April Dawn's Wellness Recovery

My name is April Dawn. I'm finally starting to recover from 8 months of chronic sudden idiopathic anaphylaxis, and I need your help. I have been sick for 8 months and counting. The doctors have found no answers or underlying cause for my illness, and they have stopped trying. SO, I'm taking over my wellness journey and finally well enough to ask for help! This is where you come in. Due to the volatility of the illness, I have not been able to work or even navigate social support systems for the last 8 months. Although I'm finally making some headway with my health, I am still be a long way from being able to work a regular job. I need help.

Part of the wellness journey is now paying all of the extensive bills that have accumulated over the past 8 months of illness with no income. These bills are now immediately due - Back-pay rent, loan payments, tax preparation fees, and website development to get my business off the ground so I can start helping myself more.
I invite you to please consider donating. I need your help to pay these bills. And if you can't contribute by donating, I ask that you share this message; share it far and wide. The exponential effect of abundant sharing means less individual burden and more rapid healing.

Thank you.
With peace and love - April Dawn.


And if you want to know more, here's the deets: 

How it started:
On February 20, 2020, I was eating lunch and suddenly noticed that I was having strange sensations in my mouth, which progressed to my throat, head, and body. Being no stranger to allergic reactions to medications, this was a familiar feeling, but I had never been allergic to foods before.  I was confused and alarmed, but I knew the protocol - benadryl, ranitidine, and wait for it to get better... It didn't get better, it got worse...  And worse... I was in the ER 3 times within 10 days for idiopathic anaphylaxis and hemiplegic complex migraines. There was ONE day where I did try to tough it out and work (teach dance); I was in a wheelchair the next day because I was so exhausted. And this was just the beginning. 

The next many months included:
-Fatigue, brain fog, needing up to 14 hours of sleep a day, inability to care for my son, and CRASHING after any kind of mental, emotional, or physical exertion.
-Dangerously unexplained low blood sugar.
-Repeatedly having sudden, severe, and surprising reactions to things I could do or eat just the day before. This is despite being maxed out on every possible medication prescribable for my conditions.
-Full body allergic type reactions to mild exercise. I.e. throat swelling, head-to-toe hives, drooling, coughing, wheezing, cramping
-3 weeks straight of complex migraines including aura, vertigo, hemiplegia, pain, and partial blindness.
-Sudden onset of singular migraines, nearly falling as I am suddenly overcome with vertigo.-LOTS of waiting for doctor appointments with specialists.
-Negative test after negative test other than positive high tryptase levels.
-Bone marrow biopsy for suspected (but ultimately negative) systemic mastocytosis.
-Heavy medications to try to suppress my immune system enough so I didn't die from eating simple foods or mild exercise.


Where am I now?
I'm improving... Slowly... and embracing a narrative of wellness instead of illness.  After my allergy/immunology doctor determined my case "well-managed" although I was non-functional as an adult human being, I decided to take my care into my own hands.  I wasn't convinced that all of the heavily sedating meds were helping prevent reactions, and I knew they were heavily contributing to the fatigue and brain fog that had rendered me essentially non-functional. On September 22, 2020, I took myself off of all of my medications cold turkey -ll 15 of them. I was terrified, but I had to do SOMETHING.  And it worked... at least somewhat!  Using Energy work and supplements such as Plexus Triplex combo, my gut health is healing, and my symptoms seem to be improving!

Now, most days my head is clearer! My energy is improved! I've started to be able to address the financial crisis I'm in as a result of the not working for the last 8 months, to be present with my son, and to ask for help. AND, it's slow going.  I still have allergic reactions sometimes. Although they are less severe than they were back in February and March, they still take me out for at least a day. The reactions typically cause swelling in my hands and feet, migraine headache, deep fatigue, itching of the full body, chest pain, heartburn, stomach cramping, throat changes, mouth watering, etc, etc, etc..... Medication helps as needed, but also takes me out of the functional cognitive running.

With finding new allergies every week and still crashing from time to time, I'm not yet employable on a consistent basis. My health, energy, and cognitive function are still too unpredictable to keep a job. AND I'm terrified to push myself too far and end up in wheelchair again. 

AND, I'm doing things to help myself. I'm making hard choices to cut expenses that I couldn't begin to do before (e.g. moving home with my mom, with a 6-hour commute for childcare exchange). I'm applying for assistance. I'm using my reserve energy to take care of things like finishing 2019 taxes. I'm also trying to get the website for my business off the ground so that I can work when I have energy and can start helping myself.

Where will your funds go?
With this illness, I've had no income since the first week of March. There are many unpaid or deferred payments that are now immediately due.

-$14,000 back-paid rent and fees
-$3,000 deferred Loan payments 
->$500/mo CC payments
-$225 tax prep fee
-TBD website development fee
-groceries and clothes for my son.


Final notes:
If you are able to give $1, GREAT! $5, even better!  Any amount helps!  Can't give financially? - give energetically with a simple share to social media or with others! I'm so grateful for the friends who have encouraged me to set up this fundraiser. I'm not one to generally ask for help, and I would have never done it without their encouragement. If you know me personally, you know that the last 8 months is not how I typically operate. I'm the go-getter, the achiever, the helper, the no-debt girl, the endless energy self-sacrificer, the doctor, the scientist, they analyzer. These past 8 months have been such a far departure from that, and I don't know when/if I'll get back to the place I was beforehand. Perhaps the lesson is that I'm not supposed to be that person anymore. But what I do know is that I need help, and I'm working to heal my life and others' lives as well.  

With Deep Love and Gratitude!
<3 April Dawn <3