Preserve a Photographer's Dream

In 2022, I was at a farming conference when I thought I got pink eye. Two weeks later, my vision was completely gone in my right eye and I was in Vanderbilt being diagnosed with Uveitis. Uveitis is a type of eye inflammation that affects the middle layer of eye tissue known as the uvea, resulting in inflammation inside the eye.

Vanderbilt dropped me as a patient because I didn’t have health insurance and the treatment was so expensive. They sent me to Tennessee Retina as a self-pay patient where we continued bloodwork until I ran out of money. I ran my personal credit cards up pretty high trying to save my eye and find answers. I eventually found some holistic anti-inflammatory methods that really kept my eye calm for almost 2 years, with very few flare-ups.

I’m a photographer and my eyes are so beyond valuable to me. This has been my dream since I was 4 years old and anyone who knows me, knows I’ve gone to war to make this dream my reality. I truly feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be so passionate about my career.

I finally got my dream job offer, touring with a rock band. The day before we left for tour, I woke up in a similar state to when I went blind before. My vision was clouded and my eye was in a lot of pain. I got into a visit with an incredible doctor who made me feel so good going forward. He put me on some strong medications to protect my eye and several supplements to heal my body before tour.

Halfway through tour, my vision was basically gone and the pressure was insane. I called my doctor and he told me to get there asap. When I got to my appointment, my eye had gotten significantly worse. My bloodwork shows that I have a disease, still undiagnosed, that is causing my body to attack my eye. The first thing he told me was that this is going to be very expensive, but he can help me save my eye and my life. I’m set to go for more bloodwork and a chest x-ray today. The eye drops I’m supposed to take are $500 alone, on top of 3-5 appointments per week. I have been putting all of my money on credit card bills for 2 years. It cost me $10,000 in 3 weeks last time. I’m trying to figure out an insurance situation but for now, I have to ask for help from my community. I pray it doesn’t take $10,000 again, but it happened so quickly last time I just don’t know what to do.

I don’t often meet people who love life as fiercely as I do. I want to be here, loving y’all, enjoying the gift of this life together. I want to keep seeing the beauty in the world and showing it to y’all through my art. I want to get better and I’m doing everything in my power to do so. I feel so grateful to have such a supportive community that believes in me and my dreams.