Relief from chronic pain for Lor
Donation protected
About this Campaign
We are fundraising to help our sister Lorraine receive treatment for her Chronic Pain. This is our effort to get treatment which will ease the pain sufficiently to improve her quality of life so that she may have a life to look forward to. We hope you will help!
This Gofundme was primarily set up by her siblings (Kevin, Tom and Helena), to facilitate people who would like to support Lorraine’s effort to get medical treatment in India which will equip her to manage her illness and reduce the chronic pain to a level which will allow her to have a full life and to live independently.
Lorraine's story
“So I've just had the biggest cry since I don’t know when. I'm in so much pain. I wish I could explain what it's like but I can't, it’s too big. And I can't change it. I'm so tired”.
“It feels like there are claws scraping at my insides. I feel like vomiting a lot. I get hot sweats and dizzy spells but I don't talk about that”.
“I don't know if I’ve ever felt this exhausted. I wish someone would inject me with morphine and send me to sleep”
Our dear sister Lorraine suffers from chronic pain. The above quotes try to capture some of what she was feeling a few nights ago. At 33 years old our beautiful, talented sister should be enjoying the prime of her life. It's heartbreaking for people close to her, friends and family to see her suffering as her condition has become progressively worse over the past 10 years. Lorraine's is an invisible illness which is one of the reasons it's so hard for people to understand. Friends ask her “is it your back?”. It's much more complicated than that. She has described feeling so sensitive to the touch, it's like being battered and bruised all over.
The pain began in 2006 in her lower back and was accompanied by fainting and blackouts. Over the next 10 years Lorraine was shipped from one medical department to another. The pain gradually spread up the spine to her neck, shoulders and skull. In that time, she has seen neurologists, rheumatologists, physiotherapists, psychologists, pain consultants and many more. She has had all the scans and was prescribed numerous pain medications. She tried everything from paracetamol to morphine, steroid injections, lignocaine patches, creams and medical infusions.
All of the different drugs for different types of pain came with their own side effects, nausea, headaches, weight gain, lack of concentration, memory loss and so on. She was hospitalised in 2014 with acute cholecystitis and had liver trouble from the cocktail of medications she had been prescribed. There was still no overall diagnosis. At one stage it was suggested it might be Fibromyalgia. It took 8 years of pain and fatigue before Lorraine was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS).
EDS is described as a genetic disease affecting the connective tissues of the body, that is the flexible membranes that connect and hold our body frame together, these tissues connect nerves, muscles, ligaments, bones, it is in all parts of the body, including the spine and the brain.The diagnosis initially offered hope as Lorraine could begin to research and try to learn from the experience of others. However doctors have told her that there is no known cure and that her only option is to learn to live with chronic pain. Seeing our sister suffer, it's hard to accept this conclusion.
Is that it then? Is there really nothing we can do? There is a specialist EDS treatment centre in London but it is incredibly expensive and a residential stay can cost as much as €30,000. Lorraine has already seen specialists here in Ireland and there is very little they can offer other than minor adjustments to pain medication. After all that she has been through the western medical system offers little or no hope. This is why we are ready to try something different.
Some close friends have had very positive experiences of Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India. One friend in particular found relief from a very serious illness, Crohns disease and another from Toxoplasmosis. Ayurveda is holistic in that rather than simply studying and trying to alleviate the symptoms of the illness the whole condition of the patient is taken into consideration. Ayurveda emphasizes re-establishing balance by cleansing and strengthening the body using herbal medicine, medicinal massage, careful management of diet and other treatments. We recently visited Roscore Clinic with Lorraine and were advised that to get the best out of this treatment she should travel to India for a 1 month residential stay at the Arogyodayam Hospital in Kerala, India. Doctors at this hospital in Kerala can also work with the Ayurvedic practitioners at Roscore here in Ireland to continue treatment after Lorraine returns.
Of course all these things cost money and that is why we are asking for your help. The flight is €800, the 1 month residential treatment in India cost €3000, we expect follow up consultation for 6 months could cost up to €700 with €70/€90 per month for medicines. €5000 is a lot of money but it is still a fraction of the cost of a stay at the private clinic in the UK.
We sincerely hope that this treatment will be of benefit to Lorraine and offer her some improved quality of life.
Any contribution you can make big or small is welcome and deeply appreciated.
