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Hi! My name is Houston Champagne. I'm 33 and never imagined I would be dealing with all the health concerns I'm currently facing at my age, well at any really. I don't like to ask for help, I'm actually terrible at it (I'm working on it!), but I have reached a point where I'm having to ask for help. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and I work full time as a Clinical Director where I manage the company and of course provide therapy services to clients. To start, when I was in high school I struggled with fatigue and would get what they figured was tendonitis in my knees and elbows, some carpal tunnel symptoms, and right after high school graduation found out I had a pars defect fracture in my L4 and L5 to which seeing the chiropractor improved that pain until I had children. After the birth of my first child, in 2016, my back problems worsened and I had health issues start to flare and noticed an increased amount of fatigue that was worse than what I already experienced since about my sophomore year of high school along with increased sensitivity to allergies, nasal pollyps, had to get my gallbladder removed, and developed an aspiring/ibuprophen/NSAID allergy and almost dying in childbirth (thank God for the nurse that was checking on me throughout the night). After the birth of son a few years later I had a full blown flare and my back hurt at a level that would not improve with what I did before and hurt 24/7 instead of intermittently like before.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with my second child, I had to stop exercising due to the pressure on my joints and feeling worse after exercising. At 31 weeks pregnant I went on fully restricted bed rest until I gave birth at 39 weeks due to consistent contractions and feeling like my son was going to fall out. Not sure how else to describe it but I know that is graphic. After having him I felt like my pelvic bones were shattered and had a lot of difficulty getting up and down and feeling glued to the ground if I sat down. I felt like I had the flu without having the flu and once his sleep improved where I was able to sleep none of my symptoms improved. I started getting this rash (which I picutred here) that was not actually a rash, I had severe all over pain in my muscles and joints, my skin hurt to the touch, I was severly fatigued, just overall felt terrible, had morning nausea, migraines, shaky feeling/hand tremors, and the list goes on. I saw my allergist first as I was already scheduled with her for a follow up on the things I mentioned after my daughter's birth and she immediately sent me for blood work and to see a dermatologist due to the rash not appearing to be allergy related. The blood work came back mostly good besides some minor things and I had a positive ANA which led to a referral to a rheumatologist in 2019. I began taking medications as the rheumatologist treated me for seronegative RA and when that did not improve and after multiple medication increases I decided to get a second opinion.

Fast forward to 2022 after seeing multiple specialists I decided to get a third rheumatology opinion to which he diagnosed me with SLE (Lupus) and Fibromyalgia and I continued to see him until he went MIA and the office "could not" tell me where he was. The hospital he worked from referred me to another rheumatologist as their rheumatologists on staff did not treat lupus but I could not get in with this one until over a year later. I could not go a year without seeing a rheum due to being on the meds I was on and needing my liver and kidney function checked routinely so I found one out of town and saw her until I could get in with the local one. The out of town rheumatologist confirmed the fibromyalgia diagnosis and ruled out Lyme but was questioning if I had lupus or RA due to not having any of the blood markers and the overlap of symptoms with many diseases and disorders. With the lack of markers in my labs, the new rheumatologist did a trial of weaning me off my autoimmune related medications to see if my body was masking anything to make sure I was on the right meds and see if we could figure out what was going on. After getting off these meds I flared almost immediately and my rash came back, pain intensified, and I couldn't get through the day without a nap and when my blood work was retested I still had some minor things off that did not flag for concern but my ANA shot up to 1:640 and it had never been that high (normal is 1:80 or below). She put me back on one of my autoimmune related medications and adjusted for my new weight as I had lost almost 20 pounds suddenly a few months prior. Fast forward and we have now ruled out MS and other conditions and I saw a geneticist back in January of this year. When I met with the geneticist, after a very thorough eval and discussion and review of my history he diagnosed me with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and did some genetic autoimmune testing to see if I had any predispositions or variants for any to help us figure out the autoimmune side of what is going on with me. Following the geneticist, he recommended I get a sleep study done for non apnea related concerns and see a cardiologist due to my heart related symptoms and the higher risk of having issues in these areas for people with EDS. I also had to have 8 ingrown toenails removed due to how I walk from my bone alignment not being how it should and the foot pain I compensate for with how I walk that was caused by hEDS and my bone alignment.

