Amber's Lyme Disease Nightmare

I am starting this Go Fund Me page to try and help my daughter Amber pay for the testing and treatment that goes along with Lyme Disease. The testing in Canada is incredibly inaccurate and to get proper testing its very expensive and not covered by medical. She is also currently needing several different supplements that aren't covered by medical. It has been a very difficult time for all of us and in particular for Amber, her husband, James and their 3 young children.

There were times during her hospitalization that the possibility of losing her was real. All of her siblings traveled from BC fearing their sister may not make it. Once Amber was released from hospital we had to travel to BC to get her started on treatment and we'll have to travel monthly in order to refill her prescription. the cost of this is approximately $1000.00, proper testing is $1300.00, supplements up to $400.00 per month and assistance with the kids during the treatment( which often comes with worsening symptoms.) They are a single income family and the cost of treatment is brutal.

Any donations at all would be greatly appreciated. Our goal is to help Amber heal and support her during this time so she can be there for her young family.


  Here is her story.

“On Thursday April 26 2018 at 11:30am while I was out working in my hard, I became very sick. It was as if someone had beaten me all over my body with a sledgehammer. I instantly had a horrible headache (10/10 for pain), neck pain (9/10 for pain) and basically my entire body ached. I also had extreme pain in my stomach on the right side, which I figured was due to endometriosis. Then came the fever! By 5pm I was in so much pain and my fever was high, so I went to the hospital. Once hooked up to an IV they kept me over night. I received 4L of fluid, blood tests, blood cultures and multiple chest x-rays. By morning I was still in excruciating pain, but they told me it was a bad “flu” and sent me home.

Once home on Friday I pretty much stayed in bed all day long and slept. The pain from the headache was horrible and my entire body ached. At 3am I woke up with severe chest pain, my skin was hurting and my head felt like it was boiling in my head, I was so hot. My fever ranged from 37-39.6 Degrees. I also found that I had become very forgetful.

Saturday I spent another day in bed and in extreme pain! My fever was up and down all day long. My brain felt like it was about to explode and my skin hurt so bad and the cough started. At 8pm I went back to the hospital. Again they hooked my to an IV and gave me fluids, did more blood tests and another chest x-ray. They also gave me a concoction of medicine that seemed to slightly dull the headache. They again sent me home with a “flu” diagnosis and informed me that my red and white blood cell count was low, as well as my platelet count was low.

By Sunday I was feeling a bit better. Still had the headache, fever, cough, and chills. But then another set of symptoms started, I was feeling dizzy off and on, and I had a tingling sensation from my neck down my shoulders and the backs of my arms. I also had some pain in my knees that felt like restless legs but only in my knees.

Monday I woke up feeling ok, but by 9am I was a mess! My stomach was pretty sore, my head was pounding, the tingling was going down my neck and shoulders and arms. Also had dizziness, brain fog, feeling like I was floating, trouble concentrating and a rash that started on my chest and arms, then went all over my body. It was red and within a couple hours it felt like someone had poured acid all over me. By Monday night it was unbearable and I went to a different hospital to get a second opinion. The doctor did blood work and a pelvic exam and looked me in the eye and said “this is not the flu and we will figure out what is wrong with you!” I was so glad someone was listening, when I tried to smile at him, my face started to shake…

I was transported by ambulance to Red Deer Hospital, where there was a team of doctors waiting for me. At this point they thought meningitis and had me on isolation protocol (everyone that came in my room had to wear a gown, gloves and mask). Over the next couple days they ran an array of tests; blood work daily, blood cultures, lumbar puncture, CT of head neck & chest, MRI of head neck & pelvis, numerous x-rays, ultrasound of pelvis and left arm, EKG and I’m sure I’m forgetting some… I had a neurologist, internal medicine doctor, ER doctors, gynaecologist, cardiologist and more, all trying to figure out what was wrong.

On Wednesday night I was moved out of the ER and to another floor. And I wasn’t getting any better. On Thursday I started experiencing extreme chest pain and shortness of breath, it felt like someone was sitting on my chest. Keep in mind, this is on top of all the other symptoms. I literally thought I was dying!! I pressed the call button to get help and after 20 minutes no one had come to check on me. I was literally struggling to breath, balling my eyes out and so scared! So I started screaming for help, I could hear people in the hallway talking and I needed help, NOW! 30 minutes after pressing the call button, someone finally came! They then realized I was in trouble, put me on oxygen and rushed me for an x-ray. When I was brought back I wasn’t given the call button and within 20 minutes I was struggling again with no help in sight! Thankfully my mom called my cell and quickly called the nurses station right as my husband walked in and ran for help. We were told nothing, no reason for this to have happened.

Friday I was moved to another floor and transferred to a new doctor. With the move and the doctor switch, plus not knowing what was wrong with me, they started pumping me with drugs. They literally almost killed me! I received so many pain meds at the same time through IV and sub-q, that I was pretty much overdosed. I couldn’t walk, could barely talk, I was passing out, throwing up, my legs and feet were so swollen I thought they were going to split open, my arms and hands were incredibly swollen too… everyone thought I was dying. And so they brought my kids to me, who I hadn’t seen since Monday night. My youngest was terrified, he wouldn’t even come near me and the older two were freaked out too.

Saturday came and still no answers and non stop pain and symptoms, same with Sunday and Monday. But on Monday I was discharged. All in all, they had no answers, no idea why this was happening. When I asked the neurologist to test me for Lyme, he said “ This isn’t Lyme! You couldn’t have been bitten by a tick! It’s not tick season! There aren’t any ticks in Alberta! You don’t have a bulls eye rash!…” I told him I wanted to be tested anyways and his response was “I’ll test you, just to prove you wrong!”

So I went home being told the headache is a migraine, the neck pain is unrelated, the abdominal pain is unrelated, all the other symptoms are not connected. Go home and rest! No more antibiotics, just torradol for the pain and that didn’t help much at all. Great!

I didn’t even know half of the stuff they found in the tests until I got my records for myself. I did know there was a cyst on my right ovary found and a cyst in my brain; which they accidentally told me about when I was asking about the ovarian cyst. They also found a cyst in my spine, cysts throughout my stomach, and hernia in my stomach which they didn’t disclose to me. And apparently they didn’t take enough blood to do the Lyme test.

So here I am almost a month since I got sick, still dealing with almost all the symptoms plus some new ones and trying to work my life around Lyme. I have traveled to BC to see a Lyme literate Naturopath doctor in order to get the antibiotics I need, Doxycycline. I had to go there because the doctors here don’t believe in Lyme or no nothing about it and aren’t willing to help. I will have to go back to BC to get my next round of antibiotics in about 20 days. “