Donation protected
Hello All,
My name is Joey Nowicki, as some of you may and may not know, I have been sick for the past 7 years. My illness started in 2012 while I was a student at Coastal Carolina University with intense chronic stomach pain that never went away. At the time the doctors I was seeing believed it to be Celiac Disease which was causing my stomach pain, as a result I stopped eating all gluten, I even had my own kitchen utensils so that there would be no cross contamination. This did not help at all, my sickness got progressively worse and became so intense it forced me to take a medical leave of absence from CCU and move back home as it was becoming too difficult to care for myself. I had to focus on my health and figure out what the underlying cause of my pain was. After being home for some time and focusing on my health I chose to enroll at MVCC in their Electrical Engineering program, with hopes of being able to receive an Associate’s Degree. I was doing very well in the program being one of the top people in my class that started with around 60 and dropped to 10 people. However, my sickness kept escalating, making it very difficult to attend class and labs that come with college. Due to this I had to take a medical leave of absence from MVCC with hopes to finish when I was better. Over the next couple years, my family and I tried every approach we could to get a better diagnosis. This included going to the top gastroenterologists in the country including Massachusetts General (Boston), Johns Hopkins Medical (Baltimore) and Cornell-Presbyterian (NYC). These doctors performed endoscopies, colonoscopies and other tests, they were aware from the endoscopy that my stomach lining was severely inflamed but could not figure out the cause, they just said you have to live with the pain.
Leaving me frustrated with no answers and nowhere to turn I found a nutritionist in Clinton, NY. She was the first person that believed there was something really wrong with me – she took one look at me, at this time I weighed 120 pounds, touched my hand and listed a whole list of things that she thought was wrong with me, this included a deficiency in vitamins and minerals, leaky gut, candida overgrowth, intestinal bacterial overgrowth, etc. She sent me to Dr. Hyman in Massachusetts, he ran a whole set of functional testing (seeing how your whole body is working together), every issue she said I had, the testing confirmed. This was now 2015, I thought I had found my answer, the doctor put me on supplements to help my body get synchronized, this helped a little but soon I was right back to square one. After a few visits she said to me Joey, I think you have Lyme Disease and directed me to the STRAM Center in Delmar, NY. I tested positive for Lyme Disease including Babesia, Borrelia Burgdorfi and Bartonella (2015). This was just the beginning of my journey with functional medicine. I began treatment with homeopathic and herbals as any antibiotics would have been detrimental to my stomach. Unfortunately, insurance did not pay for any of the Lyme treatment or the testing, and it all had to be paid out of pocket and was extremely expensive. I continued my treatments but was not getting markedly better, there still was a missing piece of the puzzle, so my family found a functional doctor in Washington, D.C. who discovered not only did I have Lyme Disease but also was filled with parasites, rocky mountain spotted fever, mycoplasma pneumonia, chlamydia pneumonia, Epstein Barr Virus, Parvovirus, and candida five times higher than the normal amount that should be present in your body. Blood tests came back that my immune system was significantly compromised, and white blood cell count was extremely low indicating infection which I was not able to fight. He also discovered that I was highly allergic to many foods including dairy, soy, sugar, gluten, yeast – this meant I could eat almost nothing.
As I started treatments to fight everything, the pain was so intense it was very hard for me to get out of bed most days. The medicines create a Herxhimer Reaction (when things die in your body they give off a poison – the poisons increase the pain). In addition to the medication I was taking, I would travel to New York City (8 hours’ round trip) every Monday and Thursday to receive Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation and Ozone Therapy to help clean my blood and kill the Lyme Disease and Parasites that were present. When I started these treatments my blood was black, these treatments helped clean my blood but were unable to relieve me of any pain. While in New York City I was referred to a holistic dentist where they found my mouth filled with infection from having my wisdom teeth out years earlier. They performed mouth cavitation, cutting my gums along the jaw and scraping all the infection out of my bone which was starting to deteriorate. Again, no relief from the intense stomach pain. At the same time, I also had some testing done in Louisville, Kentucky – this doctor retested for Lyme and for Industrial Toxins – again, the Lyme test was positive for all types and co-infections but the doctor focused on the Industrial Toxins – 15/18 of mine were off the charts and it indicated that my Mitochondria Levels were at 11 (0 is normal). He treats people from all over the world and my numbers were the worst he has ever seen – I was really scared about what was really going on with me.
I needed help, a few days after receiving these results (March 2019) I came downstairs and said to my parents “I can’t take this pain any more, I am scared, I need a place to go where I can get daily treatments with a doctor monitoring me every day.” My father searched the internet all day and found the Sponaugle Wellness Institute in Oldsmar, Florida. Dr. Sponaugle’s website addressed all of my symptoms which related to Lyme Disease, Industrial Toxins and Mold Toxicity from which he has cured people that come from all over the world. What really convinced us to go was that my testing results looked exactly like many of the patients that were at SWI. We had an appointment to start on May 13, 2019, we secured an apartment that was mold and chemical free, packed the car and made the trip.
