Donation protected
I am a good friend of Christine Dahn and her husband Christopher - yes, both named Chris (so cool yet so confusing…going forward they will affectionately be known as Mrs. Chris and Mr. Chris). Mrs. Chris is currently fighting a life-threatening battle of epic proportions, and although Mr. Chris has been by her side through it ALL, they are nearing the end of their respective ropes physically, emotionally, and financially. To say they are both overwhelmed and exhausted is an understatement for the ages. With the exception of a few close Crossroads church friends, they have been trying to handle everything on their own for far too long and are in desperate need of additional assistance. As one of those friends, I am organizing this GoFundMe on their behalf and hope you will join me in supporting them. (If you prefer to “cut to the chase,” please scroll to the “How can you help?” section – there simply is no shortcut to their story.)
What happened?
Mrs. Chris has a history of a congenitally narrow spinal canal, and once she became symptomatic, doctors determined that part of her spinal cord was being pinched in half. Rather than risk partial or complete paralysis, surgery became the only viable option and resulted in not one, not two, but THREE complex spinal surgeries – the most recent two in June and October of 2018. These are NOT easy surgeries to recover from in an ideal situation, but in her case, she also has a genetic mutation that prevents her liver from detoxifying and clearing things like medications properly from her system, which complicated and slowed her recovery dramatically.
It gets worse…
In May of 2019, she was driven from her house by a sudden onset of asthma-like symptoms: gasping for air, choking, difficulty breathing. Upon further inspection by Mr. Chris (following our exceptionally brutal Minnesota winter and rapid spring thaw), black mold and mildew were discovered in several areas of the house. Karen and Brian, friends from church, stepped in and offered their home for lodging – which extended until August – while Mr. Chris attempted to remedy the mold/mildew issues. (A nearly impossible task as he was already working full time and caregiving in his “spare” time…)
Although Mrs. Chris continued to follow her post-surgical recovery instructions and physical therapy regimen, she was simply NOT improving but, in fact, was worsening. She was forced to discontinue treatment altogether as the therapist felt “something far more systemic was going on”, causing her body to stop responding to PT.
Brian’s story…
After appointments with just about every conventional medical specialist available covering her vast array of distressing symptoms (including migraines, joint pain, nausea/vomiting, vision disturbances, shortness of breath, and many others on a daily and often relentless basis), each doctor agreed that she was experiencing dysfunction in virtually every system in her body, yet none could offer any firm diagnosis, solution, or guidance on how to proceed. Being essentially bedridden with little hope of improving and remaining homebound except for doctor’s appointments is NO way to live! Enter Brian (in whose home she was staying) who experienced a similar medical crisis 20+ years earlier in which he was diagnosed with a heavy metal toxicity and had become sensitive to all but about four foods. He suggested investigating The Environmental Health Center – Dallas (EHCD) which, in his words, “saved his life.” It is an extremely specialized and highly regarded clinic that deals with complex cases like Mrs. Chris’s every day, and the clinic itself (as well as the housing where patients reside while being treated there) is environmentally controlled in virtually every way possible. The clinic can be found at https://www.ehcd.com. The down side is that none of it is covered by insurance.
A “Texas-sized” leap of faith…
After much prayer and discernment, Mr. and Mrs. Chris ventured to Dallas in early August for an initial consultation, testing, and treatment at EHCD. It became evident immediately to Mrs. Chris’s main doctor that she is a “rare and highly complex case” and that her road to recovery will be a long and difficult one. BUT, she finally has HOPE!
(For comparison purposes, an “average” EHCD patient may require an initial stay of 2-4 weeks for testing and treatment plan formulation, then only have to return periodically for follow up.)
What have they discovered/diagnosed?
The doctors at EHCD have been diligently trying to sort through the “chicken/egg” series of health crises that led Mrs. Chris to Dallas. Although it would be helpful to know which one came first, it is not absolutely necessary – they have already begun successfully treating several of her issues/symptoms and have thus far discovered aspects of the following:
1. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome – this is where your body essentially looks at everything as an allergen and reacts accordingly. They believe either the mold exposure itself triggered a devastating cascade of other sensitivities and multiple body system dysfunctions, or she is reacting to the materials in her body used in all the surgeries (4 different metal types, plastic mesh, artificial disc material, and cadaver bone), and the mold exposure simply put things over the top resulting in the same outcome. The bottom line is that she is reactive to just about everything, and the process to test and treat each individual item is time consuming and costly.
