Help Emma Heal Their Chronic Lyme Disease
Donation protected
Hey ya'll I need a little help and thought ya'll could help! I'm saving up for a NIR infrared sauna to help treat my chronic lyme disease.
tw: chronic ilness/ doctors/ medical industry
I've had chronic lyme my whole life but struggled to get a diagnosis until I was 19. It was so hard to get any doctor to believe that there was anything wrong with me. I had over 70 symptoms ranging from chronic pain to vertigo to food allergies to IBS to anxiety and depression and the list goes on. After getting a diagnosis I slowly became more and more disabled from the large amount of antibiotics I got put on.
Doing a simple task like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry became a task that I could at most only do a couple times a week on my own. I couldn't hold a consistent job because I needed the ability to walk sit stand and lay down in order to manage the overwhelming amount of symptoms. Being a working musician has been one of the few things my body allowed me to do, but even that can be extremely taxing for me.
I want to acknowledge how privileged I am being white and coming from a middle class family in nyc to be able to receive the care that I have in the past, but also acknowledge that it was never enough. Being a femme person made it extremely hard to get a diagnosis. I was never taken seriously and am still not even when I can describe what's going on in my body to a cellular level. For the past year and a half I've been so avoidant of going to the doctor because of how triggering it is to relive all my past experiences and to know that 95% of the time they're going to act like I'm stupid and that there's nothing wrong with me. Outside of being a femme person most western doctors won't acknowledge that Lyme disease is a chronic illness and even sometimes that it exists at all. It took me most of my life to get a diagnosis seeing over 50 doctors by the time I was 19.
A huge problem in the medical industry people need to be paying attention to is the fact that black and brown people are half as likely to get a diagnosis as a white person and I assume that number is even lower for someone who is a femme or queer poc. This is so unacceptable and needs to change. It shouldn't take a pandemic for people to see the ways people are being treated by health professionals. I'll also be directly donating part of my go fund me to people in the black and brown disabled community. Please comment/post more resources to donate to if you can. People need the ability to control their own health and not have their well being in the hands of doctors and a system who doesn't care.
Because of unemployment and the pandemic, this is the first time I've been able to focus 100% on caring for my body and really understand what my body's needs are. It's unfortunate that the world had to shut down to have the ability to care for myself. I also started working with The Heal Hive which has been immensely helpful in allowing me to take control of my own health.
Part of the way lyme effects my body is that I can't detox toxins out of my body like the average healthy person can and the average person is already working extra hard to detox all the pollution, chemicals, etc. that aren't natural to this world. I need external help detoxing because I can't do it alone. This is why I've been trying to save up for a NIR infrared sauna. There are other ways of detoxing but they only do so much. If I want to feel better I need to make this investment I don't have the money for, which is why I am posting this. Anything helps, and that includes sharing this! Thanks so much for reading <3
Link to the sauna I need
https://creatrixsolutions.com/near-infrared-saunas/portable-near-infrared-sauna-lamp-and-tent/
tw: chronic ilness/ doctors/ medical industry
I've had chronic lyme my whole life but struggled to get a diagnosis until I was 19. It was so hard to get any doctor to believe that there was anything wrong with me. I had over 70 symptoms ranging from chronic pain to vertigo to food allergies to IBS to anxiety and depression and the list goes on. After getting a diagnosis I slowly became more and more disabled from the large amount of antibiotics I got put on.
Doing a simple task like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry became a task that I could at most only do a couple times a week on my own. I couldn't hold a consistent job because I needed the ability to walk sit stand and lay down in order to manage the overwhelming amount of symptoms. Being a working musician has been one of the few things my body allowed me to do, but even that can be extremely taxing for me.
I want to acknowledge how privileged I am being white and coming from a middle class family in nyc to be able to receive the care that I have in the past, but also acknowledge that it was never enough. Being a femme person made it extremely hard to get a diagnosis. I was never taken seriously and am still not even when I can describe what's going on in my body to a cellular level. For the past year and a half I've been so avoidant of going to the doctor because of how triggering it is to relive all my past experiences and to know that 95% of the time they're going to act like I'm stupid and that there's nothing wrong with me. Outside of being a femme person most western doctors won't acknowledge that Lyme disease is a chronic illness and even sometimes that it exists at all. It took me most of my life to get a diagnosis seeing over 50 doctors by the time I was 19.
A huge problem in the medical industry people need to be paying attention to is the fact that black and brown people are half as likely to get a diagnosis as a white person and I assume that number is even lower for someone who is a femme or queer poc. This is so unacceptable and needs to change. It shouldn't take a pandemic for people to see the ways people are being treated by health professionals. I'll also be directly donating part of my go fund me to people in the black and brown disabled community. Please comment/post more resources to donate to if you can. People need the ability to control their own health and not have their well being in the hands of doctors and a system who doesn't care.
Because of unemployment and the pandemic, this is the first time I've been able to focus 100% on caring for my body and really understand what my body's needs are. It's unfortunate that the world had to shut down to have the ability to care for myself. I also started working with The Heal Hive which has been immensely helpful in allowing me to take control of my own health.
Part of the way lyme effects my body is that I can't detox toxins out of my body like the average healthy person can and the average person is already working extra hard to detox all the pollution, chemicals, etc. that aren't natural to this world. I need external help detoxing because I can't do it alone. This is why I've been trying to save up for a NIR infrared sauna. There are other ways of detoxing but they only do so much. If I want to feel better I need to make this investment I don't have the money for, which is why I am posting this. Anything helps, and that includes sharing this! Thanks so much for reading <3
Link to the sauna I need
https://creatrixsolutions.com/near-infrared-saunas/portable-near-infrared-sauna-lamp-and-tent/
Organizer
Emma Stacher
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY