Help Courtney In The Fight Of Her Life

I am creating this Gofundme page for one of my best friends, Courtney Davis. At first glance, you would think Courtney is a young, healthy, beautiful women but what you may not know is that Courtney has been quite sick for the last 5 years. After being wrongfully diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome she has since been fighting to diagnose her illness without any success.  She did however, find a homeopathic test that told her over a year ago she had Lyme Disease, but when she brought it to the attention of her doctor was told to “not go down that rabbit hole”. She has suspected Lyme for quite some time now, but Canadian medicine has a disturbing lack of understanding and acceptance of the prevalence of this disease.

Over the years Courtney has been to countless specialists, had countless tests completed and has been on multiple different medications. Despite her efforts, her health has continued to deteriorate. In the past, Courtney lived a highly active lifestyle and was aggressively chasing her dream to become a fire fighter. She Volunteered for Innisfil Fire Department for 4 years and devoted everything to achieving her goal of full-time firefighter. She had to give up her dream, because she was simply too sick, and as her condition worsened, she has not been able to work for the last 2 years. 

One thing that has always amazed me about Courtney is that she has never given up. Courtney is an amazing person and despite everything still sees the world with a positive, glass half-full type of attitude. As stated above Courtney was told Lyme and suspected it for a long time but our health care sadly just is not educated enough yet about this disease. It felt like an endless battle to get the care she truly needed after trying to treat it holistically for over a year with no success. As she continued fighting for answers, Courtney was recently introduced to someone who would change her life as she had a condition with symptoms that were eerily similar to hers.  This person had successfully found a place to diagnose her with Lyme Disease. Sadly, in Canada the testing for Lyme Disease often returns a false negative and only test for one kind of infection. Because of this, the disease often goes undetected. To help diagnose her condition, a California based testing lab re-ran Courtney’s results and they have determined that she does in fact have Lyme Disease. The doctors now believe Courtney has been suffering from Lyme for 5 years undetected. Because she had two false negatives, through inferior Canadian testing, she is now at the late stage of Lyme Disease. This is the most difficult form to treat. It has now progressed to neurological Lyme and has spread throughout her body and impacts every aspect of her life. It's very serious at any stage but potentially life threatening and absolutely debilitating at this stage without proper treatment.  

Courtney is about to begin her journey of fighting this awful disease. The treatment for Lyme disease requires a series of antibiotics, medications and supplements that are NOT covered by OHIP and most drug plans. Courtney has absolutely no private insurance coverage and doctors at the private clinic she must use to attempt to heal estimate that her treatments will run upwards of $50,000. 

 Courtney and her family have already spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out why she is so sick and although it is such a relief to have a diagnosis, they are now faced with the financial burden of the treatments. 

Every little bit helps, no matter how big or small. So, I am asking, if you can help this family in their time of need, Courtney, her family, and friends will be forever thankful. Once Courtney is feeling better and is on the path to beating or at least managing this disease, she plans to help others with Lyme that have either been miss-diagnosed or diagnosed and need support. If you can, please donate whatever you can to help Courtney regain her life and help others find the answers they are looking for.