Benamou Medical Fund
Donation protected
Pam’s friend, with permission, has written this page.
Oliver (7 years old) and his mom, Pam have been diagnosed with Lyme disease and several Lyme co-infections. It is a debilitating and chronic disease. Oliver cannot attend school because of the effects that Lyme has on his body and so he is participating in a homebound school program.
Pam and Oliver will be working with specialists for years to come to manage their symptoms of this disease such as excruciating pain and physical illness.
Pam’s husband is the sole financial provider for the family, and has had to help out his family a lot during this difficult time.
Any family savings from before is quickly dwindling. The Go Fund goal of $20, 000 expressed on this site has already been paid out in bills for this health situation by the Benamou family just in four short months. To say the least, the family is under a lot of financial and emotional distress.
Their whole life has been flipped upside down. They have tried to be positive with adjusting to this new life of IV medicine, oral medicines, side effects from the medicines, weekly home health nurse visits. Even with all of the side effects of the medicine, they are trying to be very strong and figure out this new life. It will be long term and so they have been trying to figure out the best way to function going forward.
The Benamou family received some help from their family members to be able to play in their own back yard again. A fence was installed around just a portion of their property to keep deer (a big source of ticks) out of their play area. Also, some grassy areas were removed and replaced with rock in order to reduce the amount of other insects that aggravate Lyme symptoms. The other Lyme carrier insects include, but are not limited to, fire ants and wolf spiders.
The best bet for them at this time is to push this horrible disease into remission. Lyme and the co-infections that they also have never completely go away. However, they can become dormant at least.
Oliver is only 7, but he has hardly cried throughout this entire process. He has not been able to play like a normal boy ever since October. Due to his IV Picc Line, (a IV Line that runs from his arm up into the edge of his heart) is not able to play on a play structure or run around as usual.
Also, he has been missing his school friends as he has not been able to welcome his friends over to his house due to his lowered immunity. They both have been home bound, not being able to see friends, only leaving for short store trips.
Even when they have tried to be positive, it seems that almost every week they are reminded of the seriousness of this disease.
It was just this month that Pam was hospitalized with an electrolyte level that had dropped to a very dangerous level of 124.
(135 - 145 is the normal level,
125 mEq/L, the situation becomes more serious,
115 mEq/L or below, the situation is critical)
Can you imagine how the family felt when two doctors told them that if Pam was released too soon that she might not be reviveable if she dropped lower then 125.
While the hospital was trying to correct the low level, her brain swelled when the level bounced back up too quickly in the other direction. She was released, but it took three more days at home for the pressure of her brain swelling to stop bothering her. At this time, her blood pressure and heart rate remain very high at times and then too low at other times. This is all due to the Lyme, and will not be treatable with the standard blood pressure medicines.
The biggest issue and main reason for this page is that 90% of their medical treatments, medical supplies, home health nurse visits, all are not covered by insurance. This fund is specifically to help reduce the burden of those bills from those treatments.
For more information on how Pam and Oliver are doing, and the Benamou family journey, Pam has created the following blog at
Caring Bridge.com:
The link is as following:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/oliverandpam
The Benamou family would like to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and if you choose to, your donation.
Oliver (7 years old) and his mom, Pam have been diagnosed with Lyme disease and several Lyme co-infections. It is a debilitating and chronic disease. Oliver cannot attend school because of the effects that Lyme has on his body and so he is participating in a homebound school program.
Pam and Oliver will be working with specialists for years to come to manage their symptoms of this disease such as excruciating pain and physical illness.
Pam’s husband is the sole financial provider for the family, and has had to help out his family a lot during this difficult time.
Any family savings from before is quickly dwindling. The Go Fund goal of $20, 000 expressed on this site has already been paid out in bills for this health situation by the Benamou family just in four short months. To say the least, the family is under a lot of financial and emotional distress.
Their whole life has been flipped upside down. They have tried to be positive with adjusting to this new life of IV medicine, oral medicines, side effects from the medicines, weekly home health nurse visits. Even with all of the side effects of the medicine, they are trying to be very strong and figure out this new life. It will be long term and so they have been trying to figure out the best way to function going forward.
The Benamou family received some help from their family members to be able to play in their own back yard again. A fence was installed around just a portion of their property to keep deer (a big source of ticks) out of their play area. Also, some grassy areas were removed and replaced with rock in order to reduce the amount of other insects that aggravate Lyme symptoms. The other Lyme carrier insects include, but are not limited to, fire ants and wolf spiders.
The best bet for them at this time is to push this horrible disease into remission. Lyme and the co-infections that they also have never completely go away. However, they can become dormant at least.
Oliver is only 7, but he has hardly cried throughout this entire process. He has not been able to play like a normal boy ever since October. Due to his IV Picc Line, (a IV Line that runs from his arm up into the edge of his heart) is not able to play on a play structure or run around as usual.
Also, he has been missing his school friends as he has not been able to welcome his friends over to his house due to his lowered immunity. They both have been home bound, not being able to see friends, only leaving for short store trips.
Even when they have tried to be positive, it seems that almost every week they are reminded of the seriousness of this disease.
It was just this month that Pam was hospitalized with an electrolyte level that had dropped to a very dangerous level of 124.
(135 - 145 is the normal level,
125 mEq/L, the situation becomes more serious,
115 mEq/L or below, the situation is critical)
Can you imagine how the family felt when two doctors told them that if Pam was released too soon that she might not be reviveable if she dropped lower then 125.
While the hospital was trying to correct the low level, her brain swelled when the level bounced back up too quickly in the other direction. She was released, but it took three more days at home for the pressure of her brain swelling to stop bothering her. At this time, her blood pressure and heart rate remain very high at times and then too low at other times. This is all due to the Lyme, and will not be treatable with the standard blood pressure medicines.
The biggest issue and main reason for this page is that 90% of their medical treatments, medical supplies, home health nurse visits, all are not covered by insurance. This fund is specifically to help reduce the burden of those bills from those treatments.
For more information on how Pam and Oliver are doing, and the Benamou family journey, Pam has created the following blog at
Caring Bridge.com:
The link is as following:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/oliverandpam
The Benamou family would like to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and if you choose to, your donation.
Organizer
Pam Benamou
Organizer
Austin, TX
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