Upon meeting Dr. Sponaugle he discovered that the root of my issues are that I have “3 bad genes” that don’t allow my body to get rid of poisons, building up industrial and mold poisons in my system since I was little. These poisons came from contaminated water and soil (probably Griffiss AFB), and playing many years on indoor turf (the tire pellets that are ground up and put in the turf are poisonous – they are made from petroleum products), as well as schools and dorms that are filled with black mold. He said my immune system was able to fight for a while but it came to a point where I could not fight any longer – I had mold and chemical poisoning, parasites, Lyme, co-infections, intestinal dysbiosis and the chemicals burned the inside lining of my stomach. I finally have the whole picture, 7 years later, the stomach pain is caused from the deterioration of my stomach lining, so essentially it is like having an open wound in my stomach. In addition to the stomach, every issue I have affects the brain – that is where all the “bad stuff” is stored. The treatments are intense, I have a port implanted in my chest so I can receive IV treatments at Sponaugle Wellness Institute which take on average 4 – 5 hours a day Monday through Friday, in addition I give myself an IV bag of glutathione at the apartment where we are renting. These IV treatments kill the Lyme, mold spores and parasites as well as getting all the poisons out of my body. The medicine causes extreme fatigue, as well as increased stomach pain and pain all over my body.
My first day at Sponaugle Wellness Institute was May 13, 2019, I am now 27 years old and have been fighting this awful illness for 7 years – I had to quit college 2 times and have never been able to work. Throughout these 7 years insurance has not paid for any testing or treatments. The cost of my current treatment is $7,000 a week, this includes IV treatments at the clinic, outside lab testing, medicine and supplements to treat Lyme Disease, parasites, mold poisoning and chemical poisoning. The weekly testing is done by independent labs and the results are used to determine my weekly treatment protocols. My parents take turns being my caregiver because the treatments make you really sick and you need someone with you at all times. I am showing improvement for the first time in seven years with the test results that come back giving me great hope, but I still have a long way to go.
I am asking for your help to lift some financial burden from my parents in donating anything you can to help continue to pay for my treatments. I could not have made this horrible journey without the support of my family who have never given up trying to find an answer. I want to thank everyone in advance for taking the time out to read my story and hope you help spread the word as it may help someone in a similar situation as myself that has an illness that is undiagnosable.
My name is Joey Nowicki, as some of you may and may not know, I have been sick for the past 7 years. My illness started in 2012 while I was a student at Coastal Carolina University with intense chronic stomach pain that never went away. At the time the doctors I was seeing believed it to be Celiac Disease which was causing my stomach pain, as a result I stopped eating all gluten, I even had my own kitchen utensils so that there would be no cross contamination. This did not help at all, my sickness got progressively worse and became so intense it forced me to take a medical leave of absence from CCU and move back home as it was becoming too difficult to care for myself. I had to focus on my health and figure out what the underlying cause of my pain was. After being home for some time and focusing on my health I chose to enroll at MVCC in their Electrical Engineering program, with hopes of being able to receive an Associate’s Degree. I was doing very well in the program being one of the top people in my class that started with around 60 and dropped to 10 people. However, my sickness kept escalating, making it very difficult to attend class and labs that come with college. Due to this I had to take a medical leave of absence from MVCC with hopes to finish when I was better. Over the next couple years, my family and I tried every approach we could to get a better diagnosis. This included going to the top gastroenterologists in the country including Massachusetts General (Boston), Johns Hopkins Medical (Baltimore) and Cornell-Presbyterian (NYC). These doctors performed endoscopies, colonoscopies and other tests, they were aware from the endoscopy that my stomach lining was severely inflamed but could not figure out the cause, they just said you have to live with the pain.
Leaving me frustrated with no answers and nowhere to turn I found a nutritionist in Clinton, NY. She was the first person that believed there was something really wrong with me – she took one look at me, at this time I weighed 120 pounds, touched my hand and listed a whole list of things that she thought was wrong with me, this included a deficiency in vitamins and minerals, leaky gut, candida overgrowth, intestinal bacterial overgrowth, etc. She sent me to Dr. Hyman in Massachusetts, he ran a whole set of functional testing (seeing how your whole body is working together), every issue she said I had, the testing confirmed. This was now 2015, I thought I had found my answer, the doctor put me on supplements to help my body get synchronized, this helped a little but soon I was right back to square one. After a few visits she said to me Joey, I think you have Lyme Disease and directed me to the STRAM Center in Delmar, NY. I tested positive for Lyme Disease including Babesia, Borrelia Burgdorfi and Bartonella (2015). This was just the beginning of my journey with functional medicine. I began treatment with homeopathic and herbals as any antibiotics would have been detrimental to my stomach. Unfortunately, insurance did not pay for any of the Lyme treatment or the testing, and it all had to be paid out of pocket and was extremely expensive. I continued my treatments but was not getting markedly better, there still was a missing piece of the puzzle, so my family found a functional doctor in Washington, D.C. who discovered not only did I have Lyme Disease but also was filled with parasites, rocky mountain spotted fever, mycoplasma pneumonia, chlamydia pneumonia, Epstein Barr Virus, Parvovirus, and candida five times higher than the normal amount that should be present in your body. Blood tests came back that my immune system was significantly compromised, and white blood cell count was extremely low indicating infection which I was not able to fight. He also discovered that I was highly allergic to many foods including dairy, soy, sugar, gluten, yeast – this meant I could eat almost nothing.
