Hayden's Fight Against Lyme

As many of you know, our life was turned upside down after Hayden took 30 high school students on a mission trip 2 years ago. Hayden came back from that trip and quickly became very sick. What we thought was just the flu turned into 5 ER trips, 2 hospital stays, 3 MRIs, 1 spinal tap, 2 blood patches, and over 100 blood tests. Hayden was bedridden for over 4 months with zero answers. In March 2019 we finally got a correct diagnosis when Hayden tested positive for Lyme disease. We were ecstatic to finally have a diagnosis and start treatment right away. However, we had no idea how difficult this road to recovery would be. Three days after being placed on antibiotics, Hayden had a seizure that took us to the ER again. Hayden continued having seizures every day for 6 months while we tried to kill off the infections that were wreaking havoc on his body. On August 27th, 2019 we had to rush Hayden to the ER again because his seizure got out of control and his tongue was swelling. Hayden was hospitalized again, and we decided that we needed to look into other options to treat this nasty disease. While this was all happening, another high school student who went on the mission trip with Hayden was also bit by a tick and became incredibly sick. The father of this high school student decided to fly his son across the world to get treatment at a hospital in Germany. This high school student came back from Germany 100% better. So, we started to look into this hospital and other treatment options for Hayden. What we didn’t know when we received the Lyme Disease diagnosis was that the United States and insurance companies do not recognize Lyme Disease as an issue that can last longer than 2-3 weeks. This meant that every single treatment was not covered by insurance and was paid out of pocket since Hayden was not even diagnosed with Lyme disease until 4 months after being bit by the tick. So, we started doing our research on this hospital in Germany as well as a hospital in Mexico that does the exact same treatment. After a year of researching and Hayden’s health continuing to go downhill, we have decided to take a leap of faith and go get treatment out of the country. The main treatment that Hayden will be receiving is called Hyperthermia. They will do a procedure where they heat Hayden’s core body temperature up to 107 degrees while giving him IV antibiotics to kill off the bacteria and infection. It has been proven that Lyme disease dies at 107 degrees, so this will help Hayden greatly in beating this disease. This is an inpatient hospital and we will be there for 2-3 weeks. We are planning on going to receive this treatment at the hospital in Mexico at the end of June. As I am sure you are aware, all of this will be out of pocket and will cost between $25-35k. Hayden has had to take a medical leave away from work in order to try to get healthy, so I have become the sole financial provider for us currently. We know that going to this hospital out of the country is a major risk and will take a financial toll on us, however, we 100% believe it is worth it. It is time to beat this disease. Hayden and I have had to put our dreams and ambitions on hold for the past two years while trying to get him better. We are looking forward to the day where we can say “YES!” to foster care and “YES!” to all that God wants to do in our life together. We believe that this is the step we need to take in order to make that happen. 


- Duree and Hayden Crook