Help Jenna Heal From Lyme Disease

Jenna has been on a long health journey since May 2014, when she fell ill traveling abroad in Spain. While on vacation she experienced an array of symptoms: high fever, night sweats, insomnia, nausea, GI pain, muscle aches, headaches, and fatigue. Upon returning back to the states, her health issues continued and she was put on multiple rounds of antibiotics for what doctors thought was a terrible case of Strep and Staph. 

After the antibiotics, Jenna started experiencing GI pain and was sent to a GI doctor to get a colonoscopy. It came back with slight inflammation, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

In 2015 Jenna started experiencing crippling anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, brain fog, cognitive issues, and feelings of despair. She chalked her symptoms up to starting a new stressful job--and started seeking therapy via a psychologist and psychiatrist. Her healthcare team all agreed that Jenna was experiencing depression and anxiety and needed to be on medication. She was labeled as having major depressive disorder and given antidepressants and antipsychotics to help her symptoms. She knew that the diagnosis she had been given was not the whole story, and she did not take the drugs. 

In early 2016, Jenna decided to leave her career in advertising as she was unable to function at a high level. Her brain was not working correctly, and she found working in a high stress, fast paced environment was a major stressor. 

She decided to go to South America in hopes of decompressing and connecting back to her soul, nature, and something bigger than herself. After a few days in South America, Jenna again, became very sick. She had a high fever, rash on her face, night sweats, insomnia, bronchitis, and GI distress. Being the warrior she is, she powered through Argentina even though feeling extremely ill. Again she was diagnosed with Strep and antibiotic resistant Staph.

When she came home from that trip, her body was never the same. She started experiencing cystic acne, more GI distress, insomnia, worsening anxiety, brain fog, and neuro-endocrine disruption. 

Trying to get back into the working world, Jenna started working at a few different start-ups, but ultimately had a hard time concentrating and functioning at full brain capacity, and ended up leaving each job because she felt impaired and unable to do the work. 

At the end of 2016 Jenna began to have musculoskeletal/connective tissue pain in her knee, back, hip, shoulder, and elbow. Then she began to have neurological symptoms of tingling and numbness in her extremities along with a severe burning sensation in her lower back. She was always active, but had not done anything out of the ordinary when the pain in her body arose. She went to an Orthopedic Surgeon, got an MRI and was told she had facet joint syndrome, a small bulge in L5/S1, patella femoral syndrome, and thoracic outlet syndrome. She began Physical Therapy and continued it for a year without any results. At her worst times, her pain was crippling--she would wake up in the middle of the night in tears--she describes the pain as someone lighting her on fire. It was one of her PT’s that mentioned that her progression was not getting better and she might have something autoimmune in nature. 

In early 2017, Jenna was told she needed all 4 wisdom teeth removed, and her surgery was traumatic as post-op, she developed dry sockets, TMJ, tinnitus, vertigo, a high fever, and infections in the sockets. She was admitted to the ER with Tonsillitis caused by strep, and was put on more antibiotics. 

Having been through many conventional doctors and specialists, she was feeling discouraged, misunderstood, and that no one was truly listening to her. She started working with a Functional Medicine Practitioner who was able to read her labs and look at her story from a more integrative approach. 

She was referred to a multitude of MD’s, Specialists, Integrative Doctors, Functional Doctors, ND’s, LaC’s, Chiropractors, and the list goes on and on. Eventually she was diagnosed with IBS, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Interstitial Cystitis, and Fibromyalgia. These diagnoses did not satisfy her, and she wanted to get to the root cause of her health conditions. She was feeling misunderstood, unheard, and hopeless. 

Jenna moved to a new apartment in January 2018 after splitting from her partner. In March of 2018, after falling sick with a dangerously high fever for a week, night sweats, insomnia, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, and headaches, Jenna found herself in the ER again. And again, no answers. Her body completely broke down after this. She began to have chemical and food sensitivities, balance issues, word retrieval issues, more brain fog, feelings of deep despair, weight changes without changing diet, more connective tissue pain, arthritis, pelvic pain, urinary tract infections, months of insomnia and extreme sweating, loss of her menstrual cycle, hair loss, extreme bloating /GI distress, tachycardia, shortness of breath, and the list goes on. 

