TL;DR:

In 2022, I was a healthy, active 22-year-old with a successful career ahead of me. By 2025, I became severely disabled by multiple complex chronic illnesses, leaving me unable to work, eat normally, or function independently. Many of these conditions require treatments that contradict one another, making care extremely complex.

Over the past 3 years my medical expenses have averaged $1,500–$2,100+ per month, and my savings are nearly depleted. Specialized treatments have already significantly reduced my pain and improved my ability to eat, care for myself, and leave the house, but I cannot afford to continue them without help.

I am fundraising to continue treatment so I can further reduce pain, regain physical stability, and work toward returning to full-time employment and independent living. Any donation or share is deeply appreciated. Feel free to read below for a more comprehensive explanation of my situation.

Full Explanation

In 2022 I was able to lift weights, do pull ups, run, work full time, eat any type of food, go to theme parks, go out with friends and had a promising career ahead of me. Basically, the life of any normal 22 year old. Flash forward to 2025 prior to beginning my current course of treatments and I was barely able to leave the house, unable to keep down most food, unable to sleep, unable to work, and struggled to lift more than a soup can.

I went from working a full time office job in finance feeling on top of the world to being unable to work due to my physical limitations and feeling like a prisoner in my own body.

This year I was diagnosed with Small intestinal bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), Hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD), Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), gastroparesis. I was also recently informed that I am a symptomatic carrier of two rare recessive metabolic disorders, which my geneticist told me was not previously believed to be possible. To my dismay I learned that treatments for these conditions tend to contradict one another, making it difficult to manage all of my conditions efficiently.

My symptoms include fatigue, muscle weakness, pain induced insomnia, brain fog, light and sound sensitivity, poor temperature regulation, presyncopy with positional changes, chronic gastrointestinal distress, chronic hypoglycemia, post-prandial hypoglycemia, and widespread muscular, joint and nerve pain. At worst I’ve experienced 8/10 pain that led to vomiting, shaking, and cold sweats.

My current treatment plan is a combination of daily dietary supplements, FDA approved medications, adult formula, intensive physical therapy sessions twice a week, working daily with a dietician to log every meal and the symptoms that follow, peptide therapy (4-8 shots every day), and joint injections (was only able to afford one round of shots so far).

My medical expenses are currently $1,500 per month and will likely go back to $2,100+ once my out of pocket max resets this year. Because of this I am unable to continue the peptide treatment and will not be able to afford additional injections for the foreseeable future.

The cost of the joint injections in my cervical spine, both shoulders, and SI joints was around $2,000 altogether. Depending on how my improvement looks towards the end of this round of physical therapy I may have to get more injections in those areas in addition to needing initial and potentially follow-up injections in my ankles, knees, hips, wrists, and thoracic spine.

Because of my connective tissue disease I suffer from joint instability, hypermobility and have too much laxity in my other connective tissues. This causes my muscles to have to constantly overcompensate in order to hold my joints together which leads to debilitating joint, muscle, and nerve pain.

The joint injections stimulate healing in damaged connective tissues like tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, which helps increase the connective tissue stability and surrounding muscle strength by releasing growth factors to repair tissue and reduce inflammation.

Since starting this treatment I’ve seen a huge improvement. My daily pain is now down to an average of 2-4/10, I am able to eat without immediately projectile vomiting, I no longer pass out during the day due to extreme fatigue, I can spend time with family and friends outside of the house, I can vacuum, do laundry, and can carry a bag of groceries again.

Although I am incredibly grateful for the improvement I’ve seen, I know that with further injections and treatments I could improve much more and do these everyday tasks with more ease. My goals are to be able to work full time again, sit up for more than 45 mins without severe pain and fatigue, reduce my average daily pain to 1-2/10 and get to a point where I am able to travel to out of town specialists without severe pain.

Unfortunately my savings are nearly depleted due to the financial toll my disabilities have taken on me in addition to the inability to work full time to recoup enough money for additional treatment. I would greatly appreciate any donations or reposts of this go fund me. Thank you.