Colleen Evans Chronic Lyme DIsease Battle

In 2014 , Colleen Evans graduated from Chapman University earning two degrees in 4 years. At Chapman, she earned Cum Laude status with a Bachelor's of Business Administration/Accounting and a Bachelor's in Advertising and Public Relations. 

She was immediately recruited by PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco but, prior to starting, she spent a year studying the California CPA, passing all 4 parts in succession.

For two years, Colleen worked the grueling schedule associated with Public Accounting employment. At that point, her health weakened, though it was initially subscribed to long hours and work pressures. However, the situation worsened when symptoms of paralyzing exhaustion, migraines, skin rashes, shingles, joint pain, nerve pain and brain fog became the norm. At that point, there was no choice but to resign from PWC and address the rapidly worsening symptoms of a more serious condition.

Thus began a two-year journey of Internal and Integrative Doctor visits, nutritionists for stomach issues, acupuncture for joint pain and swelling, dermatologists for the skin rashes and shingles, and IV treatments to regain energy and retain nutrients.  During this period, there was never a firm diagnosis of the cause of these multiple conditions. One Doctor even wrote on her chart: "She needs to will herself better ". Certain members of the medical community provided an impression that it was a psychosomatic , not a true medical condition. 

In late 2017 appointment with  her Integrative Doctor, he was struggling to suggest what should be the direction of her treatment. He finally stated. " She's a tough case and I can't help her but I recommend this specific Naturopathic Doctor". 

Colleen was thankfully accepted as a new patient within a month of application to the new Doctor and started the process of testing for Lyme. For the first time in over two years, a Doctor understood her struggle and was diagnosed with a serious combination of Chronic Lyme Disease, Epstein Barr and Cytomegalovirus.

The CDC admits that over 300,000 people a year contract Lyme disease, making it one of the fastest growing infectious diseases. Nonetheless, the current stance of the CDC and private insurance is that Chronic Lyme Disease does not exist and is associated with costly and questionable experimental treatments. This in turn, means the insurance companies see any treatment from Lyme Literate Medical Doctors (LLMD) as practitioners of unproven treatments and in turn do not approve IV treatments past 25 days. Yet, Colleen has required weekly IV's off an on for almost 2 years. 

Consequently, a majority of all Lyme Literate Medical Doctors (LLMD) are not in network with any of the major insurance companies, resulting in patients like Colleen being obligated to pay for all Lyme disease treatments out of pocket and at time of treatment. This effort requires significant amounts of weekly financial resources. 

As Colleen enters her fourth year of an intense struggle to regain her career, her life  and her health, her family finds that they cannot continue to absorb the relentless financial burden of her ongoing treatments. Most distressing , when she was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme, the health insurance payments stopped. 

Colleen's weekly regime includes:

> 2 IV Treatments 

> Colonic and Infra-Red Sauna to remove toxins

> Lymphatic Massages

> 3 medications for brain fog and symptoms

> 20 supplements a day

>Psychiatric therapy to deal with the temporary loss of job, friends, social life and to work towards positive life goals. 

Colleen wants nothing more than to regain her role as a productive , contributing member of society. She is willing to endure any treatment that will restore her physical, mental and emotional health. As the nations health care system continues to struggle with understanding Lyme disease, she has no choice, but to appeal to the goodwill of people  to continue her regiment of treatments. She is appealing for help that will be solely used to control the conditions that have had such a devastating impact on her life. 

Everyday we work towards providing a better solution to improve her health and as a family we cannot thank you enough for your support, prayers and good wishes.