Support Audrey's Fight Against Lyme Disease

Hi everyone, my name is Cynthia and I created this page on behalf of my daughter, Audrey Brown. For those who don’t know, Audrey has been battling Lyme disease and two tick-borne co-infections for the last 9 years. Like many others living with an invisible illness, it has been an uphill battle to receive a diagnosis, taking multiple doctors and over six years to get an answer. During this time the bacterial and parasitic infections have been spreading and damaging every part of her body and have greatly altered her day-to-day life. She used to be an avid long-distance runner, weight-lifter, hiker, and xc-skier, but it has been years since she has been able to physically do these activities as she has been suffering from severe exhaustion, painful systemic flare-ups, and a compromised immune system. Despite these challenges she has never stopped advocating for herself and has recently started the complex treatment process with a new doctor specializing in Lyme and tick-borne illnesses. The majority of the treatment options are not covered by insurance however, and the costs are adding up quickly. I am writing this in the hopes of spreading awareness of this disease through Audrey’s story below, and would greatly appreciate any financial support you can provide towards my daughter’s journey to regain her health and quality of life.

Living with Lyme

In May 2016, Audrey found a tick attached to her leg after a day of hiking in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. She was on a road trip with friends at the time and a few days later while in Charleston, SC she landed in an urgent care due to the sudden onset of flu-like symptoms. Unfortunately, the doctor did not take Audrey’s concern for Lyme seriously, refusing to give her antibiotics since she did not have a bulls-eye rash. Once home, she requested a Lyme test from her PCP which came back negative. At the time we trusted the test result, not knowing that only about 30% of Lyme patients end up having a bulls-eye rash, and the false negative rate for the widely used Lyme tests is as high as 50%!

Over the next 3 years while in her physical therapy doctoral program her health began to deteriorate, forcing Audrey to juggle exams and clinicals with multiple visits to neurologists, rheumatologists, cardiologists, urgent cares and ERs. She developed migrating nerve, joint, and muscle pain, migraines, panic attacks, GI distress, hot flashes, fatigue, recurring sore throats and low-grade fevers, pleurisy, costochondritis, and spontaneous tachycardia at rest. She underwent brain MRIs, chest x-rays, Holter monitors, and endless bloodwork. All of the doctors were informed of her earlier tick bite, but none would consider Lyme disease as the cause of her multiple systemic symptoms due to her one negative test in 2016. As a parent, it was heart-breaking that each and every doctor was not taking my daughter’s health concern seriously and instead misdiagnosed her with anxiety, depression, and fibromyalgia. She was a young woman in grad school and they pinned it all on stress, a frustratingly common problem for young females.

Since December 2020, her health has rapidly declined after contracting COVID for the first of what has now been four times. She has missed weeks of work at a time as her compromised immune system is unable to fight off any new infection effectively. Every day she experiences crushing fatigue, waking up exhausted and feeling like a train hit her and has wiped her body of energy. She has to push through each workday to care for her patients in the hospital, causing her to crash when she gets home and experience flare-ups on the weekends. Any social activities with friends have to be carefully spread out because her energy is so limited, and she is forced to spend most of the weekends sleeping in order to get through the next week.

Many people are unaware of her daily struggle with fatigue, brain fog, pain, GI distress, and dysautonomia because she looks fine on the outside and has always been a person who puts others first and doesn't complain. When she was finally diagnosed by a functional medicine provider in late 2022 through specialized lab testing, it was extremely validating and a relief to finally have an answer. Unfortunately, getting a diagnosis was only half the battle as few healthcare professionals know how to effectively treat Lyme and co-infections that have gone beyond the acute stage. Since 2022 her case has only become more complicated by Long Covid, a re-activation of the Epstein-Barr virus, and a recent mycoplasma infection.

Treatment – Providing Hope for the Future

Audrey has recently started receiving medical treatment with her new Lyme-literate MD, which requires us to travel over an hour each way twice a week to the clinic as the fatigue prohibits her from safely driving herself at this time. She has had a PICC line placed in her arm which allows her to receive daily IV antibiotics at home and the multiple IV infusions at the clinic. The IV treatments aim to boost her immune system, reduce inflammation, and assist her body with detoxing as the bacteria release toxins when they are killed by the antibiotics. She is also on a strict food plan eliminating gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and yeast products in an effort to support her GI health that has been destroyed by the Lyme, co-infections, and multiple COVID infections. She is only able to work part time, and the treatment regimen is long and difficult, with the majority of the expenses being out-of-pocket and not covered by insurance (a problem all chronic Lyme patients are facing at this time). Due to the loss in wages and significant costs involved I am reaching out to family and friends to please support us during this challenging journey.

How your donation can make a difference:

● Contribute towards the cost of PICC line placement procedure ($550)

● Contribute towards the weekly cost of home IV antibiotics ($750/week for at least 12 weeks)

● Contribute towards the clinic IV infusions for immune system and detox support ($250/bag)

● Contribute towards the weekly gas money requirement (~300 miles/week of travel)

My daughter and I are grateful for any donations, big or small, and thank you for spreading the awareness of this complex disease that has burdened so many people. We are very hopeful that through the generosity of friends and family and the treatment process that this next year will help return Audrey to good health!