
Brandi Needs Your Help for Healing
Donation protected
My name is Louis Russell and I am here to ask for help for my fiancé, Brandi Rabara. In March of 2024, Brandi came down with an illness that has since slowly made her a shell of the person she once was.
Brandi was a mail carrier for USPS and in full physical health until this point. She had just cared for her mother the year before, who had stage four liver failure and required two liver transplants to save her life. Brandi and I were saving money for our wedding, which was used to help save her mother’s life instead. Little did she know that the very next year, once we had financially recovered, she would be fighting for her own life as she went from lifting her 165-pound mother to barely being able to lift her own hand to feed herself at times.
Brandi's illness started with numbing of her limbs, migraines (she had never had a headache in her life before this moment), brain zaps, noise sensitivity, light sensitivity, vision problems (blurriness, burning, and dry eyes), derealization, depersonalization, body burning, joint and bone pain, vitamin deficiencies, stomach pain, dizziness, light-headedness, full body weakness, mobility issues, problems holding up her head and back, heart rate, a leaky heart valve, blood sugar issues, and blood pressure issues.
Brandi loves to be outdoors, and this was the sole reason she wanted to be a mail carrier because she enjoyed working with people, driving, being in the sunshine, and the elements. Brandi worked all through COVID, delivering nonstop in any weather. She was very able-bodied and physically healthy but now cannot go outside and at one point developed severe reactions to the sun and temperature regulation issues. This has made her vitamin D deficient and created a lot of bone pain and weakness. She went from riding a bike 10 miles to 5, then slowly to only walking around our neighborhood, to then walking on a treadmill, to walking up and down the hall, to being bed and chair bound 90 percent of the day. She states, “I am still me inside, I want to run and dance but I am now trapped in a body that physically cannot.” She is currently slowly losing her mobility and many times I have had to carry her because of her inability to walk or move and developing digestive issues.
Her most severe issue is feeling like her brain is on fire nonstop for 6 months, like someone poured liquid acid into her brain. She is suffering from poor sleep and struggling to live with the constant pain to which no pain medication is working at all. She has had loads of blood work, MRI, and CT scans, all of which come back clear. It is believed that she has possible long COVID symptoms.
We are asking for help to get her to a clinic that can rehabilitate the central nervous system, but this is not covered by insurance and was quoted around $48,000 for treatment. This is for the treatment alone. This does not include relocation housing fees as the treatment would last 4-5 months, expenses for gas, food, additional testing and lost wages from time away from work. Brandi has five kids and hopes to become a grandmother someday, and she wants nothing more than to just live and go back to work.
She states, “I don’t want to die, but I don’t know how to live like this. It’s not living; it’s just endless suffering. Every second of every day I am living in constant pain to where I have questioned if I ever want to live anymore.”
Before this, Brandi was a very active mom of 5. She loved to deep clean and sort through the entire house. She loved bike riding, roller and ice skating, hiking, singing, playing games with the kids, cooking, painting, camping, kayaking, taking long walks, thrift stores, etc.
She was always laughing and making jokes or telling others, “I believe in you” at work, and now she hardly ever smiles and cries a lot.
Before this, we were about to buy a house, and she was making centerpieces for our wedding and had just bought a wedding dress. Now everything we have has been spent on medical bills with no answers and being told we can’t help you or that she has anxiety. We cannot move or have a wedding, and since living here, it’s the first time in 8 years the rent has been raised, but we are now a struggling single-income family. At one point, the house even flooded with sewage due to a city pipe backup, and she isn’t sure if this is making her sicker or contributing to possible mold toxicity in the house. We can no longer afford to move or test to find out.
She has asked for help to get her to the Spero Clinic in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which helps those with nervous system disorders and chronic pain. Her medical insurance also expires at the end of the year. We are needing help with medical costs or to get her to a doctor who can help. Most are out of pocket. Help us to give her hope and save/get her life back.
Organizer

Brandi Simon-Rabara
Organizer
Edmond, OK