After being diagnosed with hEDS and following the geneticists recommendations I am going to see a doctor in Southeast Louisiana that is an EDS specialist which will further evaluate my functioning and make recommendations and treat me based on that evaluation. I am currently going through testing with the cardiologist which involves EKGs, a stress test and an upcoming echogram and wearing a heart monitor for 7 days. I am also scheduled for a sleep study on Thursday as the sleep specialist stated my diagnosis of hEDS and fibromyalgia make sleep issues worse and I have a smaller air way and deviated septum which can cause its own sleep problems and I have been a mouth breather since I was a child. To add on to all the other health issues, through the rule out process I found out I have minor buldging discs throughout my cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, my spine has curves it should not, and my cervical spine has straightened along with my fracture in my lumbar, and have arthritis in my lumbar and cervical and in my knees. Oh, I also have "runners knee" in both knees and have to get at least yearly injections in both knees. I see multiple specialists for all of these issues and have had to add more specialists to evaluate, treat, and help manage the co-morbid issues that likely came due to me having hEDS. I also developed PCOS throughout this time and have had OBGYN related issues that I'll spare you the details but in my last checkup for these PCOS related issues they found calcifications in my uterus which has led to me needing to have a hysterscopy done next week on top of all the other issues. I found out today that I also have MCAS or I'm being treated as if I have it due to their not being any diagnostic testing outside of rule out and symptoms, so that adds on to my treatments for my allergies and co-morbidity. Along with all this fun I've mentioned, I also have ADHD which causes its own difficulties and live 7 hours away from family that could help.

As you can imagine, all the testing, treatment, office visits, and all that comes along with that the costs related have continued to add up and with having to miss days of work and how far money goes these days the expenses are just more than we can handle on our own in order for me to be able to function like I need to. There is a fear deep down that I have realized about having to not work as I cannot afford to stop working nor do I want to. My children also have health conditions that have contributed to the costs accrued and continued accrual, accommodations we have had and need to purchase, and the ongoing treatment to help prevent them having similar issues to mine and prevent injuries and issues that may occur if not treated (like OT, speech, specialist appointments, etc.). There are many things they recommend me purchasing in order to help my body heal and at least get me to a reduced pain and exercise tolerant level to prevent these things from worsening and/or prevent future complications related to hEDS. While finally figuring out what is wrong with me six years later has come with some emotional and mental relief this has added to my stress level for various reasons, still impacts my ability to my job and show up and show up present mentally, impacts my home life in a similar way, and has added to the list of people I need to see and things I need to do. I currently am working with a nutritionist and we are on step three of doing an elimination diet as I'm not a good canidate for a full elimination diet nor food sensitivity testing. I take 10 plus medications to control my diagnoses and symptoms or treat them as needed, and I'm currently seeing eight specialists regularly with 3 more on the horizon and not counting my PCP nor the chiropractor. I cannot do chiropractic services anymore for my neck but still see one when I can afford to do so for my back. I have tried so many things and made so many lifestyle changes and I'm committed to doing whatever I can to heal or improve my functioning so I can be the mom my children need me to be, the wife I want to be, and the employee and boss the company I work for and our employees need me to be and to help provide for my family.

Right now I'm facing a cost for my hysteroscopy to rule out the big C and other OB related issues, costs of seeing the specialists and their testing, needing to purchase some accommodation supports for both me and my son and to help supplement missed days and hours of work and to afford to travel to see some of these specialists as they are out of town and my only hope for regaining some sort of normalcy in my life. We thankfully have good insurance and my family helps me out when they can which helps but our costs for a lot of these things are not manageable on our own though I'd love nothing more to be able to do it on my own. All of this has led me to this, I need help from friends and family and anyone that feels led to help. I've tried to come up with ways to generate extra income but with my unpredictable energy and pain level and my typical daily functioning I'm unable to do anything to the level I need to in order to be able to make these financial improvements. I know everyone is feeling the tightness financially from our economy which has prevented me from asking sooner and the costs were more manageable before but even if it's just five dollars you can afford to donate, that five dollars helps! I have struggled so much mentally and emotionally and physically due to all of this and just life stress and not being able to accomplish what I want and used to could accomplish and then asking for help or accommodations due to this has been one of the biggest hurdles I have had to face. I just want to be able to clean my house, play with my children, take care of their needs, and to be there for my own family and friends again like I used to be able to or even just an improved level. I want to be able to exercise without going into a flare. I want to be able to work and do my job consistently and as accurately as I can. People depend on me in many areas of my life and my biggest fear is letting them down or not being able to help them. I could go on about more of this, could probably write a book at this point haha, but I know we're all busy and do not want you to have read anymore. I just want my life back, or at least some improvement in my life to be able to do what needs to be done and especially be there for my children.

With your donation you would be helping me get my life back and these tests, treatments, and accommodations will help me do that and help prevent worsening or added issues from hindering me further. If you made it this far, thank you for reading this far and if you feel led to donate just know that my heart is so thankful for any amount you can do and I will pay it forward for others when I can and I do! Thank you again and I am beyond appreciative for any support received!