As written by Linda herself:

In an effort to get help after four and a half years, I guess I’m going to have to let my secret be known. That many years ago, I was exposed to something that I could never have predicted would change my life for very worst. One afternoon, I had been rifling through bales upon bales of hay, to determine the cause of what had made several horses sick. The cause quickly became apparent: The interior of the bales were filled with excessive and dangerous levels of a mold I could not identify. As I had been digging through the hay to find clean flakes, the skin of my forearms and legs had been poked and pricked by the infested strands of hay, as I was wearing short sleeves and shorts. At first, I broke out a little, took benadryl, and the irritation and redness went away…..


...But in a day or two it came back with a vengeance, and so began my nightmare.



Not only did I break out all along my arms and legs, but pores would tear themselves open and start bleeding. Then more pores would open around those, and by then it had become a series of ulcers and that just continued to bleed and bleed. I’ve gone everywhere for answers but to no avail. I’ve seen four dermatologists. I’ve been to Loma Linda’s dermatology department.I’ve been to U.C.L.A’s  medical dermatology department. I’ve been to Eisenhower Medical Hospital’s wound department.


None of these could experts could help me.



All they could do for me was tell me that I need to gather my files and go to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. My examiner at Eisenhower felt the specialists there at Mayo Clinic would the only ones who could help me, and give me a single glimmer of a chance of getting control of my normal life back.


 After that, I went to an infectious disease doctor. For three months, they put me through intravenous antibiotics every single day, including weekends. There was no improvement in my condition. We agreed that new ulcers were still appearing and opening wider at an unhindered rate.


Now, please, this is where I desperately need any help I can get. I need answers as to how stop the process. I’ve been tested and tested. While they weren’t able to take away my daily curse , they were able to identify a bacteria found in the roots of plants and in soil that affects human cells as extremely rare cases, called Rhizobium.


I know it’s hard to believe, but during this time I have also survived acute kidney failure. Ironically, as if the world had some dark sense of humour, the only time my skin completely cleared was when I was getting dialysis. Not only that, but after the kidney failure I was put through angioplasties  # 9, 10, and 11- and then finally a quintuple bypass. The scariest part was knowing I was being opened up to cure one problem while the rest of my skin was being besieged by ulcers with no certain diagnoses close. At the time of the bypass my left lower leg was one of the only clear parts of my skin, with no ulcers, so they harvested the veins from my left leg. Then , as a result, the skin from which they harvested the veins blew up with ulcers and bleeding pores- including the surgery incision, which took over a year to close and heal.


The big question is: why do I constantly keep breaking out? The general consensus to date is that  my immune system is in overdrive, and is attacking my vascular system or “something like that.”




With all of my other options exhausted, I see a Rheumatologist towards the end of the month. Please please pray for wisdom of the doctors I see. So far on this exhausting journey to find a cure, I’ve heard,  “I’ve been practicing since 1971 and there’s only three people I haven’t been able to help...and you’re one of them.”


I’ve also heard from infectious disease specialists that “in twenty-five years of practice, I’ve never seen anything like what you’ve come in with.”


I’ve heard it all, including “you just must be stressed out, that’s all.”- anyone around me knows I bleed everywhere- all over clothes, all over bedding- I’ve woken up with my hand drenched in blood and small pools of it forming around me on my bed as I slept.


 I’ve never thought I would have to ask for help, but I’m medically bankrupt. I can’t even bring myself to open the bills at this point out of fear.



….That’s why this fund has been started. I’m drowning, and still have no answers. I’ve tried keeping this to myself, not worrying my kids or family, and being the strongest I could for these past four and a half years but that’s gotten me nowhere.


I provided pictures , and maybe putting them out there might get me closer to a diagnosis through one of you.

Thank you for your time, patience, prayers- and thank you tremendously for reading through this, my call for help, in it’s entirety.