Help Nathan get better ❤️
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Nathan Luna. Many of my friends, family members, and community members know me as an adventurous traveler, a prolific road tripper, a loud activist, a photographer who would never want to be without his camera, and someone who deeply loves and cares for my people.
This year I have embarked on an incredibly difficult journey, and I haven't really fully explained what's been going on to many of the people in my life, but I've reached a point where I desperately need help.
This year, through loads and loads of blood testing, it became apparent that, among other things, I have been suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis. This is an autoimmune disease that is attacking my spine, sternum, heart, eyes, and joints. I've been experiencing mild, intermittent symptoms of this for about two years, but because they never all flared up at the same time until this summer, I never realized what was happening.
Speaking of this summer... that's when I finally realized something was very wrong. In July, I had my second suspected Covid infection. I recovered more easily this time than the first and thought all was well, but a few weeks later I realized I had never really fully recovered from the fatigue I was feeling and suddenly more and more symptoms of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a post-viral neurological disease, started appearing.
My first clue that something strange was going on was that my muscles in my hands were cramping and locking up when I tried to chop veggies or stir the food I was cooking. This slowly worsened and began spreading up my arms and throughout the rest of my body. I can no longer use knives very well or write more than a short sentence with a pen or pencil. Sometimes I'm unable to hold up even the weight of my cell phone or lift my food to my mouth enough times to complete an entire meal. Sometimes eating feels like I've been lifting weights for hours. I can no longer stand for the length of time it takes to fully shower and sometimes just brushing my teeth makes me so tired and sore I have to take muscle relaxers and sleep after just that one task. I can no longer walk for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, which has largely restricted me to using a wheelchair to complete any tasks outside my home, which in turn has left me stranded at home for long periods of time until my partner was able to be home from work and push me in my manual wheelchair. We did recently manage to find a power wheelchair that will fit in our vehicle and meets my needs and it has been life changing, though it was incredibly expensive.
The combination of these illnesses has left me with a debilitating constellation of symptoms. I can no longer sit in front of my computer for long enough to do the digital marketing and web design job I was previously doing. I can no longer carry the weight of my camera for even 5 minutes, let alone a full photoshoot. Sometimes I can't even hold my phone up long enough to shoot a 30 second video. The brain fog and memory issues from the inflammation in my brain has made it impossible to focus on detail-oriented activities. Often I'm unable to even recall what the tv show I've just finished was about. I can no longer read books, when before becoming ill, I would complete 30-50 novels a year. My brain just won't process the necessary amount of information for me to be able to do many of the tasks I used to be able to do. I have headaches almost daily, shooting nerve pains throughout my body and face, joint pain, vertigo, heart palpitations, and often my sternum is so inflamed from the autoimmune disorder that I can't even take a full breath, because expanding my chest would cause severe pain. Often when I stand, my heart issues from this illness cause me to become short of breath to the point that I can barely talk and have to sit back down again.
On my best days, I can make it through the day with only a small nap and I can manage to make myself breakfast and dinner and sit and eat at the table with my partner and maybe get out of the house in my wheelchair a bit. On my worst days, my body is screaming in pain from every joint, muscle, and nerve and I am exhausted and have to lie down in a dark room with earplugs and sleep, sometimes for days at a time.
Obviously this has made a pretty large impact on the income that my partner and I had barely been able to rely on to pay the bills when I was healthy. Our expenses are piling higher and higher, credit cards are maxed out, and even though we have been searching for a new space to live in since August of this year, nothing in our price range has really appeared. In the rare occasion something does appear, we waste money on application fees just to find out we weren't the first to apply. I feel like I am drowning.
I hate asking for help, but I don't see how we can continue to have any semblance of a reasonable quality of life unless I reach out and ask for assistance while my team of doctors try to put me back together in a way that hopefully leads to significant recovery.
Unfortunately, continuing to work on the few occasions where I can squeeze out the energy and deal with the pain is only worsening the inflammation and making me sicker. I would give anything to be able to know for sure that I will someday be able to adventure the way I love to. That I will be able to go hiking and camping and visit national parks and other countries and fulfill my love of travel, but to be able to do any of this, I have to get better and to get better I have to rest.
My medical team is lovely and has been hand picked by my friends that work in the medical field. I know I will be well taken care of if I can manage to hold the rest of my life together for long enough to either get better, or start receiving disability payments.
My most important specialist may not be available to see me for ten months. I'm asking for help surviving until then. Any money raised here would be used to ensure that my partner and I are able to afford groceries, pay our bills, purchase my medications, and pay for any medical or mobility devices that allow me to have a decent quality of life.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for just reading all of this and empathizing with me and seeing me. If you're able to donate any amount of money, large or small, it will truly be life changing. If you can share this far and wide so that others may also be able to help, I would appreciate that more than you could possibly know.
