Terry Foster's fight to survive
Donation protected
The first thing that I want to say is that Terry Foster is not only my mother, she's also my very close friend who means the world to me. It's been difficult to see her so ill for the past 8 years with a slow decline in health. Her healthy weight is 130lbs - she is now 85 lbs at 5'5". She's been on a difficult journey trying to find the reason why she is unable to eat without pain. Our family has been by her side and watched in amazement as she has struggled through years without answers from doctors, yet still every day, no matter how she felt, she continued to fight for her health by doing her own research. She's gained so much knowledge about diet and health that she often invents new recipes and ways to incorporate as many nutrients into her diet as possible, but it is also a daily struggle to eat without pain...
Terry was diagnosed with Parkinsonism in 2014 when we took a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but even with this diagnosis there were still no answers as to why eating was causing pain. Pain after eating was the very first symptom she had when her health began to decline. She has been on medicine to treat Parkinson's since 2014 but now not only does eating cause extreme pain, the medicine also does.
Now, in 2019, after seeing countless doctors and having extensive testing over the years, we have found hope of Terry possibly healing!
Terry started seeing Dr. Kristin Ashley a little over a month ago. Dr. Ashley is a Functional Neurologist who gets to the root cause of illness in the body by looking at vitamin levels in the blood and pin pointing cause and effect for symptoms. After some testing over the past month, Dr. Ashley has found multiple vitamin levels which Terry is currently deficient in and she believes that this may be the reason for some of the Parkinson's symptoms. That makes sense since the Parkinson's symptoms came years after she had been in starvation mode. So it is imperative that we get those levels back up! She has also been diagnosed with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) which we don't know how long has been going on. Left untreated, this causes malnutrition and pain from the inability to eat.
Dr. Ashley's plan for Terry will be to put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks in order to treat the SIBO, but her body is in a very weak state at this time. She has become so malnourished that there are times when it causes her pain to even talk. She will need to build strength back up with weekly vitamin IV infusions for 3 months. Terry's insurance does not cover this and they are very expensive. The full IV infusion treatment is $3000. In addition to that, there are also expenses of $600 for the antibiotics and post antibiotic treatments which will include supplements and probiotics in order to build her digestive system back up. Our family is pulling together trying our best to come up with the money, but we are struggling to come up with the full amount right now.
We are asking for any help out there which will be greatly appreciated!
We love Terry very much and want to see her get well so she can enjoy life to the fullest. Though this illness has been physically difficult for her, I've seen my mom evolve as a human being during the past near decade. Her outlook on life has transformed and that is beautiful! I feel that this is the most at peace she has ever been despite being chronically ill. She often says to me that the reason we are here on earth is simple- to give love and compassion to all people and things in life.
Terry's facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/terry.foster.560
Terry with her husband, Byron. (May 2019)
Terry with her daughter, Rita. (January 2019)
Terry with her son Jared, and husband Byron. (August 2018)
Terry with daughter, Rita. (December 2018)
Terry was diagnosed with Parkinsonism in 2014 when we took a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but even with this diagnosis there were still no answers as to why eating was causing pain. Pain after eating was the very first symptom she had when her health began to decline. She has been on medicine to treat Parkinson's since 2014 but now not only does eating cause extreme pain, the medicine also does.
Now, in 2019, after seeing countless doctors and having extensive testing over the years, we have found hope of Terry possibly healing!
Terry started seeing Dr. Kristin Ashley a little over a month ago. Dr. Ashley is a Functional Neurologist who gets to the root cause of illness in the body by looking at vitamin levels in the blood and pin pointing cause and effect for symptoms. After some testing over the past month, Dr. Ashley has found multiple vitamin levels which Terry is currently deficient in and she believes that this may be the reason for some of the Parkinson's symptoms. That makes sense since the Parkinson's symptoms came years after she had been in starvation mode. So it is imperative that we get those levels back up! She has also been diagnosed with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) which we don't know how long has been going on. Left untreated, this causes malnutrition and pain from the inability to eat.
Dr. Ashley's plan for Terry will be to put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks in order to treat the SIBO, but her body is in a very weak state at this time. She has become so malnourished that there are times when it causes her pain to even talk. She will need to build strength back up with weekly vitamin IV infusions for 3 months. Terry's insurance does not cover this and they are very expensive. The full IV infusion treatment is $3000. In addition to that, there are also expenses of $600 for the antibiotics and post antibiotic treatments which will include supplements and probiotics in order to build her digestive system back up. Our family is pulling together trying our best to come up with the money, but we are struggling to come up with the full amount right now.
We are asking for any help out there which will be greatly appreciated!
We love Terry very much and want to see her get well so she can enjoy life to the fullest. Though this illness has been physically difficult for her, I've seen my mom evolve as a human being during the past near decade. Her outlook on life has transformed and that is beautiful! I feel that this is the most at peace she has ever been despite being chronically ill. She often says to me that the reason we are here on earth is simple- to give love and compassion to all people and things in life.
Terry's facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/terry.foster.560
Terry with her husband, Byron. (May 2019)Terry with her daughter, Rita. (January 2019)Terry with her son Jared, and husband Byron. (August 2018)Terry with daughter, Rita. (December 2018)Organizer and beneficiary
Rita Foster
Organizer
Grass Valley, CA
Terry Foster
Beneficiary