MY STORY:

My journey with chronic Lyme began about two years ago while we were camping in Portugal with my boyfriend Robert.

As soon as we got home, I came down with strep throat (that lasted 2 months … or so I thought at the time... I recently figured out I still have it). Pretty soon afterwards, I found myself almost bedridden. All of my joints and muscles ached to the point where all I could do was cry and cry until I fell asleep. I was completely and utterly exhausted to my core, sleeping 15+ hours most days. Even getting up to make food or go to the bathroom seemed impossible. My head started hurting and didn't stop for two years. I constantly had a migraine that only seemed to get worse. I became extremely hypersensitive to sound, lighting, and environments. Reading and watching TV even became unrealistic. I began having memory loss: forgetting where I was driving, having a hard time finding words, being unable to memorize new information, etc. I quickly forgot what it felt like to live in a healthy, functioning body... and Robert wasn't too far behind me. Honestly, I thought I was dying. I didn't know how else to comprehend being in so much pain. I was anxious about never getting better, depressed from my life being flipped upside down, and in more pain than I ever imagined possible. 

I have never felt so horribly alone. 

My faith has never been somehow so weak, yet so strong at the same time. I had to believe that this pain was for some greater purpose far beyond our feeble human comprehension... that God put this in my life to help me evolve, grow, and transform. I began trying my best to see it as a sort of spiritual purification... sandpaper for the ego. I had to believe in the possibility of healing. I knew that without hope, I wouldn't make it.

I choose to believe that this was my mission, and I had to make it out on the other side so that someday, I could take what I learned to help others going through the same thing. I would pray to God to strengthen my spirit so that this image could become a reality.

Robert and I had to drop out of school, work, and essentially life as a whole. All at once, we lost friends, our passions, and our hope for our futures. The pendulum swung us from the highest days of our lives into the lowest. It was quite a change.

We held each other through the hardest of each other's days and kept each other alive and fighting, searching for silver linings and things to be grateful for.

I wouldn't be here today without Robert or my mother, who have both been saintly throughout this all.

I hope all of you get lucky enough to find a Robert in this lifetime. He is the light in the darkness... and moms are angels on earth.

Moving forward, we got diagnosed after about 5ish months of seeing doctor after doctor and being tested for everything under the sun. We began working our way down the rabbit hole that is Lyme treatment protocols: herbal tinctures, more supplements than you could ever imagine, ozone iv therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, weekly IVS with glutathione pushes, induced native phage therapy, antibiotics, neurofeedback, more infrared saunas and Epsom baths than you could count, and a whole host of other technologies most of the population has probably never even heard of. I personally have seen 7 doctors. I traveled to Tennessee to see one of them, and all the rest have been out of state because it is so difficult to find practitioners locally that can help with Lyme, as the research and treatment protocols are so primitive.

All of this has been paid out of pocket by my parents. They have bent over backward financially trying to get their little girl healthy, and I am so blessed for their unconditional love and efforts. However, I cannot ask any more of them. They have given more than enough... and worst of all, had to helplessly watch their child and her partner endlessly suffer for months without end. They are willing to go into their retirement fund to try for one more miracle, but I would love to help them in any way I possibly can.

MY MISSION:

I have one final place I feel called intuitively and logically towards for treatment called San Oviv (in Mexico). It offers whole body hyperthermia (the body is heated to 107 degrees in an effort to kill the tick / infections) and plasmapheresis (the plasma is taken out, cleaned, and put back into the body), amongst many other promising treatments. The whole body hyperthermia is the only treatment we know of that can truly KILL the Lyme bacteria rather than suppress it. I am saving up money on my own to help pay for it, but I can only work so much with my condition. 

If I can fully heal, it is my mission to give back to the world in every way possible. 

I was born unto this planet to serve and help others heal themselves. I plan to do so through holistic therapy, focusing on patients who struggle with disability and trauma. I had everything ripped away from me in one singular second. I lost all that I loved in the blink of an eye… but what the pain and trauma of chronic Lyme has taught me in 2 years would've taken me lifetimes to learn without it. It has opened my eyes to what truly matters in life... to the very magic that underlies every mundane drop existence. It has connected me more deeply with God, others, myself, and the earth. It has set me free in so many ways… and it has shown me that my purpose is to help others transmute their pain and suffering into wisdom & beauty, too. It has been a spiritual awakening to say the least.

Now, I just need to rise above this thing. And I KNOW that I can and I will.

It took me a long time to build up the confidence to create this because I felt I was unworthy or that others who were suffering needed it more than me... I felt selfish asking for help, but I now know that I deserve to be happy and healthy just as much as any other person … and with my health, I will give back to the world. I cannot do this alone.

I would love to shoutout my friends from Red Lotus Yoga here -- Marina, Francesca, Monica, Abbey, Jessica, Damian, and Brian. With their support and unconditional love, they helped make this possible, too. Yoga has saved my life in more ways than one. I hope to someday help others heal through this art as well.