This year I have embarked on an incredibly difficult journey, and I haven't really fully explained what's been going on to many of the people in my life, but I've reached a point where I desperately need help.
This year, through loads and loads of blood testing, it became apparent that, among other things, I have been suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis. This is an autoimmune disease that is attacking my spine, sternum, heart, eyes, and joints. I've been experiencing mild, intermittent symptoms of this for about two years, but because they never all flared up at the same time until this summer, I never realized what was happening.
Speaking of this summer... that's when I finally realized something was very wrong. In July, I had my second suspected Covid infection. I recovered more easily this time than the first and thought all was well, but a few weeks later I realized I had never really fully recovered from the fatigue I was feeling and suddenly more and more symptoms of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a post-viral neurological disease, started appearing.
My first clue that something strange was going on was that my muscles in my hands were cramping and locking up when I tried to chop veggies or stir the food I was cooking. This slowly worsened and began spreading up my arms and throughout the rest of my body. I can no longer use knives very well or write more than a short sentence with a pen or pencil. Sometimes I'm unable to hold up even the weight of my cell phone or lift my food to my mouth enough times to complete an entire meal. Sometimes eating feels like I've been lifting weights for hours. I can no longer stand for the length of time it takes to fully shower and sometimes just brushing my teeth makes me so tired and sore I have to take muscle relaxers and sleep after just that one task. I can no longer walk for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, which has largely restricted me to using a wheelchair to complete any tasks outside my home, which in turn has left me stranded at home for long periods of time until my partner was able to be home from work and push me in my manual wheelchair. We did recently manage to find a power wheelchair that will fit in our vehicle and meets my needs and it has been life changing, though it was incredibly expensive.
The combination of these illnesses has left me with a debilitating constellation of symptoms. I can no longer sit in front of my computer for long enough to do the digital marketing and web design job I was previously doing. I can no longer carry the weight of my camera for even 5 minutes, let alone a full photoshoot. Sometimes I can't even hold my phone up long enough to shoot a 30 second video. The brain fog and memory issues from the inflammation in my brain has made it impossible to focus on detail-oriented activities. Often I'm unable to even recall what the tv show I've just finished was about. I can no longer read books, when before becoming ill, I would complete 30-50 novels a year. My brain just won't process the necessary amount of information for me to be able to do many of the tasks I used to be able to do. I have headaches almost daily, shooting nerve pains throughout my body and face, joint pain, vertigo, heart palpitations, and often my sternum is so inflamed from the autoimmune disorder that I can't even take a full breath, because expanding my chest would cause severe pain. Often when I stand, my heart issues from this illness cause me to become short of breath to the point that I can barely talk and have to sit back down again.
On my best days, I can make it through the day with only a small nap and I can manage to make myself breakfast and dinner and sit and eat at the table with my partner and maybe get out of the house in my wheelchair a bit. On my worst days, my body is screaming in pain from every joint, muscle, and nerve and I am exhausted and have to lie down in a dark room with earplugs and sleep, sometimes for days at a time.
Obviously this has made a pretty large impact on the income that my partner and I had barely been able to rely on to pay the bills when I was healthy. Our expenses are piling higher and higher, credit cards are maxed out, and even though we have been searching for a new space to live in since August of this year, nothing in our price range has really appeared. In the rare occasion something does appear, we waste money on application fees just to find out we weren't the first to apply. I feel like I am drowning.
I hate asking for help, but I don't see how we can continue to have any semblance of a reasonable quality of life unless I reach out and ask for assistance while my team of doctors try to put me back together in a way that hopefully leads to significant recovery.
Unfortunately, continuing to work on the few occasions where I can squeeze out the energy and deal with the pain is only worsening the inflammation and making me sicker. I would give anything to be able to know for sure that I will someday be able to adventure the way I love to. That I will be able to go hiking and camping and visit national parks and other countries and fulfill my love of travel, but to be able to do any of this, I have to get better and to get better I have to rest.
My medical team is lovely and has been hand picked by my friends that work in the medical field. I know I will be well taken care of if I can manage to hold the rest of my life together for long enough to either get better, or start receiving disability payments.
My most important specialist may not be available to see me for ten months. I'm asking for help surviving until then. Any money raised here would be used to ensure that my partner and I are able to afford groceries, pay our bills, purchase my medications, and pay for any medical or mobility devices that allow me to have a decent quality of life.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for just reading all of this and empathizing with me and seeing me. If you're able to donate any amount of money, large or small, it will truly be life changing. If you can share this far and wide so that others may also be able to help, I would appreciate that more than you could possibly know.
Organizer
Nathan Luna
Organizer
Anchorage, AK