Update: A Difficult Road to Recovery

After overcoming serious health issues at the end of last year and finally returning to work, she was unfortunately hit with the flu, which marked the beginning of another steep decline in her health. Since then, she has been hospitalized three times and has had to have her stomach drained seven times due to fluid buildup. She’s also made at least four emergency room visits during this time.

Doctors have now determined that she is suffering from severe liver issues. While they are still working to pinpoint the exact cause, it appears to be autoimmune-related, and she has been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

During her time in the ICU, we are incredibly grateful for Dr. Patel and his small but dedicated team, who took the time to truly listen and investigate. Unlike others who dismissed her condition as self-inflicted and alcohol-related, Dr. Patel recognized that something deeper was going on. Thanks to his efforts, we are finally moving in the right direction.

Unfortunately, she is now on the path to needing a liver transplant. Her MELD score is currently 30 (with 40 being the highest), which places her at transplant status. She has not been able to work for the past two months and likely won’t be able to return anytime soon.

We are now navigating a new and uncertain world, and any support—whether financial, emotional, or simply sharing this page—means more than words can express. Thank you for standing by her during this incredibly difficult time.

My name is Pandy and my daughter, Mykayla, has had a lot of health struggles throughout her young life, and I am always amazed at how she has managed to keep such a positive attitude throughout it all. At 15, she had a bad snowboard accident and a serious concussion, which then led to the start of her health issues. Along the way, she has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia along with rheumatoid arthritis. She has struggled with constant pain almost her whole life. Then she had to deal with getting psoriasis, which got so bad it covered over 60% of her body. It took a year for them to finally get her relief. She now has to take very expensive shots to regulate that condition, which also leaves her immune compromised. After the past year and a half, she has now had other issues arise and has gluten and dairy allergies and is probably going to be diagnosed as celiac. The symptoms are so bad that if she gets the smallest amount of gluten, she has seizures; then if she gets any dairy, she is throwing up for the next 12 hours. Skip forward to the last month, and she had 2 bad rounds of the flu. About 5 days after that, she started feeling numbness and pain in her legs. She said it felt like she had run a marathon and that her legs were weak and tired. It grew worse and worse and got to the point where she had difficulty walking, kept falling down, and couldn’t get up. Two weeks ago, she got up, and the numbness was now in her abdomen. We took her to the ER, and she was in the hospital for 4 days. She had MRIs, lots of blood work, and a spinal tap. They are still not sure what it is, but they are leaning towards something called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which is a rare autoimmune disorder that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system. This damages the nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. It is thought that it can be triggered by an infection with a virus or bacteria. She underwent 3 rounds of IVIG. IVIG is a treatment that involves infusing a combination of antibodies from multiple donors into the patient’s vein. The doctor said that her recovery will be slow and could take up to a year for her to fully recover. She is home but will now have to have outpatient physical therapy, can barely walk, and still has severe pain in her legs. She is currently having to use a walker to help get around. She has not been able to work for over 2 weeks and has no PTO. That was used up when she had the flu. She is hoping to go back this week with light duty. She will have a lot more doctor visits along with physical therapy appointments and expenses along with the hospital bills. She could really use this money to help cover those medical bills and some money to help since she has been off work.

We are hoping that she will soon be back to playing disc golf, rock climbing, or just the simplest of things like walking her dog or driving her car.

I know a lot of people are struggling right now, so if you are not able to help, we would ask you to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please keep her in your thoughts.