2. Implant Syndrome – this is a name given to the latter of the above scenarios where the body objects to a particular implanted material. Symptoms can range from joint pain, fatigue, nausea, headache, immune suppression, sensitivities to foods, inhalants, and chemicals, irritable bowel, vasculitis, respiratory dysfunction, and nerve pain.
3. Gulf War Syndrome-like symptoms – multi-organ dysfunction affecting both immune and nervous systems resulting in severe neuro-cognitive dysfunction with symptoms such as memory issues, inability to organize thoughts, severe fatigue, and overall loss of ability to function.
4. Damage to limbic system in the brain – this type of damage causes the body to be in a constant state of “fight or flight,” and symptoms such as fatigue, depression/anxiety, and memory deficit.
5. Signs of Lyme, Babeseosis (another tick related disease), and Epstein Barr.
How is she doing so far in Dallas?
In her words, the positives so far are as follows: “Gaining strength, able to eat pureed foods with fewer rescue shots needed to tolerate, less anaphylactic symptoms, less hyperventilating and waking gasping for air, less pain, finally able to sleep at night, fewer rashes/hives, less frequent and less severe migraines, less vomiting (only once), less inflammation, improved vision, sinuses not swollen shut, and not living on Benadryl, Afrin, and albuterol to breathe.”
Currently, she can only eat one food at a time and it must be pureed like baby food so that her body won’t recognize it and react as strongly. She is also on a daily detox protocol (since her liver can’t help much if at all) including such things as oxygen therapy, infrared sauna, and nutritional/Vitamin C IV’s. If outdoors, she must wear a mask. Mold is successfully being detoxed from her lungs/body in large quantities, and as she improves, they will move onto testing other agents including metals/synthetic materials and the tick-borne organisms. They are also evaluating the level of limbic system damage and treating using neural retraining methods.
So, although it’s a painfully slow and costly process, IT IS WORKING!
What’s next – short term and long term?
Mrs. Chris: The short-term treatment plan involves remaining in Dallas and continuing to heal her gut and brain, rebuild strength, clear the mold and other toxins from her lungs/body, and beef up her immune system so that she can continue the testing necessary to determine the best long-term treatment for her multitude of symptoms and sensitivities. The long-term plan involves her returning home (praying she will be able to once the house is mold free) and will likely include both rescue and antigen-specific injections shipped from the clinic, as well as periodic visits to Dallas for follow-up and treatment protocol changes if needed.
Mr. Chris: He is trying to juggle working full time as the sole income earner, keeping track of everything going on with Mrs. Chris in Dallas (or being there with her and working remotely when possible), and continuing to work on the renovations necessary to rid their house of black mold (in his “spare" time). This grueling schedule is simply not sustainable for the long term nor good for HIS health and well-being.
The House: Mrs. Chris cannot live in their house until it has completely been rid of all mold. Given the cost of the necessary work (what has already been done and has yet to be done), plus the home equity loans already secured to help pay for her care, they are currently upside down on their mortgage. Therefore, this is another critical area of need for financial assistance and in NO way a “cosmetic renovation.” She needs to return home eventually, and that home needs to be safe.
The ULTIMATE long-term goal is to GIVE BOTH OF THEM THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE BACK! It’s going to take a village, but I have faith it can and will be done!
A few pics from MUCH better days gone by...
How can you help?
Asking for help (especially financial) is both difficult and humbling. Those of us who have helped so far in a variety of ways both financial and otherwise (including Karen and Brian, Debbie and Greg, my husband Bill and I, Andrea, and McKenna) simply can no longer do it alone. THIS is where YOU come in!
THE GREATEST IMMEDIATE NEED IS FINANCIAL!
In case you missed it earlier, NONE of this is covered by insurance.
The clinic is “pay as you go,” and although the environmentally controlled housing is billed monthly, it’s still $3,000 a month. Skin testing runs $25/allergen, rescue injections run $300-$400/week (expected to decrease as she improves), nutritional IV’s are $130-$300/week, not to mention incidentals like an oxygen concentrator ($1,200), doctors’ appointments, flights to/from Dallas for Mr. Chris, as well as the materials necessary to renovate and rid their house of mold. These are just a sampling of necessary costs that are expected to continue for the foreseeable future…you can easily see that it all adds up very quickly.
Mr. and Mrs. Chris have exhausted their resources and those from us mentioned above over the past few months (running well into the tens of thousands of dollars), so additional financial assistance is URGENTLY needed going forward! I would love nothing more than to relieve them both of the stress that this huge financial burden carries with it – by the grace of God, and with your generosity, I know we can make it happen.
