Ilana's Medical Fund
Donation protected
Hi, I'm Ilana and I need some BIG time help.
The photo in my profile photo was taken in Cambodia on the trip the that changed my life. On the same trip, I was bitten by a tick and got the classic bullseye rash right away. I didn't know what that could mean at the time, all I knew was that my leg hurt so much that I thought that if it didn't get better by the next day, I wouldn't be able to walk on it and I would have to get on the next train to a city that had a hospital. I was in Nha Trang where I went diving for the first time. It is a small town that I would despite this, still go visit again, WITH BUG SPRAY next time, but it didn't have adequate medical help, much less in English. But, the next day, the pain was less, so we stayed and I thought I was in the clear.
Within a couple of weeks, I was the sickest I've ever been in my life. I broke out in a rash that looked like heat rash on steroids on my arms, I developed a very high fever. But this all developed about a day and a half before flying back to Canada, so I decided to stick it out and see my doctor at home. BIG MISTAKE. This was about 6 years ago and at that time, Lymes disease wasn't considered a "thing". The doctor said I had the flu.
Had I been treated with antibiotics by him with 2 weeks worth of antibiotics, I WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE.
But that didn't happen.
I started developing weird symptoms. The first one was on a trip to Toronto. I woke up in the morning and my left arm wouldn't stop shaking for probably 30 minutes. My fiance (boyfriend at the time) thought I probably just needed some sugar and got me some ice cream.
Ever since, I've been:
Incredibly fatigued (sleep studies show borderline narcolepsy - I can easily sleep 10-12 hours a day, sometimes more)
Weird rashes
Seizures of all kind
Headaches so intense I would cry, which make it worse
Joint pain all over my body
Cognitive and memory problems
Attention problems
Digestive problems
Among others..
Everyone though I looked fine and I don't blame them - this is an invisible illness to those that aren't looking for it. I finally had enough. I felt like I was going to die. No doctor could find anything wrong with me. But I LITERALLY felt like I was going to die in the most immediate sense. Not in a few years. Like.. maybe tomorrow. Walking from the bus stop to a doctor's office took everything I had in me.
I then went to a naturopath who has prescription authority and was recommended by CanLyme, aka Lymes Disease Association of Canada.
She ordered blood samples that were couriered to a lab in California that tested positive and I took these results to an Internal Medicine specialist. He was the one that started my antibiotics, but I was also being followed by the naturopath, as her interest is specifically Lymes Disease and attends infectious disease conferences and the such related to it. My Internal Medicine specialist phoned her and spoke to her about what her usual course of treatments were for this. She has prescription authority for conventional medicine prescription as well as naturopathic, so after speaking to her, he was supportive of this and said that sometimes it is possible that a naturopath can know something that traditional medicine doesn't know. I now still see both of them.
I'm on a massive amount of medications to manage all of these things individually. They all have side effects - and the worst part is, the only way to help the side effects is MORE medication.
The ONLY time I've had any relief was when I was on a prolonged course of antibiotics, but the Internal Medicine special's opinion at this time is that after a trial of taking me off the antibiotics to see how I do, my seizures returned (as did joint pain, and others), and he wants to wait for my neurolist to stabilize the seizures before considering any further Lymes treatment. He seemed to feel that because of the length of time I'd been on them, continuing could cause more harm than good, at least for now.
I need more help from someone, somewhere. Symptoms like joint pain and seizures that went away when I was on the antibiotics are coming back. I am scared. I am sick. And without being able to work, stress is compounding everything.
Now, I am in a worse situation than at the start of this. I have applied for medical EI and haven't been able to work for almost 3 weeks. My doctor has taken me off work for a minimum of 1 month. (I was managing to drag myself to work most of the time before) because the side effects of the drugs I'm on are so severe, and I am getting desperate, both financially and in terms of what to do for treatment.
Even I return to work on June 1st, I won't get paid for 2 more weeks, but I am currently doubting it is going to be possible to go back by then. Even if I can, I will still need help to catch up financially, which as it is will take months, and find more medical help, somewhere. I can tell you from experience, Canada is seriously lagging behind the US and other countries in Lymes treatment. (Elizabeth May put a bill forward in 2014 and very little has been done about it, despite it being passed in federal government.) The federal government was supposed to develop a National Strategy on Lymes Disease. I have yet to come across anything substantial of the sort.
But before thinking of travelling elsewhere for treatment, I can't even afford to see my naturopath right now to follow up and see what she can suggest in the interim.
Short term, I need money to help pay the rent in June and July, pay for my medication, see my naturopath, and cover my bills.
EI hasn't started yet, and when it does, it doesn't even cover my bills and rent, much less pay for my medications and transportation to appointments and seeking out treatments that might be out of pocket, etc.
Lymes disease can kill people and can mimick so many other diseases. I have tested negative for the vast majority of the other diseases and not tested for others because they don't fit my criteria for whatever reason or another.
Not many people understand this illness and they brush it off as a nuisance illness, many times because they don't understand it, but this is so far from the truth. It's only in the last year or two I've seen it become more talked about in Canada. But it is endemic abroad and here in Canada too.
I need these funds as soon as possible in order to get back on track and get healthy. Health wise, I am a serious mess. Psychologically, this is taking a huge toll on me. I feel abandoned by the very medical system that I have to rely on to help me. What's worse is that they know that I must feel that way and some doctors have told me they know it, but can't do much to help.
I desperately want to be the active, healthy person I used to be.
Please help me by donating if you can.
Best case scenario, you will be helping me get back on track.
Worst case scenario, you will be helping me try save my own life.
Thank you, sincerely.
I can also accept PayPal donations at [email redacted]
Please share this campaign - I need all the help I can get. It may also provide a voice to others that are struggling with this.
