Support for William against difficult illness

Hello,

My name is William Melchionno and the past five years have been the most challenging of my life. In 2019 I was 34 years old, a middle school math teacher at a private Catholic school in Massachusetts and in good health. I took care of my body, working out and running whenever I could find the time. I completed my first marathon in 2010, a dream of mine since my days as a captain of my highschool track team. But then, without explanation, changes started happening to my digestive system and I began losing weight.

Despite my insistence that something was wrong, doctors consistently shrugged off my concerns. Eventually they came to the conclusion that my issues were caused by Celiac disease. I radically changed my diet, hoping it would restore my health and allow me to return to a normal life. Unfortunately, it did not.

By 2021 my weight had dropped from 165 lbs to 120 lbs. I've remained at that weight ever since, but only by continuously supporting myself with pre-digested food. What doctors originally contributed to stress, then to undiagnosed Celiac disease, was actually much worse. One by one, bacterial overgrowths had begun invading both the large and small intestines of my body, causing me to live my days in incredible pain as well as greatly restricting my diet. This in turn led to another difficult discovery. I was suffering from long-term environmental toxic exposure. So in the summer of 2021 I made the difficult decision to step away from my job. The constant pain and degradation of my gastrointestinal system required my full time attention and made basic functions like going to the bathroom too difficult to do outside of my home. For the first time in my adult life, I could no longer support myself.

I went from clinic to clinic looking for answers, but no one seemed to understand how to approach my illness due to the severity of my GI dysfunction. In 2023, I went to Germany where I spent 2 weeks in Villa Thal, a medical center in Bad Gronenbach, to be treated by a medical doctor who specializes in Environmental Toxicity, Epigenetics, Neuroscience, and Microbiome Health. While he successfully performed procedures that restored my microbiome, which helped to replenish the healthy bacteria in my body, as well as started me on an introductory IV treatment for my environmental toxicity issue, financial constraints forced me to return home.

Shortly thereafter, another discovery was made, this time with the B1 vitamin Thiamine status in my body. I began taking supplements to correct this imbalance. Importantly, my body responded positively. I experienced rapid improvements to my digestive system and gained back some much needed weight. Unfortunately, despite remaining on this vitamin and other medications/supplements for detoxification, I experienced another bacterial overgrowth which was sulfur based. Unfortunately, this called into question my ability to supplement these nutrients and vitamins since there has been a slow building intolerance to some of these sulfur components. There is a strong chance that similar overgrowths will occur if I continue to use these supplements; an unfortunate circumstance since these nutrients appear to be essential to fixing my digestive system and removing the environmental toxins from my body.

I have kept my medical team in Germany updated and developed an alternate approach to handle this. That is why I’ve decided to launch this Go Fund Me and return to Germany. There, I will undergo an extended treatment that would successfully bypass my intestines, avoid the gut bacteria, and get the necessary nutrients into my body. While I may need ongoing treatment for some time, this type of aggressive approach may be the best chance I have for taking back control of my body. With the support of a full staff, the doctor would supervise me on a daily basis, something I’ve yet to have here. This large scale operation would be aimed at detoxifying my body, restoring my digestive system, replenishing healthy bacteria when needed, and hopefully put me in a better place where I can manage my affairs independently. He offers various prices for his services but his standard price per week is $5,500 which includes the services for replenishing good bacteria into the body. Likewise, if those procedures are not needed he charges around $3,000 a week for his intensive IV program. With the challenges I'm facing now though, I know those bacterial procedures are going to be a necessity. They helped tremendously after the first visit and was the only form of treatment thus far that helped to improve my gut motility. This was something I was unable to achieve in the United States.

It's honestly difficult to put a financial goal on something like this, but $30,000 to $40,000 would probably allow a good amount of time for treatment to build a solid foundation needed for recovery. Ideally, I would like to stay out there for 6-8 weeks. This would include the treatment costs, testing, room and board, and flights when needed.

If this Go Fund Me is overly successful and the doctors in Germany are able to get my body into a more manageable state, I would use the remaining funds to return to the US and extend my IV treatment here in whatever capacity I could manage. Likewise, if my goal is not successful, I would have to adjust my plans and allocate the resources to be used in the best way possible between all my doctors.

At this point, it is clear that extreme steps need to be taken in order to secure my health. To be honest, I'm afraid of what might happen if the illness goes on any longer. It's a difficult place to be and for once I'm forced to admit that I can't do this on my own. I need help. Fighting this illness has taken most of my savings. My 30’s have been devoured by this fight, with each year worse than the one before it. One antibiotic treatment even dropped my weight down to 115 lbs due to unforeseen side effects.

Every day is just such a painful experience. I wake up with pains in my intestines, and the pains continue on and off until I’m finally able to fall asleep. Then it begins all over again. It's been emotionally difficult to see everyone around me living normal lives and enjoying the little things that I can't really partake in anymore. There isn't a single part of my life now that resembles what it was like years ago. I was very much a geek who loved films and comic books, and who took a great deal of inspiration from the latter over the years. Now I can't even relax and watch a movie without a constant reminder of the intestinal pains running through my body.

I realize times are difficult for everyone, but whatever donations could be made I would be eternally grateful. I like to think of myself as a fighter. I’ve always tried to challenge myself, to be self-reliant, to not quit. I’ve even tried to maintain my physical health over the past several years by working out whenever I have the energy. But at this point, I see no other alternative. Family members have gotten impatient. One doctor here in the United States even stated that perhaps it would be easier to accept my health situation and learn to live with the condition instead of fixing it. I believe he was trying to be genuinely helpful, but you can imagine how discouraging that was to hear. Nevertheless, my intentions are to keep fighting. That’s why I’m here.

To anyone who read this, I thank you. If you could share the story with others and get the word around, I would very much appreciate it.

Thank you and take care!