Help Our single Mother get her face and life back

In August 2016, my Mother, Cheryl Lincoln, was misdiagnosed with having shingles. For 6 weeks she was treated with the common treatments, just to find that the extremely painful lesions presenting on her upper back and cheek, was not shingles. That was 8 months ago… 8 long, painful, isolated months.


She has had over 15 biopsies, many inches into her muscle… uncountable amounts of smears and cultures… countless IV infusions, including immune boosters and anti-inflammatories… unmeasurable amounts of blood taken, and every blood test ran (her doctors even laughed that they had ordered blood tests they had never heard of or ordered in their medical career)… Doctor after Doctor were basically throwing it all at the wall and hope something stuck, but nothing did.


The painful lesions on her face and back have caused her to lose the collagen, and is now eating away through her oral mucosa. The entire right corner of her mouth and now 3/4 of her lower lip is gone. Eventually she will need skin grafts and her bottom lip completely rebuilt. For months she has been on high doses of Prednisone 59-100mg a day, as well as many rounds of Solumedrol which is even higher dose of Steroids given via IV. Most of the IV infusions were unsuccessful. But they have found that a steady medication of cyclosporine (the same medication given to lung, kidney, heart etc. recipients to stave off rejection) is stopping the progression of the lesions, but it is not healing them. All the multiple doctors know is that she has an Unknown Auto-Immune Disease… But no idea what is causing it or how to cure/treat it. They finally gave her a diagnosis of Pyroderma Gangrenosum. It is a rare but serious ulcering skin disease, so rare that possible similar cases (though not as severe as her case) are diagnosed in 1-3 people worldwide yearly. Similar to that of a flesh-eating disease, Pyoderma Gangrenosum (Pyo, for short) literally eats away at deep levels of body tissue creating various sizes of open wounds. As Pyo itself is not an infection, nor contagious, it does not respond to antibiotics, which only prolongs the efficiency of healing. However, because of the varying degrees of open wounds, the Pyo can cause a secondary infection at the wound site. Generally stemmed from an autoimmune disease like Lupus or Crohns, or in some cases cancer (Leukemia), Pyo can attack anywhere on the body at any given time. However, in my Moms case doctors have been unable to diagnose its cause which has proven with great difficulty the hindrance of any successful treatment or plan for maintaining adequate health.
Then after after hundreds of tests, some doctors have said it is not Pyroderma, so we are always brought back to square one.

The next step the Doctors want her to take is admission to the Mayo Clinic, in the hopes that they will be able to find the cause and treatment of this debilitating and lonely disease. This is a few months minimum admission, which is in Northern Florida. My hope is to be able to raise enough help to get her things into storage (since I can not afford her bills while she is away) while she is admitted. The remainder of the money will be used to get her into a smaller, HEALTHIER home (Her current home has mold, and the landlord refuses to get rid of it because its “not toxic”, but as we all know mold is bad no matter toxic or not!) that she can care for more easily while in recovery, (typically, first, last and security... seeing as she lives off limited income) If anything is raised above that it will go solely to her treatment, medical bills and finding a cure!

I’m hoping that we can reach someone, anyone that will see the need to help my Mom. She has been a single mother for 30 years and is a two time cancer survivor! But no matter her strength we all need help sometimes. Thank you so much to those that choose to help, and those who can’t, we understand, your prayers are appreciated and welcome! EVERYONE Please share! We aren't ready to live of lives without our Mommy yet!