Help Nathan step out of the Lyme light

Help Nathan Schmidt to Fight Lyme Disease  


To family and friends, We are asking for help so my son Nathan can continue his treatments for persistent Lyme disease, mold exposure and several parasitic infections. There is no way to know how long this battle will last and we need your help and support to carry on with his treatments.


It has been an emotional roller coaster watching someone you love being so sick for so long going from doctor to doctor, test after test with no diagnosis. His gradual decline became much more rapid in the year prior to being diagnosed and beginning his treatments, he was fragile physically and emotionally and I was feeling hopeless and afraid for him. He told me on several occasions that he felt like he was dying. Imagine the fear and the suffering he felt to make that statement. Then imagine how it affects a parent to hear those words from his only child.  


Nathan researched his symptoms after having no luck with his doctors and came up with the possibility of late stage Lyme disease. He even researched and found the right doctor which resulted in the eventual diagnosis.  He is now on the path to a healthier life and he is better than he was last year, but he still has a long way to go. In reading other cases there is no clear timetable for Nathan’s recovery as each individual case is different.  


My son is the best thing that ever happened to me. He is very intelligent, loving, funny and has a wonderful spirit. Nathan owned a small business and ran it with passion, drive, kindness, happiness and intelligence. He has many hopes and dreams for the future, and I know that this experience will be the driving force for helping others in the future.  


Nathan’s health insurance does not cover his treatment protocols and I have spent everything I can in this fight.  I am nearing the end of my abilities financially, but I simply cannot and will not give up fighting for him. Please take the time to read his story below and then take the time to help him to the best of your ability. Nathan and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your help, understanding and prayers.  


Sincerely,  


Paul Schmidt

A letter from Nathan:


My name is Nathan Schmidt and I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest city of Vancouver, Washington with my father Paul and my good friend Chance. I have been on this health journey for over 15 years, possibly longer. Sometime in 2013 my symptoms began to ramp up very rapidly. Suddenly, I was allergic/sensitive to foods that I had never had any issues with previously. I was having overwhelming fatigue, extremely frequent cluster headaches, migraines, sleepless nights, profuse and drenching night sweats when I was able to sleep, my heart was always racing, I was sensitive to light and sound…. I HURT EVERYWHERE. My muscles, joints and bones felt like that of a 90-year-old with osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis. These are just a few of the symptoms that I was experiencing. I would like to encourage every person who reads this to do a bit of investigative research on these diseases. Chances are you know someone who has been affected by Lyme & Co. and the numbers are pointing to that being a given rather than just a likelihood.  


Come fall of 2018, I was finally able to get some answers. My diagnosis was persistent Lyme disease with a slew of co-infections including two types of Babesia and Bartonella. These were not positive answers. Turns out I had been handed a loaded gun, one loaded with bacteria, mycotoxin, parasitic and yeast infections. I was angry at the western medicine establishment for letting me continue to suffer for so long, excited to have an answer, hopeful for my future and lost all at the same time. I had finally found out what was happening to my body, mind and immune system but I was scared to death. Leading up to the diagnosis, I had shared with my father on multiple occasions that I truly felt as though I was dying. Not exactly something you want to hear from your only child. Now I had my answers, but would I ever make it out of this? I had once been a diligent business owner of a successful small business, working seven days a week. Would my mind and body ever return to a place in which I was able to carry out my daily life, much less chase down my dreams? For the first few months of treatment it all seemed impossible. I would go back and forth, being extremely ill and then feeling better every few days. I had to make drastic dietary changes and relearn most everything I had known about my body as well as my feelings.  


Lyme is currently the fastest growing infectious bacterial disease in the United States, with more than 300,000 new cases diagnosed each year, and that number is growing at an alarming rate. It is also the fastest spreading bacterial infectious disease in over 80 other countries, yet coverage from insurance companies is still mostly out of reach and funding for research is grossly neglected, coming in at well under 40 million dollars each fiscal year. I am not the only person that needs your help, far from it. A search for Lyme disease on this site(gofundme) will yield you nearly 4,000 Lyme patients and their loved ones whom also desperately need your help. So, if you wish to help me with funding, I urge you to consider splitting your donation between mine and a few other patients’ campaigns.  


This fundraiser has two missions. The first is to help my father with the current financial situation my treatment has caused. Second is to secure some funding for my ongoing treatments, even if I can achieve remission from Lyme disease, there will still be maintenance herbs, prescriptions and treatments. I will be fighting this for the rest of my life. We are dangerously close to having to stop my treatments as we have spent close to $25,000 in the last 11 months. Those fees have gone to testing, lab work, medications, various therapies and fees for appointments to see my doctors. Yet, there are treatments which I have had to decline due to the costs. The most recent option has a cost of $7500 which I won't be able to afford in our current financial state. Funding would allow me to access some of these treatments. My father is an incredible man who has never once blinked at any of this outrage, he has only been helping in every way he can and knows how. Yet, all of this is taking a heavy toll on his spirit, retirement and debt load. I am terrified that my father won’t be able to retire anytime soon with the debt that my treatments have caused. I am fighting with everything I have in hopes that I will return to a state in which I can take care of him in the later years of his life, its only right, he has put me above everything during this difficult time and I owe it to him to see that he gets some pleasure back into his life and is able to have some semblance of comfort in his retirement. I love him with all my heart, he somehow gave enough love to fill the hole left by absent family members. At this point I literally owe him my life, for he was the only one in my family who believed in me enough to get me help for my ailments when my body and mind were slowly deteriorating as we both watched hopelessly. 


My hopes and dreams for the future are to set up a farm to help others access the foods and herbs they need for their treatment protocols, as well as provide some therapeutic work for individuals going through treatment. A large part of healing from these diseases is a significant change in diet, which calls for organically grown fruits, vegetables and herbs. Hopefully, working directly with clinics that provide these treatment protocols and their patients can help lower the price point of healthy, nutrient-dense, organic produce and herbs as well as increase access to responsibly raised meats. That is my goal, but I need to continue my treatments for now and that is why I am reaching out to all of you for help. Any funds which are left over from treatment might be used to fund this dream. This has been an incredibly humbling experience, it has taught me that no matter how bad things get, you must keep going and that there are in fact still loving and caring people in the world. Bless all who read and or share this story. We are forever grateful for your time and effort. It means so much to us!  


Thank you from the bottom of my heart, 


Nathan Schmidt


More about Lyme disease and statistical information.....       http://lymestats.org/