The photo in my profile photo was taken in Cambodia on the trip the that changed my life. On the same trip, I was bitten by a tick and got the classic bullseye rash right away. I didn't know what that could mean at the time, all I knew was that my leg hurt so much that I thought that if it didn't get better by the next day, I wouldn't be able to walk on it and I would have to get on the next train to a city that had a hospital. I was in Nha Trang where I went diving for the first time. It is a small town that I would despite this, still go visit again, WITH BUG SPRAY next time, but it didn't have adequate medical help, much less in English. But, the next day, the pain was less, so we stayed and I thought I was in the clear.
Within a couple of weeks, I was the sickest I've ever been in my life. I broke out in a rash that looked like heat rash on steroids on my arms, I developed a very high fever. But this all developed about a day and a half before flying back to Canada, so I decided to stick it out and see my doctor at home. BIG MISTAKE. This was about 6 years ago and at that time, Lymes disease wasn't considered a "thing". The doctor said I had the flu.
Had I been treated with antibiotics by him with 2 weeks worth of antibiotics, I WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE.
But that didn't happen.
I started developing weird symptoms. The first one was on a trip to Toronto. I woke up in the morning and my left arm wouldn't stop shaking for probably 30 minutes. My fiance (boyfriend at the time) thought I probably just needed some sugar and got me some ice cream.
Ever since, I've been:
Incredibly fatigued (sleep studies show borderline narcolepsy - I can easily sleep 10-12 hours a day, sometimes more)
Weird rashes
Seizures of all kind
Headaches so intense I would cry, which make it worse
Joint pain all over my body
Cognitive and memory problems
Attention problems
Digestive problems
Among others..
Everyone though I looked fine and I don't blame them - this is an invisible illness to those that aren't looking for it. I finally had enough. I felt like I was going to die. No doctor could find anything wrong with me. But I LITERALLY felt like I was going to die in the most immediate sense. Not in a few years. Like.. maybe tomorrow. Walking from the bus stop to a doctor's office took everything I had in me.
I then went to a naturopath who has prescription authority and was recommended by CanLyme, aka Lymes Disease Association of Canada.
She ordered blood samples that were couriered to a lab in California that tested positive and I took these results to an Internal Medicine specialist. He was the one that started my antibiotics, but I was also being followed by the naturopath, as her interest is specifically Lymes Disease and attends infectious disease conferences and the such related to it. My Internal Medicine specialist phoned her and spoke to her about what her usual course of treatments were for this. She has prescription authority for conventional medicine prescription as well as naturopathic, so after speaking to her, he was supportive of this and said that sometimes it is possible that a naturopath can know something that traditional medicine doesn't know. I now still see both of them.
I'm on a massive amount of medications to manage all of these things individually. They all have side effects - and the worst part is, the only way to help the side effects is MORE medication.
The ONLY time I've had any relief was when I was on a prolonged course of antibiotics, but the Internal Medicine special's opinion at this time is that after a trial of taking me off the antibiotics to see how I do, my seizures returned (as did joint pain, and others), and he wants to wait for my neurolist to stabilize the seizures before considering any further Lymes treatment. He seemed to feel that because of the length of time I'd been on them, continuing could cause more harm than good, at least for now.
I need more help from someone, somewhere. Symptoms like joint pain and seizures that went away when I was on the antibiotics are coming back. I am scared. I am sick. And without being able to work, stress is compounding everything.
Now, I am in a worse situation than at the start of this. I have applied for medical EI and haven't been able to work for almost 3 weeks. My doctor has taken me off work for a minimum of 1 month. (I was managing to drag myself to work most of the time before) because the side effects of the drugs I'm on are so severe, and I am getting desperate, both financially and in terms of what to do for treatment.
Even I return to work on June 1st, I won't get paid for 2 more weeks, but I am currently doubting it is going to be possible to go back by then. Even if I can, I will still need help to catch up financially, which as it is will take months, and find more medical help, somewhere. I can tell you from experience, Canada is seriously lagging behind the US and other countries in Lymes treatment. (Elizabeth May put a bill forward in 2014 and very little has been done about it, despite it being passed in federal government.) The federal government was supposed to develop a National Strategy on Lymes Disease. I have yet to come across anything substantial of the sort.
But before thinking of travelling elsewhere for treatment, I can't even afford to see my naturopath right now to follow up and see what she can suggest in the interim.
Short term, I need money to help pay the rent in June and July, pay for my medication, see my naturopath, and cover my bills.
EI hasn't started yet, and when it does, it doesn't even cover my bills and rent, much less pay for my medications and transportation to appointments and seeking out treatments that might be out of pocket, etc.
Lymes disease can kill people and can mimick so many other diseases. I have tested negative for the vast majority of the other diseases and not tested for others because they don't fit my criteria for whatever reason or another.
Not many people understand this illness and they brush it off as a nuisance illness, many times because they don't understand it, but this is so far from the truth. It's only in the last year or two I've seen it become more talked about in Canada. But it is endemic abroad and here in Canada too.
I need these funds as soon as possible in order to get back on track and get healthy. Health wise, I am a serious mess. Psychologically, this is taking a huge toll on me. I feel abandoned by the very medical system that I have to rely on to help me. What's worse is that they know that I must feel that way and some doctors have told me they know it, but can't do much to help.
I desperately want to be the active, healthy person I used to be.
Please help me by donating if you can.
Best case scenario, you will be helping me get back on track.
Worst case scenario, you will be helping me try save my own life.
Thank you, sincerely.
I can also accept PayPal donations at [email redacted]
Please share this campaign - I need all the help I can get. It may also provide a voice to others that are struggling with this.
Organizer
Ilana Elizabeth
Organizer