As I started treatments to fight everything, the pain was so intense it was very hard for me to get out of bed most days. The medicines create a Herxhimer Reaction (when things die in your body they give off a poison – the poisons increase the pain). In addition to the medication I was taking, I would travel to New York City (8 hours’ round trip) every Monday and Thursday to receive Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation and Ozone Therapy to help clean my blood and kill the Lyme Disease and Parasites that were present. When I started these treatments my blood was black, these treatments helped clean my blood but were unable to relieve me of any pain. While in New York City I was referred to a holistic dentist where they found my mouth filled with infection from having my wisdom teeth out years earlier. They performed mouth cavitation, cutting my gums along the jaw and scraping all the infection out of my bone which was starting to deteriorate. Again, no relief from the intense stomach pain. At the same time, I also had some testing done in Louisville, Kentucky – this doctor retested for Lyme and for Industrial Toxins – again, the Lyme test was positive for all types and co-infections but the doctor focused on the Industrial Toxins – 15/18 of mine were off the charts and it indicated that my Mitochondria Levels were at 11 (0 is normal). He treats people from all over the world and my numbers were the worst he has ever seen – I was really scared about what was really going on with me.
I needed help, a few days after receiving these results (March 2019) I came downstairs and said to my parents “I can’t take this pain any more, I am scared, I need a place to go where I can get daily treatments with a doctor monitoring me every day.” My father searched the internet all day and found the Sponaugle Wellness Institute in Oldsmar, Florida. Dr. Sponaugle’s website addressed all of my symptoms which related to Lyme Disease, Industrial Toxins and Mold Toxicity from which he has cured people that come from all over the world. What really convinced us to go was that my testing results looked exactly like many of the patients that were at SWI. We had an appointment to start on May 13, 2019, we secured an apartment that was mold and chemical free, packed the car and made the trip.
Upon meeting Dr. Sponaugle he discovered that the root of my issues are that I have “3 bad genes” that don’t allow my body to get rid of poisons, building up industrial and mold poisons in my system since I was little. These poisons came from contaminated water and soil (probably Griffiss AFB), and playing many years on indoor turf (the tire pellets that are ground up and put in the turf are poisonous – they are made from petroleum products), as well as schools and dorms that are filled with black mold. He said my immune system was able to fight for a while but it came to a point where I could not fight any longer – I had mold and chemical poisoning, parasites, Lyme, co-infections, intestinal dysbiosis and the chemicals burned the inside lining of my stomach. I finally have the whole picture, 7 years later, the stomach pain is caused from the deterioration of my stomach lining, so essentially it is like having an open wound in my stomach. In addition to the stomach, every issue I have affects the brain – that is where all the “bad stuff” is stored. The treatments are intense, I have a port implanted in my chest so I can receive IV treatments at Sponaugle Wellness Institute which take on average 4 – 5 hours a day Monday through Friday, in addition I give myself an IV bag of glutathione at the apartment where we are renting. These IV treatments kill the Lyme, mold spores and parasites as well as getting all the poisons out of my body. The medicine causes extreme fatigue, as well as increased stomach pain and pain all over my body.
My first day at Sponaugle Wellness Institute was May 13, 2019, I am now 27 years old and have been fighting this awful illness for 7 years – I had to quit college 2 times and have never been able to work. Throughout these 7 years insurance has not paid for any testing or treatments. The cost of my current treatment is $7,000 a week, this includes IV treatments at the clinic, outside lab testing, medicine and supplements to treat Lyme Disease, parasites, mold poisoning and chemical poisoning. The weekly testing is done by independent labs and the results are used to determine my weekly treatment protocols. My parents take turns being my caregiver because the treatments make you really sick and you need someone with you at all times. I am showing improvement for the first time in seven years with the test results that come back giving me great hope, but I still have a long way to go.
I am asking for your help to lift some financial burden from my parents in donating anything you can to help continue to pay for my treatments. I could not have made this horrible journey without the support of my family who have never given up trying to find an answer. I want to thank everyone in advance for taking the time out to read my story and hope you help spread the word as it may help someone in a similar situation as myself that has an illness that is undiagnosable.
Organizer and beneficiary
Nancy McClintock Nowicki
Organizer
Rome, NY
Jeffrey Nowicki
Beneficiary