Treatment Fund for Nicole Creaturo
Donation protected
My name is Nicole Creaturo. I am raising money to save myself from a chronic infection that has taken over my life. I am 29 years old and I have been fighting a chronic lyme disease infection for the last 10 years.
It all began my sophomore year of college when I began getting too dizzy and too tired to attend class or get out of bed. After many months of testing, doctors discovered that sometime the year before I had been infected with Lyme disease. Since the illness went so long without being treated, the disease had bored into my body, making it nearly impossible to remove. That summer, I was infected a second time watching a softball game with my family. The diagnosis to treat went from a few months to a few years. So I began traveling the country exploring different treatments and started 3 years on continuous antibiotics to try and kick the Lyme.
In 2013 things went from bad to worse. When harsh antibiotic treatments started breaking my body down, doctors decided to remove my gallbladder. An accident during routine gallbladder surgery left me with significant nerve damage. Since that time (for 5 years) I have been unable to eat vegetables, fruits, nuts or almost any proteins. I have been surviving on a diet of rice and broths and crackers. Everyday is a battle to get in enough calories to survive. Due to my nerve damage, I can only ever eat meals that are the size of the palm of my hand and have to try to feed myself every two hours, which is painful and usually results in vomiting. I never sleep because another side effect of the surgery is that I cannot lay down without engaging my vomit trigger. So most days I can only get about 4 hours of sleep, broken up an hour or two at a time. The constant malnourishment and vomiting caused by the surgery have now made it impossible for me to fight off my Lyme disease. With no immune system, I am unable to fight or even reduce the side-effects of the illness with traditional methods.
I have done everything I can think of to try and improve my situation, including attempting to work full-time through this illness to raise enough money for my medical bills on my own. I can no longer pretend that this is something I can beat by myself. After years of research and facility visits, there is a clinic in Arizona that believes they can help. Their state-of-the-art facility has been treating only the most extreme Lyme cases for the last 18 years, and their in-patient program allows most of their patients to regain much of their quality of life in 12-14 weeks. The cost of this treatment is not covered by insurance (nor is treatment at any Lyme disease facility). The total for 12 weeks of continuous care and moving temporarily to Arizona will be about $95,000.
I am asking you to please donate so that I can raise enough money to receive this treatment and regain my quality of life. This illness has stolen my entire 20's. While friends are pursuing careers, buying homes and building families, I have been aggressively trying to make it through another year. Thank you in advance for your help and support, which I truly appreciate from the bottom of my heart. I promise to take this second chance and do something wonderful with it.
My Deepest Thanks,
Nicole
It all began my sophomore year of college when I began getting too dizzy and too tired to attend class or get out of bed. After many months of testing, doctors discovered that sometime the year before I had been infected with Lyme disease. Since the illness went so long without being treated, the disease had bored into my body, making it nearly impossible to remove. That summer, I was infected a second time watching a softball game with my family. The diagnosis to treat went from a few months to a few years. So I began traveling the country exploring different treatments and started 3 years on continuous antibiotics to try and kick the Lyme.
In 2013 things went from bad to worse. When harsh antibiotic treatments started breaking my body down, doctors decided to remove my gallbladder. An accident during routine gallbladder surgery left me with significant nerve damage. Since that time (for 5 years) I have been unable to eat vegetables, fruits, nuts or almost any proteins. I have been surviving on a diet of rice and broths and crackers. Everyday is a battle to get in enough calories to survive. Due to my nerve damage, I can only ever eat meals that are the size of the palm of my hand and have to try to feed myself every two hours, which is painful and usually results in vomiting. I never sleep because another side effect of the surgery is that I cannot lay down without engaging my vomit trigger. So most days I can only get about 4 hours of sleep, broken up an hour or two at a time. The constant malnourishment and vomiting caused by the surgery have now made it impossible for me to fight off my Lyme disease. With no immune system, I am unable to fight or even reduce the side-effects of the illness with traditional methods.
I have done everything I can think of to try and improve my situation, including attempting to work full-time through this illness to raise enough money for my medical bills on my own. I can no longer pretend that this is something I can beat by myself. After years of research and facility visits, there is a clinic in Arizona that believes they can help. Their state-of-the-art facility has been treating only the most extreme Lyme cases for the last 18 years, and their in-patient program allows most of their patients to regain much of their quality of life in 12-14 weeks. The cost of this treatment is not covered by insurance (nor is treatment at any Lyme disease facility). The total for 12 weeks of continuous care and moving temporarily to Arizona will be about $95,000.
I am asking you to please donate so that I can raise enough money to receive this treatment and regain my quality of life. This illness has stolen my entire 20's. While friends are pursuing careers, buying homes and building families, I have been aggressively trying to make it through another year. Thank you in advance for your help and support, which I truly appreciate from the bottom of my heart. I promise to take this second chance and do something wonderful with it.
My Deepest Thanks,
Nicole
Organizer
Nicole Creaturo
Organizer
Albuquerque, NM
