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Young Mom Battles POT Syndrome

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2 years ago, I met Maria online, and it was love at first sight. She was active, vivacious, spunky, and beautiful. Well, she still is beautiful. :)  Sadly, she's stuck in the grip of a vicious combo of fading Lyme Disease and POT Syndrome. We have been blessed with the most beautiful baby daughter, Mercedes, but the more she grows, the more we realise that we can't take care of her. I work full-time, and Maria is basically on home-hospice with a rambunctious 8 month-old. :)

If we can meet our funding goal, we hope to send Maria to a Treatment Center in Texas where they will wean her off her medication, and get her body back in control of its autonomic (subconscious nervous) system. It's a two week program that costs $5000. We're asking for a little more so that we can all fly down together. 

Whatever you can spare, we are intensely grateful! All of it goes straight to getting Maria back on track so that she can be the mother she yearns to be, pick up where she left off with all her talents and reclaim her chance to live life and share that love with our baby.


This is us! My two Marias and me.

Meet Maria for yourself; visit her blog 'Flowers and Fireflies'!

When We Met


She loved gardening, long walks through the woods, and composing her own songs with an acoustic guitar. She was surprisingly talented, learning web design, teaching herself sketching, writing children's stories and composing a book of poetry.

What drew me most to her was her love of life, everywhere, in everyone. I'd never met someone at once so strong and yet so kind.  We dated and married in what seemed a whirlwind of time, and then tragedy surfaced.

Lyme Disease and POT Syndrome

She didn't realize that she'd contracted Lymes Disease around the time we had met. One week into our 'honeymoon', she collapsed with an aggressive onset of Lyme Disease and POT Syndrome, and has been incapacitated ever since.



The baby is doing wonderfully, healthy, active, and the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. She has so much energy though, that by the time I get off work, my wife is completely wiped. None of the medication seems to be working, and all the organic food and doctor visits are just keeping the worst at bay. There's no opportunity for her health to develop.

What We Want to Do

We hope to send Maria to Dallas, Texas, for a 2 week accelerated program at The POTS Treatment Center.  Through intensive monitoring and daily diagnoses, they will help her get a handle on her recovery so that she can pick up where she left off, and be able to take care of our baby girl.

What's Going On Inside

In the summer of 2012, Maria de Souza was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Post-treatment, Maria contracted worse symptoms than those of Lyme. After being unable to leave bed for months, we discovered that her declining health was from an autonomic dysfunction called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Some of the defining symptoms of POTS that she struggles with are extreme fatigue and orthostatic intolerance (intolerance for standing upright, leading to increased heart rate and dizzyness, lightheadedness, shortness of breath). Other symptoms include brainfog, blood pooling, tachycardia, muscle weakness, headaches and anxiety.

While traditional medicine from her doctor has helped her in the past, she is now experiencing worse symptoms, and needs immediate help. This health condition has made it extremely difficult for Maria as a stay-at-home mother to take care of our rambunctious 8 month old baby girl, Maria Mercedes, while I work weekdays.



While we know we may not get as much as we hope for, we would like you to know that any small donation helps and we SO appreciate this!

Please help Maria's dream of mothering her little girl in good health become a reality. Your donations are appreciated more than you know!

If you find that you cannot donate financially, we hope that you'll pray for us, for Maria's health and for her family.

May God richly bless you and yours!

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For more information about the POT Syndrome, click here for an excellent video review.
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Donations 

  • Tachi Rey
    • $20 
    • 9 yrs
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Organizer

Dominic de Souza
Organizer
Front Royal, VA

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