I have gone back and forth for a long time about creating this fundraiser for Brandy because anyone who knows her knows she is not someone who asks for help.
I have known Brandy since Adrian was little, and over the years I have watched her work endlessly to build a life for herself and her son. I watched her raise Adrian on her own, pursue multiple college degrees, build a career as a nurse, and continue showing up for everyone around her even while quietly battling health issues most people never fully saw or understood.
For years, she kept being told her labs were normal, that it was stress, hormones, anxiety, or that she simply needed to slow down and rest more.
Meanwhile, her body kept getting sicker.
What started in 2017 as unexplained fatigue and strange symptoms slowly became a devastating, progressive illness affecting nearly every part of her life. After seeing more than 60 doctors and specialists over nearly five years, Brandy was finally diagnosed in 2022 with multiple tick-borne infections including Lyme disease, Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasmosis, and others.
By the time answers finally came, the damage had already become life-altering.
Today, there are days where simple tasks most people never think twice about, cooking dinner, driving, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, or even getting through a normal conversation, can feel impossible for her. She battles severe fatigue, chronic pain, neurological complications, tremors, cognitive dysfunction, speech and word-finding difficulties, dizziness, autonomic dysfunction, narcolepsy with cataplexy, sudden sleep attacks, immune-related reactions, and countless other symptoms that continue affecting nearly every aspect of daily life.
She spends more time attending appointments, treatments, procedures, and infusions than she does actually living the life she once had.
Brandy currently undergoes daily IV treatments through a chest port as part of ongoing care. One of the medications she requires causes extreme sun sensitivity, to the point where even a few minutes in the sun can leave her with intense burning pain, skin reactions, and worsening nerve pain. Things most people take for granted, sitting outside, going to her son’s games comfortably, or simply enjoying a normal summer day, have become incredibly difficult.
And yet, despite all of this, Brandy still works as much as she physically can to continue providing for herself and Adrian while also trying to help other patients facing similar battles. Instead of turning inward, she chose to become involved in advocacy and awareness efforts surrounding tick-borne illness because she knows firsthand how devastating delayed diagnosis can be.
This year, she joined others from across the country in for Lyme Advocacy Day, where she met with members of the U.S. Senate to fight for better recognition, improved testing, increased research funding, and better access to care for patients suffering from tick-borne diseases.
She also became involved with organizations and committees dedicated to helping increase awareness, research, and resources for patients and families going through these same struggles because even while fighting for her own health, she still wants to help others.
But honestly, the hardest part has been watching this now affect Adrian too.
Adrian has always been such a healthy, athletic, energetic kid, and watching Brandy face the fear of seeing her son now also test positive for Bartonella has been absolutely heartbreaking.
As a mother, she would do anything to protect him from this battle.
After years of failed treatments and continued decline, the only time Brandy has seen meaningful improvement in her otherwise downward-trending health has been through QRE restrain infusions. Unfortunately, each session costs approximately $2,500, and she will likely require a minimum of 12 treatments. Adrian will likely require treatment as well. Not to mention the doctor visits, medications and everything else needed that insurance does not cover.
Because she is a mother first, Brandy has chosen to place many of her own treatments on hold in order to focus financially on helping Adrian receive the care he needs.
Unfortunately, traditional insurance does not cover many of the specialized tests, evaluations, treatments, medications, and therapies associated with complex tick-borne illness, and the financial burden has become overwhelming.
I created this fundraiser because I love Brandy and Adrian deeply, and because I have personally watched how hard she has fought through all of this while still trying to be a mother, work, advocate for others, and survive something that has completely changed the course of her life.
If you are able to donate, share, pray, or simply help spread awareness surrounding tick-borne illness and delayed diagnosis, it would mean more than words can express.
More than anything, I hope this reminds people that behind every diagnosis is a real person, a real family, and a life that has been forever changed.
It will likely take close to 65,000 for their treatments. This is a just a small fraction to help impact that for her.