My daughter Lizzy Bowman has been fighting many health issues for two years and counting now.

Lizzy woke up on August 26, 2021, with stomach pain. Shortly thereafter, she started having trouble opening her eyes and her voice got weak. She spent much time in the hospital, after she was unable to eat, because of the pain. She only got worse. By October, she was getting weaker and weaker and having memory loss. She got to the point that she no longer remembered her siblings, her home, or most of her life. She wouldn’t even remember from moment to moment. She even forgot her letter sounds and math skills. She can’t tell you her name or age.

She was unable to walk, sit up, lift her head, and more. She lost the ability to use the bathroom and more.

No answers were given, except a diagnosis of FND (functional neurological disorder).

After starting to take her off one medicine, she saw some improvement, at the beginning of Nov 2021. She was able to sit, and walk with assistance, and started being able to open her eyes a bit more. She learned that she could speak in a very low voice and get more volume out, to help us communicate. Over the next few months, there were gains in strength, though never got to the point that she could walk again. Memory saw little improvement. She at least remembered the day's events, usually, but after she went to bed, she would forget everything. This made things very challenging, as she wouldn’t remember things, as we tried to reteach her. She did remember her sibling's names, but not that they were her actual siblings.

In the beginning of March 2022, she started to decline again. She started with a headache and then some stomach pain again (that she hadn’t had in 4 months). As the stomach pain continued, she started to get weaker, had issues remembering words for items and her eyes started closing again. After a couple of days, she was back to the point that she couldn’t move much of her body.

As of Sept 2022, Lizzy was much better. We did not have any luck with UCLA, but fought to find doctors who would think outside the box. We paid out of pocket to see one here in So Cal, who had some ideas and he was right. She has MCAS and mycotoxicity. She received treatment for those and our home was remediated. She also got TMS and hyperbaric treatments. She was working to catch up in school. She’s walking, talking, remembering. You can see some of the journey in our posts on Facebook.

Unfortunately in February of 2023, we started to notice Lizzy had started to regress. The mouth ulcers came back, she started to get weaker, her stomach pain with eating returned, she has had kidney issues causing flank pain, she has frequent UTIs, has lost almost all of her hearing, and her eyesight is greatly diminished. She also is having trouble processing things for school and has had some memory loss once more.

My wife and I are in debt because we continue to pay for most of Lizzy's care out of pocket as we fight to get her insurance to cover the treatments that are working and seek answers to help us get to the root of the issues. One thing for sure is that Lizzy has a negative and adverse effect on the pollens in our desert air as part of the many things she is allergic to, which cause brain inflammation and in turn, we believe drive her health into downward spirals.

We are thinking outside the box here, and want to rent an Airbnb in or around Santa Monica (about an hour from our home) because the air quality and what is in it is different than here in our desert climate of Moreno Valley, yet still close enough for my wife to take Lizzy to her medical appointments all around southern California. The Airbnb isn't expensive, but it is not in our budget, so we're asking for those willing to pitch in what they can to help cover this cost and see if the change of living conditions helps to dramatically improve her health state. If we can isolate our home and/or the area we live in as a primary factor in our health, then that would help us to determine if a permanent relocation is the best course of action for our family to pursue to help our daughter in her recovery efforts.

We sincerely appreciate any donations you or those you know would make on Lizzy's behalf.