Help Payten Battle Severe Lyme Disease

Payten is a beautiful, selfless, kind-hearted little girl with a light in her that shines so brightly. She loves anything to do with animals, her little brother, playing outside, racing BMX, working in her Daddy's shop. and learning anything and everything. Making friends, for her, is as easy as breathing. To know her is to love her.

Unfortunately, over the last year our sweet girl started experiencing worsening medical concerns. This little ray of sunshine is now so exhausted that she is sleeping 16+ hours a day, is in constant pain, consistently has swollen/painful lymph nodes, lapses in her memory, relentless headaches, and bouts of anxiety and rage. She has undergone multiple rounds of labs and blood work, specialists, doctor appointments, and hospital admissions. She has been dismissed countless times, and has been chewed up and spit out by our medical system for months now with no answer or hope in sight.

After months of advocating and fighting for her, we finally received a diagnosis and treatment plan. Payten is suffering from a severe case of Neurological Lyme Disease, which is affecting her Central Nervous System, complicated by also being diagnosed with Rikettsia and Bartonella. She is in need of aggressive long term IV antibiotics as well as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Treatment for her needs to be started as soon as possible, as the longer we wait, the lower her success rate will get.

However, the treatment she needs is extremely expensive and not covered under our medical insurance. Her first (and hopefully only) round of treatment will be just shy of $11,000 out of pocket. We are applying for various grants to try to get financial aid to assist with covering some of the cost, but it is not guaranteed and we will not find out if we were approved for a few months. The outstanding amount of medical bills, travel for medical attention, time taken off of work over the past year for her health has depleted our funds. We cannot feasibly afford her treatment on our own, but somehow we need to find a way to get it for her.

It is with heavy hearts, and swallowing our pride, that we are now asking for help from our family, friends, friends of friends, teammates, our community. We know times are tough for everyone and the holidays are upon us, but we desperately need help to bring the light back into our little girl's life and try to get her back to enjoying her childhood as much as possible.

Any proceeds raised or donations received will be deposited into a Custodial Account for Payten, specifically dedicated to her medical treatment.