PLEASE consider helping this wonderful couple with any amount that’s on your heart – it all adds up, and as the saying goes, “Many hands make light work.” Their faith is strong, and I know they will be forever grateful for your kindness in their time of need. God bless each of you for your willingness to help!
What happened?
Mrs. Chris has a history of a congenitally narrow spinal canal, and once she became symptomatic, doctors determined that part of her spinal cord was being pinched in half. Rather than risk partial or complete paralysis, surgery became the only viable option and resulted in not one, not two, but THREE complex spinal surgeries – the most recent two in June and October of 2018. These are NOT easy surgeries to recover from in an ideal situation, but in her case, she also has a genetic mutation that prevents her liver from detoxifying and clearing things like medications properly from her system, which complicated and slowed her recovery dramatically.
It gets worse…
In May of 2019, she was driven from her house by a sudden onset of asthma-like symptoms: gasping for air, choking, difficulty breathing. Upon further inspection by Mr. Chris (following our exceptionally brutal Minnesota winter and rapid spring thaw), black mold and mildew were discovered in several areas of the house. Karen and Brian, friends from church, stepped in and offered their home for lodging – which extended until August – while Mr. Chris attempted to remedy the mold/mildew issues. (A nearly impossible task as he was already working full time and caregiving in his “spare” time…)
Although Mrs. Chris continued to follow her post-surgical recovery instructions and physical therapy regimen, she was simply NOT improving but, in fact, was worsening. She was forced to discontinue treatment altogether as the therapist felt “something far more systemic was going on”, causing her body to stop responding to PT.
Brian’s story…
After appointments with just about every conventional medical specialist available covering her vast array of distressing symptoms (including migraines, joint pain, nausea/vomiting, vision disturbances, shortness of breath, and many others on a daily and often relentless basis), each doctor agreed that she was experiencing dysfunction in virtually every system in her body, yet none could offer any firm diagnosis, solution, or guidance on how to proceed. Being essentially bedridden with little hope of improving and remaining homebound except for doctor’s appointments is NO way to live! Enter Brian (in whose home she was staying) who experienced a similar medical crisis 20+ years earlier in which he was diagnosed with a heavy metal toxicity and had become sensitive to all but about four foods. He suggested investigating The Environmental Health Center – Dallas (EHCD) which, in his words, “saved his life.” It is an extremely specialized and highly regarded clinic that deals with complex cases like Mrs. Chris’s every day, and the clinic itself (as well as the housing where patients reside while being treated there) is environmentally controlled in virtually every way possible. The clinic can be found at https://www.ehcd.com. The down side is that none of it is covered by insurance.
A “Texas-sized” leap of faith…
After much prayer and discernment, Mr. and Mrs. Chris ventured to Dallas in early August for an initial consultation, testing, and treatment at EHCD. It became evident immediately to Mrs. Chris’s main doctor that she is a “rare and highly complex case” and that her road to recovery will be a long and difficult one. BUT, she finally has HOPE!
(For comparison purposes, an “average” EHCD patient may require an initial stay of 2-4 weeks for testing and treatment plan formulation, then only have to return periodically for follow up.)
What have they discovered/diagnosed?
The doctors at EHCD have been diligently trying to sort through the “chicken/egg” series of health crises that led Mrs. Chris to Dallas. Although it would be helpful to know which one came first, it is not absolutely necessary – they have already begun successfully treating several of her issues/symptoms and have thus far discovered aspects of the following:
1. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome – this is where your body essentially looks at everything as an allergen and reacts accordingly. They believe either the mold exposure itself triggered a devastating cascade of other sensitivities and multiple body system dysfunctions, or she is reacting to the materials in her body used in all the surgeries (4 different metal types, plastic mesh, artificial disc material, and cadaver bone), and the mold exposure simply put things over the top resulting in the same outcome. The bottom line is that she is reactive to just about everything, and the process to test and treat each individual item is time consuming and costly.
2. Implant Syndrome – this is a name given to the latter of the above scenarios where the body objects to a particular implanted material. Symptoms can range from joint pain, fatigue, nausea, headache, immune suppression, sensitivities to foods, inhalants, and chemicals, irritable bowel, vasculitis, respiratory dysfunction, and nerve pain.
3. Gulf War Syndrome-like symptoms – multi-organ dysfunction affecting both immune and nervous systems resulting in severe neuro-cognitive dysfunction with symptoms such as memory issues, inability to organize thoughts, severe fatigue, and overall loss of ability to function.
