April's out-of-state Dr 2015-2017
In 2009, my husband and I moved from Arizona to upstate New York for his job. While we loved the experience of living there, I picked up an unfortunate souvenir: Lyme disease (and several other tick-borne diseases). It went undetected for five years as my condition grew steadily worse. Symptoms reached the point where my primary ordered me home to rest, and my employment was terminated by my employer at essentially the same time because I could not perform the job duties. I have had basically no income of my own since 2011.
After only a few months of treatment, we moved for my husband's job again, this time to Boise, ID. It has been far more difficult to find a specialist in tick-borne diseases in the western half of the US than it was on the East Coast. So in July, he drove me all twelve hours to Denver, CO to see a specialist there. We are very pleased with the doctor and his staff, but because of the peculiar status of Lyme disease in the US right now, some of my treatment is not covered by insurance.
We are lucky enough to be able to stay with his parents in the Denver/Boulder area while we are down for appointments, but we have to rent a cheap hotel room for one night each direction, because my body can't remotely handle a twelve hour drive. Not even with me lying down on a flattened seat for a bunch of it. Between the gas, the hotel, and the non-covered tests and medications, each trip costs us about $1000.
We are told that most people finish their course of treatment in 12 to 18 months. At $1000 per trip, $6000 would allow us to continue treatment for about twelve months. $9000 would get us to eighteen months.
Like I said, I have not been able to work full-time since 2010 or at all since 2011. We have been income-negative for a long, long time. We have exhausted our savings and gone on to borrow money anywhere we could. We're out of options. We have not been approved for disability. The appeal we are currently on is the last appeal we will ever be allowed to make. And despite the fact that I can't type, sit upright for more than about three hours, perform certain self-care tasks, or hold a thought in my head, I do not expect this appeal to be successful, either.
There is no knowing whether I will ever be completely well again. I feel very good about the fact that the specialist's office says they are not in the business of getting people on disability, they are in the business of improving people's health. And that's what I'm hoping for: whatever level of improvement my body can manage. If you can help me, even by a small amount, it would bring me closer to being able to finish the course of treatment.
If you'd like to know more about Lyme disease and its co-infections, please feel free to ask. I would be happy to send you some information.