If you donate to this cause, I promise I will do the greatest good with your kindness. I will spend the rest of my life trying my very best to paying it forward. By helping me fight for my life back, you are giving me a second chance to help better this world, to live healthily, and to create a beautiful life free of the monster that is Lyme disease. I will be able to have children one day without fearing passing the Lyme to them!

I promise you will not regret it.

I will do everything in my power alchemize this suffering into something beautiful and hopefully help countless others do the same. 

Thank you for your time, compassion, and energy. It is of the greatest value to me and truly means the entire Universe & more. My family, Robert, and I appreciate your support beyond all words. It has been a dark and lonely (yet enlightening) road, and you are helping light the way. :) 

There is a gift greater than we can imagine hiding inside our darkness+ suffering just waiting to be harvested and shared with the world.

“You must be ground like wheat, and once you have recovered, then you can turn and help the brothers” (Luke 22:31–32). [1]

May all beings be happy, at peace, and free from suffering.

You are never alone. 

A BIT ON CHRONIC LYME:

Chronic Lyme Disease is an absolutely debilitating misunderstood disease. Not only is it dramatically underfunded, disregarded, and under-researched, but it is also ridiculed and de-validated. Patients who identify with chronic Lyme are ostracized and even judged in their immense suffering. Many are told by doctors that their pain is “in their head,” and then completely and utterly disregarded as a whole. Many doctors even go as far as saying that chronic Lyme isn't real ... when there are hundreds of thousands of people suffering deeply from it every moment of every day. 

Known as the “Great Imitator” because of its seemingly countless list of symptoms which mimic so many alternative diseases, chronic Lyme is painful (and complicated) beyond measure... not to mention very tricky to diagnose (it take most people years and years). Patients experience rheumatoid arthritis aches and pains all over the body, constant headaches and migraines, intense brain fog and cognitive dysfunction that can lead to forgetfulness and memory loss, seizures, debilitating exhaustion that leaves one bedridden for prolonged periods of time, severe insomnia, depression, anxiety, neuropathy, facial palsy, heart palpitations, mold toxicity, metal toxicity, parasites, recurring infections (ex: strep), nerve pain, episodes of dizziness/shortness of breath, tinnitus, hearing loss, etc. As you can see, the list is seemingly infinite. Studies have even linked Lyme disease to the development of MS, ALS, Fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, and many other well-known (but misunderstood) illnesses/diseases. 

The weight of suffering that Lyme carriers bare can't be deduced from looking at them from the outside, which makes getting a diagnosis and treatment even more difficult than it already is. "But she doesn't look sick!" "She looks and acts healthy!" "She looks totally normal in her social media photos..." The reality is, beneath the surface, we are struggling to stay alive. Every day is a battle to find silver linings, to find reasons to keep fighting.

There is also little to no awareness, and thus little to no support from community and society. Lyme warriors often suffer in silence. Many are even criticized. It is heartbreakingly lonely beyond words. 

Not to mention, for those who have been diagnosed, there is no clean cut path for treatment or silver bullet cure. Every patient is forced to become their own advocate, whilst in a debilitating condition that leaves them unable to function most days. In such primitive days of treatment, it feels like the odds are towering against us. Most patients have experienced countless treatments, both Western and Eastern approaches, and leave feeling exactly the way they felt when they first began treatments. Treatments are also not covered by insurance virtually anywhere as they are usually functional or holistic in nature (which the government does not provide for… and should). It is expensive beyond belief… and no treatment is guaranteed to save you… and most are prolonged over extensive periods of time. Not to mention the whole “you get worse before you get better” thing. While detoxing from the die-off that treatments often create, Lyme patients get “Herxheimer reactions,” which only exasperate symptoms

Furthermore, Lyme Disease creates one's body into the perfect host for all sorts of other infections and illnesses to hop on board, as the immune system is completely compromised. This is why Lyme has such a layered, intricate treatment process that is still being vigorously studied and discovered at this very moment. Ticks can carry many other infections along with the Lyme disease, a few of these diseases being Bartonella, Babesia, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Fever, Powassan virus, miyamoti infection, anaplasmosis, etc. Some of these diseases can be fatal. It has been thought for a while now that Lyme disease is transmitted via ticks only, but many people are beginning to hypothesize that it spreads via many other insects, and potentially even sexually as well. Chronic Lyme Disease cases are rising at an alarming rate, and in my opinion, countless people are walking around with Lyme Disease not even knowing that they have it because of some misdiagnosis or a total lack of acknowledgment of their disabilities (“everyone feels this way” mentality). Personally, I suffer from Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, recurring strep (PANDAS), Parvovirus, EBV, parasites, heavy metal and mold toxicity, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, etc.

With Love, Light, and Infinite Gratitude, 

Kait 

🙏♾️