, and I lost my dream job that I had worked towards for over a decade. I was undiagnosed for many years. I managed my symptoms for a long time with diet and supplements, but I had many chronic issues that I could not seem to get ahead of.
Over the course of my health journey, I accumulated more than a dozen diagnoses as doctors tried to understand the many things going wrong in my body. Then a sudden decline in 2018 led to a stretch of testing that caused me to pause my usual supplement protocol, and within a month and a half I went from managing okay to barely able to walk, along with a frightening cascade of other symptoms. This led to exploratory brain surgery and a week of intensive medical testing at the NIH hospital.
I fought for disability from 2013 to 2021. I went through many appeals, all denied, despite a file so thick with medical records my attorney said she’d never seen one like it. Ultimately, I lost my final appeal because I had begun working again during a period of greater stability, even though I was seeking disability for the years I’d been unable to work. It was incredibly disheartening to have my years of struggle erased by my desire to live more fully again.
Through it all, I’ve kept looking for the next foothold, believing that if I could just find enough stability, I could build again. During a period of greater stability, I built a successful real estate business, Asheville Dream Home, and, with family support, bought a small horse farm that was sustainable within the life and health I had then. I was creating the life I’ve always wanted. Then another tick bite and exposure to hand-foot-mouth disease led to another decline, and my real estate business has now been largely on hold for over a year.
For years, one of my most debilitating issues has been severe reactions to food, and I eventually became limited to only five foods I could reliably tolerate. Last summer, even those began either coming back up immediately or rushing through me within minutes. That crisis pushed me to fight for access to a treatment for my most recent diagnosis, Indolent Systemic Mastocytosis.
The treatment, Ayvakit, is genuinely helping. Unlike the many medications I take to manage symptoms, Ayvakit addresses the underlying genetic issue itself. It typically takes a few years to reach its full effect, but I am already seeing meaningful improvement. Staying stable while it has time to work depends on a protocol I built carefully, specific medications, supplements, and weekly IV treatment, with very little room for change. Every time I’ve tried to change, stop, or intensify it, the consequences have been immediate and severe, so staying the course is what’s keeping me upright.
Here’s what that stability costs each month:
Supplements: $1,387
Medication copays: $523
Caregiver support (meals, meds, shopping, basic housework; does not include farm help): $3,328
Weekly IV treatment: $325
CPAP copay: $20
Appointment copays: $8
Other ongoing treatments: $125
Total: $5,716/month, $68,592/year
For years, my parents and my partner, John, have helped me carry the financial burden of living with chronic illnesses and helped me thrive despite it. I’m very grateful to them. A huge portion of that support is ending this year, before I’ve fully regained my footing. Financially, I’m losing 45% of support this year, and 78% next year. Additionally, John, who has been my partner and caregiver for the last eight years, is moving out. I have had to hire caregiver support to replace some of the help he has provided. These changes are converging at a moment when my health is finally showing signs of improvement, but my earning capacity has not yet caught up. It’s also the hardest real estate market my more experienced colleagues have seen in a long time, so reestablishing my business could take a year or more rather than the few months it might have taken in a stronger market.
I’m not asking someone else to build my future. I believe I can do that. I’m asking for help building a bridge between where I am today and where I’m headed. $68,592 is twelve months of health expenses, so I have time for this treatment to keep working, to rebuild momentum in my real estate business, and to make thoughtful decisions about what a sustainable future looks like without being forced into major changes by a financial crisis.
Even if the life I built on the farm needs to change in significant ways, I want those decisions to come from a place of stability, not because I ran out of time. Making major changes while I’m still medically and financially vulnerable would likely set back the stability I’m working so hard to build. This is what I’m hoping to avoid with your support.
Thinking of me when you or someone you know has a real estate need is another meaningful way to support me. I work with clients within about an hour of Asheville and partner with trusted agents around the world, so whether someone is buying or selling, residential or commercial, I can help directly or make a referral. Either way, it supports my business.
If you’re able to give, thank you, truly. Donations are tax deductible. If you’re not able to give, sharing this fundraiser, sending a real estate referral my way, or simply taking the time to read and witness my story all mean a great deal to me.
If you’d like to understand my story more fully, I’ve shared that here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e3WYzrRP2NVJcDhTiY5Ipyc-9fmr7bgh/view?usp=sharing
I’d love to keep you updated. I will post updates here, but you are also welcome to join a Facebook group I created for this purpose: www.facebook.com/groups/karunasbridge/
Thank you for taking the time to hear my request. Sending love.