In early October, Caitlin prepared for a major surgery - little did she know that hospital stay would turn into the worst nightmare - a lifetime diagnosis of a rare and cruel disease. Her whole life was turned upside down in an instant, and since so little is known about this, many forms of treatment and therapy are not covered by insurance. I'm asking friends, family and kind strangers to help her on her road to recovery by donating any amount (really anything helps!), sharing this post and spreading the word. Thank you!

"I am so thankful to be alive and recovering. Last month my RBC was at 157 and WBC was at 53 and I couldn't feel anything from the chest down.

On October 6th, I went in to have a major surgery called Periacetabular Osteotomy (PAO) with a Labrum repair that would take 9-12 months to fully recover. I thought the PAO surgery would be the hard part, boy was I wrong. On October 11th, I lost feeling in my legs and it rapidly moved up to my chest and arms. I had over 100 vials of blood drawn, 4 spinal taps, 5.5 hours of MRI's and countless doctors coming in and out trying to figure out what was wrong. I had five treatments of very high dose steroids and five treatments of PLEX (Plasma Exchange), I was extremely weak to say the least. My official diagnosis, 6 days later, was MOG LETM (Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein Longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis). This disease can hit anyone at anytime and the chances of getting what I have are 1 in 6 million. There is no cure and not enough research for this rare disease to know a timeline for recovery."