4. Damage to limbic system in the brain – this type of damage causes the body to be in a constant state of “fight or flight,” and symptoms such as fatigue, depression/anxiety, and memory deficit.
5. Signs of Lyme, Babeseosis (another tick related disease), and Epstein Barr.
How is she doing so far in Dallas?
In her words, the positives so far are as follows: “Gaining strength, able to eat pureed foods with fewer rescue shots needed to tolerate, less anaphylactic symptoms, less hyperventilating and waking gasping for air, less pain, finally able to sleep at night, fewer rashes/hives, less frequent and less severe migraines, less vomiting (only once), less inflammation, improved vision, sinuses not swollen shut, and not living on Benadryl, Afrin, and albuterol to breathe.”
Currently, she can only eat one food at a time and it must be pureed like baby food so that her body won’t recognize it and react as strongly. She is also on a daily detox protocol (since her liver can’t help much if at all) including such things as oxygen therapy, infrared sauna, and nutritional/Vitamin C IV’s. If outdoors, she must wear a mask. Mold is successfully being detoxed from her lungs/body in large quantities, and as she improves, they will move onto testing other agents including metals/synthetic materials and the tick-borne organisms. They are also evaluating the level of limbic system damage and treating using neural retraining methods.
So, although it’s a painfully slow and costly process, IT IS WORKING!
What’s next – short term and long term?
Mrs. Chris: The short-term treatment plan involves remaining in Dallas and continuing to heal her gut and brain, rebuild strength, clear the mold and other toxins from her lungs/body, and beef up her immune system so that she can continue the testing necessary to determine the best long-term treatment for her multitude of symptoms and sensitivities. The long-term plan involves her returning home (praying she will be able to once the house is mold free) and will likely include both rescue and antigen-specific injections shipped from the clinic, as well as periodic visits to Dallas for follow-up and treatment protocol changes if needed.
Mr. Chris: He is trying to juggle working full time as the sole income earner, keeping track of everything going on with Mrs. Chris in Dallas (or being there with her and working remotely when possible), and continuing to work on the renovations necessary to rid their house of black mold (in his “spare" time). This grueling schedule is simply not sustainable for the long term nor good for HIS health and well-being.
The House: Mrs. Chris cannot live in their house until it has completely been rid of all mold. Given the cost of the necessary work (what has already been done and has yet to be done), plus the home equity loans already secured to help pay for her care, they are currently upside down on their mortgage. Therefore, this is another critical area of need for financial assistance and in NO way a “cosmetic renovation.” She needs to return home eventually, and that home needs to be safe.
The ULTIMATE long-term goal is to GIVE BOTH OF THEM THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE BACK! It’s going to take a village, but I have faith it can and will be done!
A few pics from MUCH better days gone by...
How can you help?
Asking for help (especially financial) is both difficult and humbling. Those of us who have helped so far in a variety of ways both financial and otherwise (including Karen and Brian, Debbie and Greg, my husband Bill and I, Andrea, and McKenna) simply can no longer do it alone. THIS is where YOU come in!
THE GREATEST IMMEDIATE NEED IS FINANCIAL!
In case you missed it earlier, NONE of this is covered by insurance.
The clinic is “pay as you go,” and although the environmentally controlled housing is billed monthly, it’s still $3,000 a month. Skin testing runs $25/allergen, rescue injections run $300-$400/week (expected to decrease as she improves), nutritional IV’s are $130-$300/week, not to mention incidentals like an oxygen concentrator ($1,200), doctors’ appointments, flights to/from Dallas for Mr. Chris, as well as the materials necessary to renovate and rid their house of mold. These are just a sampling of necessary costs that are expected to continue for the foreseeable future…you can easily see that it all adds up very quickly.
Mr. and Mrs. Chris have exhausted their resources and those from us mentioned above over the past few months (running well into the tens of thousands of dollars), so additional financial assistance is URGENTLY needed going forward! I would love nothing more than to relieve them both of the stress that this huge financial burden carries with it – by the grace of God, and with your generosity, I know we can make it happen.
PLEASE consider helping this wonderful couple with any amount that’s on your heart – it all adds up, and as the saying goes, “Many hands make light work.” Their faith is strong, and I know they will be forever grateful for your kindness in their time of need. God bless each of you for your willingness to help!
Organiser and beneficiary
Carolyn McGrew Leckey
Organiser
Woodbury, MN
Christine Dyson Dahn
Beneficiary