Thank you for supporting Lorraine
http://www.ehlers-danlos.org/
Roscore Clinic: http://www.medicalherbalist.ie/
Arogyodayam Hospital: http://arogyodayam.com/Hospital.aspx
We are fundraising to help our sister Lorraine receive treatment for her Chronic Pain. This is our effort to get treatment which will ease the pain sufficiently to improve her quality of life so that she may have a life to look forward to. We hope you will help!
This Gofundme was primarily set up by her siblings (Kevin, Tom and Helena), to facilitate people who would like to support Lorraine’s effort to get medical treatment in India which will equip her to manage her illness and reduce the chronic pain to a level which will allow her to have a full life and to live independently.
Lorraine's story
“So I've just had the biggest cry since I don’t know when. I'm in so much pain. I wish I could explain what it's like but I can't, it’s too big. And I can't change it. I'm so tired”.
“It feels like there are claws scraping at my insides. I feel like vomiting a lot. I get hot sweats and dizzy spells but I don't talk about that”.
“I don't know if I’ve ever felt this exhausted. I wish someone would inject me with morphine and send me to sleep”
Our dear sister Lorraine suffers from chronic pain. The above quotes try to capture some of what she was feeling a few nights ago. At 33 years old our beautiful, talented sister should be enjoying the prime of her life. It's heartbreaking for people close to her, friends and family to see her suffering as her condition has become progressively worse over the past 10 years. Lorraine's is an invisible illness which is one of the reasons it's so hard for people to understand. Friends ask her “is it your back?”. It's much more complicated than that. She has described feeling so sensitive to the touch, it's like being battered and bruised all over.
The pain began in 2006 in her lower back and was accompanied by fainting and blackouts. Over the next 10 years Lorraine was shipped from one medical department to another. The pain gradually spread up the spine to her neck, shoulders and skull. In that time, she has seen neurologists, rheumatologists, physiotherapists, psychologists, pain consultants and many more. She has had all the scans and was prescribed numerous pain medications. She tried everything from paracetamol to morphine, steroid injections, lignocaine patches, creams and medical infusions.
All of the different drugs for different types of pain came with their own side effects, nausea, headaches, weight gain, lack of concentration, memory loss and so on. She was hospitalised in 2014 with acute cholecystitis and had liver trouble from the cocktail of medications she had been prescribed. There was still no overall diagnosis. At one stage it was suggested it might be Fibromyalgia. It took 8 years of pain and fatigue before Lorraine was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS).
EDS is described as a genetic disease affecting the connective tissues of the body, that is the flexible membranes that connect and hold our body frame together, these tissues connect nerves, muscles, ligaments, bones, it is in all parts of the body, including the spine and the brain.The diagnosis initially offered hope as Lorraine could begin to research and try to learn from the experience of others. However doctors have told her that there is no known cure and that her only option is to learn to live with chronic pain. Seeing our sister suffer, it's hard to accept this conclusion.
Is that it then? Is there really nothing we can do? There is a specialist EDS treatment centre in London but it is incredibly expensive and a residential stay can cost as much as €30,000. Lorraine has already seen specialists here in Ireland and there is very little they can offer other than minor adjustments to pain medication. After all that she has been through the western medical system offers little or no hope. This is why we are ready to try something different.
Some close friends have had very positive experiences of Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India. One friend in particular found relief from a very serious illness, Crohns disease and another from Toxoplasmosis. Ayurveda is holistic in that rather than simply studying and trying to alleviate the symptoms of the illness the whole condition of the patient is taken into consideration. Ayurveda emphasizes re-establishing balance by cleansing and strengthening the body using herbal medicine, medicinal massage, careful management of diet and other treatments. We recently visited Roscore Clinic with Lorraine and were advised that to get the best out of this treatment she should travel to India for a 1 month residential stay at the Arogyodayam Hospital in Kerala, India. Doctors at this hospital in Kerala can also work with the Ayurvedic practitioners at Roscore here in Ireland to continue treatment after Lorraine returns.
Of course all these things cost money and that is why we are asking for your help. The flight is €800, the 1 month residential treatment in India cost €3000, we expect follow up consultation for 6 months could cost up to €700 with €70/€90 per month for medicines. €5000 is a lot of money but it is still a fraction of the cost of a stay at the private clinic in the UK.
We sincerely hope that this treatment will be of benefit to Lorraine and offer her some improved quality of life.
Any contribution you can make big or small is welcome and deeply appreciated.
Thank you for supporting Lorraine
http://www.ehlers-danlos.org/
Roscore Clinic: http://www.medicalherbalist.ie/
Arogyodayam Hospital: http://arogyodayam.com/Hospital.aspx
Organizer
Kevin Flanagan
Organizer
