My name is Olivia Lee and I’m a Ruston, Louisiana native. I live here with my fiancé and our 3 beautiful children. It’s so hard for me to ask for help but this year has been one for the books.

Last August, I was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disorder called Graves’ Disease. Graves’ disease causes hyperthyroidism and some of those symptoms include tachycardia, weight loss, heat intolerance, among many more. I was allergic to all of the thyroid medications and was not responding to them well so we opted for surgery to totally remove my thyroid. Surgery went well but soon after surgery I started experiencing complications. My calcium levels were depleting so I was put on a calcium supplement which I was taking per doctors orders. Which brings me to an incident that occurred today. My calcium levels depleted this morning and I had the scariest experience of my life. I had severe full body tetany. The muscles in my entire body seized up including my throat and lung muscles and I couldn’t breathe or speak. My fiancé called 911 and the paramedics took me to the hospital and stabilized me. They gave me bags of calcium, potassium, and magnesium so I am okay, for now.

The icing on top of this saga that never ends, was that as we were leaving the hospital my rear bumper got caught on a curb and my entire muffler was ripped out of my car.

with all of that being said, we need help. We are a two income household and I have had to miss so much work because of this illness and now we will have to pay a 1k deductible to get my car fixed.

Admitting I need help and asking for it has always been so hard. I just want to be able to rest and heal without having to worry about the financial hardships we are facing because of all of this.

i want to thank each and every person who takes the time to read this. I will include some pictures of the damage to my car, as well.

you know what they say, when it rains it pours. I fully understand that now. I also believe that we live in an amazing community and I’m so thankful to live in a place like Ruston where genuinely good people exist.

sorry for the rambling. If you have any questions at all- please feel free to reach out to me.

thank you, from the bottom of my heart

Olivia