After running thousands of dollars worth of tests out of pocket, one of the last tests ordered was that for Lyme Disease and Co-infections. Jenna tested positive for Borrelia, Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Mycoplasma, and some of the vector-borne associated viral infections associated with Biotoxin illness. Simultaneously, she started reacting to her home, and after testing her environment, realized there was toxic mold in her apartment. Further Mycotoxin (mold produces mycotoxins) testing was done, and her urine levels were 260x greater than what was considered the normal limit. Her levels of Gliotoxin, Ochratoxin A, and Aflatoxin were dangerously high and causing significant neurological symptoms. She also had severe fungal Candidiasis as a result of Mold/Mycotoxin exposure. Soon after with genetic testing, she learned she carried the HLA-DR genes which don’t allow your immune system to tag and excrete mold and biotoxins properly, allowing these toxins to circulate in the blood and end up in fatty tissues such as the brain and adipose tissue. 

She soon moved out and began getting treated for Lyme Disease and CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome- Due to Mycotoxin and Biotoxin exposure from Toxic Mold and Lyme). She was also diagnosed with an Immune Deficiency disorder where she is unable to make the appropriate antibodies to ward off infections- Hypogammaglobulinemia. 

In retrospect, Jenna realized that the apartment she had lived in from 2012-2017 was a water damaged building harboring mold/mycotoxins that weakened her immune system allowing other pathogens like Lyme and Co-infections to bring down her immunity leading to a cascade of inflammation. Her ex confirmed that after she moved out, the ceiling of their bedroom had collapsed after years of a slow leak, confirming water damage and the presence of mycotoxins. 

In 2019, she moved back home and her parents graciously helped her with some of her treatment costs for a few months. After a few months, funds ran out and Jenna found herself still sick, but back working long days as a pilates instructor to make ends meet. Her body was suffering as a result of the long hours. Her symptoms continued to worsen, and she ended up making a decision to leave work to focus on treatment and getting well. 

Unfortunately these treatments are all out of pocket as the CDC does not recognize Chronic Lyme Disease, or Post Lyme Syndrome, as a Chronic Illness lasting more than a few weeks. The treatment for an average Lyme patient runs about $40,000 a year out of pocket. 

Over the course of the last few years, Jenna has been unable to work, has spent her life savings, and all her retirement funds on her health. Her family has also helped her financially, but lack of resources have kept her from getting the help that she needs. Many systems of her body have been damaged by chronic infections that went undiagnosed for years. She will need to repair and rebuild the damage done to her connective tissue, musculoskeletal system, endocrine system, neurological system, digestive system, cardiac system, pulmonary system, urinary/renal system, and hepatic system. 

Jenna has kept her story silent for years. She was hesitant to share, as she felt extreme grief for the loss of her old life--the loss of relationships, career, money, and health. She felt anger, shame, embarrassment, uncomfortable showing her vulnerability (even to those closest to her), and most of all misunderstood. Through the emotional work Jenna has been practicing in an effort to let go of toxic thoughts and emotions, she realizes now that opening her heart and sharing her story is part of the healing process. She is ready to share and accept help from others who care for her. Jenna has been extremely humbled on her journey and has grown a deep sense of compassion and love for all those who suffer a similar road. Those of you who know her, see her kindness, selflessness, and beautiful soul shine through, and now we are asking for help to let this angel get the help she needs so that she can live a full, rich, and healthy life. 

We are hoping to raise enough for Jenna to seek alternative and conventional treatments. The money raised will go toward helping Jenna with daily cost of living while she is out of work, and treatments which include: 

Out of pocket Medical Visits 
Cellular and Mitochondrial Detox via oral and IV infusions
IV Ozone and light therapy 
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy 
PEMF therapy
IVIG (Immunoglobulin therapy)
Low Dose Immunotherapy
Stem Cell treatments repairing damaged tissues
Monthly Medications, Nutraceuticals, and Herbal Protocols 

No donation is too small, and we are accepting prayers as well. :) 

Thank you all for your love and support through this time. We appreciate you, we see you, and we thank you. 

XO

Erica Allison on behalf of Jenna 



To learn more about Lyme Disease and CIRS (Mold Illness), please click on the links below. 


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2876246/

https://www.ilads.org/research-literature/lyme-disease-basics-for-providers/

https://www.prohealth.com/library/evergreen_pages/chronic-lyme-post-treatment-lyme-disease-syndrome-ptlds-neuroborreliosis

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3920250/

https://drjess.com/all-about-mold-and-beyond-is-biotoxin-illness-the-missing-link-in-your-chronic-health-puzzle-2/

https://www.hoffmancentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mold-and-Mycotoxins-Often-Overlooked-Factors-in-Chronic-Lyme-Disease.pdf