It’s one of those things that instantly makes your stomach turn over. A high pitched scream from your child, and it’s coming from faraway. Your instincts kick in and you want to run as fast as you can toward that tiny voice, but you can’t. Your foot and leg won’t work together. You try anyway. You stumble as you start to run and resign yourself to the quickest paced walk that you can get there in, and hope for the best. This time it’s a minor scrape and bruise. Welcome to my Multiple Sclerosis. My name is Brittny, and I am a stay at home mother and educator to two amazing, adventurous, smart, and kind children. I am going to get HSCT in January to stop my MS in its tracks.
I have Multiple Sclerosis. It slowly takes your life away from you, people end up in wheelchairs, people end up not being able to breathe, and I am in the beginning stages. I stumble when I walk or hike, my hands and feet tingle with the sensation you get when you have a body part “fall asleep.” They are numb. Writing a signature isn’t natural feeling anymore, it’s disconnected. It’s becoming more difficult to hit the right keys on the keyboard, and so typing is becoming frustrating. It all gets worse with heat.
I am a worker, a certified teacher, and I love to help others. I have put my career on hold to try to mitigate this disease, as stress is a culprit in the progression of MS. I needed to focus my energy where it was needed the most, and for me, that was being at home with my kids and being a strong partner to my husband.
I was diagnosed in 2012, six months after I gave birth to our first child. It was a bit of a struggle to get diagnosed, and when I did, the doctors wanted me to start on medication immediately. I was told the medication was safe while breastfeeding. It’s not. Medications are riddled with side effects and eventually they stop working, your disease progresses, and you have to try another one and hope for no more progression, but the cycle continues. I started asking more questions. How can I control this monster without medication? The answers came in the form of dietary changes, supplements, infusions, removing and replacing fillings, CBD, and staying away from toxic environments. It all seemed to be working until last year.
I have seen quite a bit of progression in the last year. It’s something that you wake up thinking about first thing in the morning. You deal with it all day. Nobody knows. You try to sleep it off, and then you do it all over again. Depression is starting to rear its ugly head. You don’t have an answer, you don’t have a cure, and you don’t have options, until now. I have an option to halt my MS. It’s called HSCT, and I’ll need your help to get it.
HSCT is a treatment where your stem cells are taken from your body and you undergo chemotherapy. Your stem cells are placed back into your body, essentially rebooting your immune system. This eliminates the immune system that previously wreaked so much havoc on you, and a new immune system is born. It’s a reboot. The entire treatment takes about a month, and the earlier you receive the treatment in the progression of your disease, the better. Right now I have an 85-95% chance of success.
I need raise $60,000 by the beginning of November to pay for the treatment, a caretaker, and flights. If you can help me by donating, or know of a business or someone else who might be interested in donating, please share my information via email or social media. It would mean the world to myself and my family. I have learned that you never know who is out there and is willing to help.
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