4 years of fighting for answers… battling dismissal, our healthcare system & excruciating pain. A world of endless doctor’s appointments, scans and ‘normal’ test results. Finally, a breakthrough; & now — A PATH TO HEALING. We need your help to make it possible.

Katy is sunshine ☀️ The kind of human who genuinely makes the world feel so much brighter ‎ ☻‎ The sweet, gentle soul who makes you feel seen — and has devoted her life to using her creativity & passion as a force of good ‎ ✨

She's poured herself into non-profit work, discovering joy in helping others & launching a photography career serving brands driven by kindness, social justice & positive change. She sees her lens as a powerful tool for transformation — able to shift culture to create a more compassionate world. Her business took off, & she was building a life she was so incredibly proud of.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Then —

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎everything changed…

As Katy picked up her camera — excruciating pain tore through her upper back… an agonizing, burning sensation like searing hot coals engulfing her spine in flames.

In search of answers, she began getting in front of every doctor she could — chiropractors, spine specialists, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, physiatrists, naturopaths. But appointment after appointment… no one could figure out what was going on. She was forced to stop working, stop creating, & watch as the life she’d built was being washed away.

As imaging & lab results kept coming back as ‘normal' — doctors dismissed her symptoms as “idiopathic” (‘without cause’ ), wrote her off as attention-seeking... & even completely disregarded her pain as imaginary. “Case closed. No further work-up necessary.” could be found in many clinical notes. In a world where we trust our doctors most, with her condition progressing rapidly... how could this be happening? It didn't feel real.

Fueled to get back to her passion, she refused to surrender… searching every corner of the country for doctors who believed her life was worth fighting for & who wouldn’t give up on her. Advocating for herself became the most important thing she'd have to learn how to do.

As she fought, new symptoms were emerging: grueling migraines, relentless muscle spasms, shocking sensations, numbness down her arms & legs, severe weakness. All she could do was watch as her 20’s — the years meant for joy, growth & discovery — were fading away.

THE COST OF NO DIAGNOSIS ‎ ‎ ──────

Eventually — the pain took her ability to sit, stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time. The longer she’s upright, the worse her pain becomes. As she continued to be tossed from doctor to doctor, her world became the walls of her apartment… trapped in bed. As all of her most basic abilities were slipping away… specialists labeled her case “a true medical mystery” & she realized she wasn’t just fighting for answers anymore... she was fighting for her freedom.

Experiencing nothing but more progression… her pain was reaching an unfathomable 10/10 for hours upon hours every day. It had become raw, inescapable torture. Arriving at a place of true desperation — but following a road of faith — she braved every operating room and underwent every procedure offered to her by an endless cycle of Pain Medicine doctors. But one by one, the interventions failed… leaving her shattered, over, and over again… & the pain untouched.

SIDELINED ‎ ‎ ──────

In the midst of fighting for answers — the stress, fear & unrelenting pain eventually became too much. Her immune system collapsed. Through the suffering emerged a flu-like sickness so severe it was causing daily fevers, drenching sweats & chills, crushing body aches & the most profound exhaustion she’d ever experienced — that refused to go away. Katy eventually became so sick she’d collapse just from trying to take a few steps.

It would take the absolute refusal there was anything wrong — from more than 10 specialists — before having to make the heartbreaking decision to leave her home in San Diego in pursuit of better healthcare in Arizona, where her family lives. She learned that sometimes, “Strength is not a choice… it’s an act of survival.”

Armed with diagnoses → treatment becomes possible. After more grueling insurance battles, several months of biologics & weekly 6-hour-long Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy Infusions (IVIG) — the storm slowly began to calm… ⛅️ & day by day, Katy began to feel human again. Each diagnosis is a condition with no known cure that Katy has to manage for the rest of her life. She is learning, one-by-one, how to live with the symptoms each diagnosis brings so that they don’t define who she is, but are something she's able to overcome every day.

FIGHTING SURRENDER ‎ ‎ ──────

While the illness took priority, her spine paid the price.

Katy began needing a caretaker for daily functioning & a specialized wheelchair to leave the house. Once she lost her independence… she was continuing to fight on hope alone.

By summer of 2024 — Katy had undergone more than 40 imaging scans… each time praying the radiologist would find SOMETHING all the others had missed. But scan after scan… every report came back ‘normal.’ She'd completed 4 extensive rounds of physical therapy… each time, measuring far worse on the final work-up than when she started. Most harrowing of all, Katy had gone under the knife in continued desperate attempts for relief — enduring more than 30 painful procedures — with every. single. one… failing.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ It was heartbreaking.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Nothing was working.

Everything Katy loved most… art, traveling, spending time with friends & making a real difference in the world — had become distant memories. The fuel she needed to fill up her cup… existed just out of reach.

Fighting off hopelessness with exhaustion written in her eyes… she heard the words she feared most: “I’m sorry, Katy. There’s nothing more we can do.” ‎ ‎But with faith, hope & survival etched in her bones — still, she refused to give up. She was fighting for her life.

A BREAKTHROUGH ‎ ‎ ──────

In one final effort, she asked her neurologist for one more MRI…

the last attempt at solving the unsolvable.

And in an instant — EVERYTHING CHANGED.

The radiologist made a shocking discovery: an ultra-rare neurophysical condition where excess tissue has grown around her spinal cord — compressing, tethering & strangling it. Clinically named a ‘Superior T4-5 Intradural Thoracic Arachnoid Web’ — it’s a diagnosis so rare it affects less than 1 in a billion… & there's only one doctor capable of treating it — a top neurosurgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

After four brutally long years of searching — and trusting her intuition above those who made her question her own sanity — Katy’s journey finally transformed from seeking answers… to seeking treatment.

N O W ‎ → ‎ THE PATH TO HEALING ‎ ‎ ──────

With the expertise of the Cornell neurosurgeon willing to take on her case, a path to healing was created: To stop progression — neurosurgery to remove the arachnoid web, freeing & decompressing her spinal cord. To target the pain & extensive neurological symptoms — several additional procedures, treatments & therapies will be critical.

While the road ahead is still long, we are incredibly hopeful ‎Katy’s pain will be reduced — and her freedom… the ability to freely sit, stand, walk & function… will be restored — so that she can get back to making the world a place we're all excited to live in.

To afford the treatments Katy needs… we need your help.

Your donation will —

➔ ‎ ‎ ‎At the request of several people — we created a Venmo as an alternative option if preferred ‎ ‎ ‎── ‎ ‎ ‎@fightforhealing

From the bottom of our hearts… thank you for seeing her, hearing her story & for helping give her the chance at true healing — regaining her function, her freedom — & her life ♥

Thank you so much ✨