Healing Jayden with Traditional Chinese Medicine

Melissa Emily is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi, my name is Melissa. I have 3 beautiful daughters and my sweet long awaited son Jayden. I created this page with hopes of having Dr. Li help my son Jayden by sharing his story. We are currently scheduled for a visit with Dr. Li on Oct 4th, 2023. However, unless I am able to raise the funds for his treatment, I will have to cancel his appointment.

Below are a few images of my baby before the unexpected events that follow:

At about 5/6 months, my son Jayden began suffering from minor eczema issue, with rashes that began due to a dairy intolerance. His dairy intolerance began to get worst and so I decided to take him into a Children’s Hospital Clinic in Nashville.

This is where things began to take a downward spiral. Doctors refused to test him for allergies and insisted they needed to use topical steroids before proceeding with any allergy tests. They prescribed him topical steroids and we began using them, as directed. These were prescribed by dermatologists, and pediatricians (as most eczema patients are) and

I began using them as directed by the Dr.’s in the end of January 2022; Within a few weeks, it became clear that these creams were doing nothing to heal Jayden, but instead damaging his skin within the 2 week “off” period the flares would come back with a vengeance.

Jayden was prescribed the following topical steroid creams at 6 months of age for his face & then also his body as the "eczema" spread:

1. Hydrocortisone 1%

2. Hydrocortisone 2.5%

3. Triamcinolone 0.1%

4. Betamethasone 0.1%

5. Alclometasone 0.05%

We were finally referred to a dermatologist and allergist. However, they still refused to test him for allergies and continued to prescribe him stronger topical steroids.

From February 2022 - November 2022 as Jayden continued to worsen, I reduced working my Real Estate Business drastically basically to almost nothing due to how severe he was, and I lived off of my life savings. During this time, I had to spend all day and night holding Jayden’s hands down and rocking him as this was the only thing that brought him comfort and would stop him leaving puddles of blood everywhere as he tried to rip what little was left of his skin.

From June 2022-now I’ve had many life changes take place, all the while Jayden has been going through all of this. I eventually had to find another job that allowed me to work remotely with hopes that I would be able to care for Jayden at home due to how prone he is to infection and how difficult having him in daycare would be. However, I had to resign the remote job, due to the nature of the position, the constant need to monitor Jayden and multiple last minute doctor appointments/ER visits. It’s been incredibly difficult to hold any traditional form of gainful employment due to his medical condition.

Over this past year my family & I have spent thousands of dollars trying help my son heal. We have tried just about everything on the market for “eczema” however nothing has done much to improve the drastic conditions of his skin.

Can you imagine not being able to see your sweet baby's face, not being able to smell your baby's scent? or just being able to kiss your baby on the cheek? I have not seen my sweet baby's true face & body healed with baby soft skin since he was about 5/6 months old before I followed Dr.'s orders of using Topical Steroids. My son is now 2 years old as of July 14th 2023 and my heart is broken into so many pieces as I have no idea if I'll ever see my baby's true face again.

After doing some research on similar cases, I came across information on TSW and it all started to make sense. Jayden's skin and story looked and sounded like other TSW patients. If you would like to learn more on TSW, All Links will be shared at the end of this.

Because I want to respect my son's privacy, I will spare pictures of him during his absolute worst phases but will share a small section so you can get an idea of how he currently looks all over his face and how his hands can crack open. What started as two small mild spots on his cheeks now cover his entire face. My son is constantly itching & scratching and at night it's much worse. Jayden gets anywhere from 30 mins-3 hrs of sleep max a night due to the severity of his condition. Car rides with Jayden are also very difficult, he is older now and will make himself bleed within minutes. Avoiding this with Mittens and Scratch Sleeves no longer help. Because of this, a few weeks ago I also got into a car accident while trying to stop him from scratching his face.

Below is a small section of what his entire face looks like:

Below is a small section of what how the skin on his hands crack open:

Over the last couple of months, I came across many success stories of babies who have been dealing with the same condition and receiving Integrative Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment alongside Dr. Xiu-Min Li.

Dr. Xiu-Min Li, M.D., M.S., is an immunologist, researcher, and professor at NYMC and Icahn School of Medicine. She uses Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to treat allergies, eczema, asthma, and other allergic diseases.

Dr. Li’s Traditional Chinese Medicine’s form of treatment is not covered by health insurance and it’s incredibly expensive. Jayden’s protocol with Dr. Li will be 18 months long & will cost $1,450/month essentially his TCM treatment alone will cost about $26,100 for an 18 month treatment.

Below are pictures of Jayden's hand while on Dr. Li's TCM protocol:

(1st pic in Dr. Li's protocol & 2nd pic his hands were beginning to heal)

I did decide to start the protocol with Dr. Li starting April 1st 2023 however, it cost us $2,900 for April + May. Unfortunately, I could not continue with the payments past the two months of initial treatment and will have to restart the protocol. His protocol is also very intensive and requires a very hands on approach in order for it to be effective. This makes it very difficult to hold a traditional full-time job as the protocol treatment needs to be applied every 2hrs. This is something that has been very difficult for me with his condition due to having very little caregiver support as daycare is not an option for him.

My goal is to be able to fundraise the full amount of his protocol which will run $26,100 for the next 18 months. Anything over that amount would help me supplement some of my income over the next 18 months in order to provide Jayden the proper caregiver support. It will also help with other expenses related to his needs, and any out of state travel expenses for any in person visits in New York with Dr. Li.

As a mother, I would do anything to try to help my baby boy find healing. If you are still here, want to thank you for taking the time to read about what happened to my sweet baby boy.

I am very hopeful that my baby boy will be another baby success story of Dr. Xui Li and that she will be able to heal him as well as wean him off of Topical Steroids without him going into TSW. I want to thank you for any donations both big and small, or choosing to share this link to spread awareness. It truly means the world to me and I pray that God blesses you for your generosity.

To learn more about Topical Steroid Withdrawal please see below:

TSW Symptoms Overview: