Help Chantal Get Well
Donation protected
Meet my beautiful daughter, Chantal. She's smart, talented, funny and fearless. She also has the biggest most beautiful heart. I know every mom says that but in my case it's true.
When Chantal was 12 years old, we were still living in South Africa and were at a restaurant with her best friend and her best friend's mom, waiting forever for our dinner to come. Chantal was very distracted and kept looking out the window at the corner shop across the street. "Mommy, can I please have $10? I'll be right back!" A very talented dancer (she danced for the Boston Celtics) with the appetite of a linebacker, who had just finished an all-day dance workshop, I assumed she wanted to get a snack before dinner. Recently divorced and just getting back on our feet, dinner was a luxury I budgeted for. As many single-parents could tell you, it's heartbreaking that our kids know when money is tight, and Chantal rarely asked for anything, so I said of course but to hurry back. Five minutes later I saw her come out the shop with a bag of oranges and a few loaves of bread and hand them out to a group of street children and elderly amputee hanging around outside, who she had been watching (unsuccessfully) try to steal something to eat. When she got back to the table, I reminded her that we didn't have a lot of money for her to be giving it away and she said, "But we have more than them, mommy. Watching them stealing fruit was making me too sad to eat."
Everyone who knows her has a story just like this one. She has always been incredibly kind, terrible at relaxing, and extremely stubborn, which is why I've started this fund.
On December 8, Chantal was rushed to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She had chest pain, numbness down her arm and began to have petit-mal seizures and involuntary muscle spasms. An MRI showed what looked like vasculitis or a blood clot on her brain. They admitted her for three days and treated her for a TIA (mini-stroke). Her medical team didn't have a clear diagnosis or possible cause and have referred her to multiple specialists. She has since been diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Ataxic Dysfunction, Functional Dystonia and Dysautonomia. She continues to have heart palpitations, fainting spells, issues with balance, and intense muscle spasms that have affected her face and the way she walks.
It hasn't broken her spirit though. She's cracking jokes, staying positive and is still as cheeky as ever!
But she needs to rest. Her boyfriend, Aaron, is wonderful and is taking such good care of her. He's held her hand on every ambulance ride, at every doctor's appointment, and through every seizure, he helps her walk and even carries her when she gets too tired. (He needs to rest too.) Unable to run her marketing and product management business, Authentic AF , their two-income household is under severe strain. The bills are piling up.
When people need it, Chantal isn't the kind of person to say, "Let me know if you need any help." She just jumps in and starts helping, which is what we're doing for her now. We need her to stop worrying about her bills and focus on getting better. We need her to get better.
Please take a moment to give her and Aaron love, whether it's a $5 or $5000 every dollar amount helps. Chantal promises not to spend your donations on drugs and booze. Well, maybe drugs, but only the really expensive ones (like prescriptions )
**Chantal made a video below to show her progress "going on a solo adventure" and though it left her feeling shaky and awful after, she wanted to remind us all, not to let fear or few setbacks hold us back from our own adventures. I just love her so much**
***4 MONTH UPDATE: Doctors continue to dismiss Chantal's symptoms as "anxiety" (despite having her on multiple anti-anxiety meds and sedatives.) Thanks to advocating for herself and pushing for further tests to rule out pathological causes and a wonderful referral from friends Melissa and Adam St. Jean they finally discovered she has POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) which affects the heart, a severe movement disorder, AND Dysautonomia or Autonomic Dysfunction. Her ANS (the part of her brain that controls everything in the body we don't think about like the heart, bladder, digestion, breathing etc) isn't functioning properly and THERE IS NO CURE. Through neuroplasticity exercises (similar to those used on stroke victims), medication and diet adjustments she is showing improvement already but her insurance won't cover it, so we're increasing the goal. We're so grateful to all of you! Please continue to share her story and encourage others to give what they can.
*** 5 MONTH UPDATE: Despite testing negative for most inflammatory diseases she presents symptoms for such as: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ehler's Danlos Syndrome, MS and Parkinsons, Chantal's ANA levels (inflammation markers) are still very high. Her neurologist has prescribed a 3-day at-home steroid infusion to hopefully alleviate her symptoms.
*** 6 MONTH UPDATE: After doing A LOT of personal research and consulting with her endocrinologist Chantal pushed for an ultrasound of her ovaries, where they found a teratoma tumor on her left ovary. While teratoma's are rarely cancerous they never go away on their own, continue to grow and can cause neurological symptoms in some women. She underwent a laparoscopy to remove it. The staff at NYU Langone Brooklyn were AMAZING! Here she is directly after surgery:
*** 7.5 MONTH UPDATE: It has been about 7 weeks post-op and Chantal is doing EXTREMELY WELL! Many of her neurological symptoms have improved and she is up to walking almost 2 miles unassisted! Her cognitive and fine motor skills are still a struggle and her POTS is worse but she is working closely with her doctors. Chantal has lost 2 very dear friends recently and the weight of everything that has happened to her this past year seems to be really affecting her, she has become depressed and withdrawn. We are working on it with her and all your continued support and reaching out helps so much!! We can't thank you enough. Thank you for loving our girl as much we know she loves all of you.
With love from our family to yours <3
When Chantal was 12 years old, we were still living in South Africa and were at a restaurant with her best friend and her best friend's mom, waiting forever for our dinner to come. Chantal was very distracted and kept looking out the window at the corner shop across the street. "Mommy, can I please have $10? I'll be right back!" A very talented dancer (she danced for the Boston Celtics) with the appetite of a linebacker, who had just finished an all-day dance workshop, I assumed she wanted to get a snack before dinner. Recently divorced and just getting back on our feet, dinner was a luxury I budgeted for. As many single-parents could tell you, it's heartbreaking that our kids know when money is tight, and Chantal rarely asked for anything, so I said of course but to hurry back. Five minutes later I saw her come out the shop with a bag of oranges and a few loaves of bread and hand them out to a group of street children and elderly amputee hanging around outside, who she had been watching (unsuccessfully) try to steal something to eat. When she got back to the table, I reminded her that we didn't have a lot of money for her to be giving it away and she said, "But we have more than them, mommy. Watching them stealing fruit was making me too sad to eat."
Everyone who knows her has a story just like this one. She has always been incredibly kind, terrible at relaxing, and extremely stubborn, which is why I've started this fund.
On December 8, Chantal was rushed to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She had chest pain, numbness down her arm and began to have petit-mal seizures and involuntary muscle spasms. An MRI showed what looked like vasculitis or a blood clot on her brain. They admitted her for three days and treated her for a TIA (mini-stroke). Her medical team didn't have a clear diagnosis or possible cause and have referred her to multiple specialists. She has since been diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Ataxic Dysfunction, Functional Dystonia and Dysautonomia. She continues to have heart palpitations, fainting spells, issues with balance, and intense muscle spasms that have affected her face and the way she walks.
It hasn't broken her spirit though. She's cracking jokes, staying positive and is still as cheeky as ever!
But she needs to rest. Her boyfriend, Aaron, is wonderful and is taking such good care of her. He's held her hand on every ambulance ride, at every doctor's appointment, and through every seizure, he helps her walk and even carries her when she gets too tired. (He needs to rest too.) Unable to run her marketing and product management business, Authentic AF , their two-income household is under severe strain. The bills are piling up.
When people need it, Chantal isn't the kind of person to say, "Let me know if you need any help." She just jumps in and starts helping, which is what we're doing for her now. We need her to stop worrying about her bills and focus on getting better. We need her to get better.
Please take a moment to give her and Aaron love, whether it's a $5 or $5000 every dollar amount helps. Chantal promises not to spend your donations on drugs and booze. Well, maybe drugs, but only the really expensive ones (like prescriptions )
**Chantal made a video below to show her progress "going on a solo adventure" and though it left her feeling shaky and awful after, she wanted to remind us all, not to let fear or few setbacks hold us back from our own adventures. I just love her so much**
***4 MONTH UPDATE: Doctors continue to dismiss Chantal's symptoms as "anxiety" (despite having her on multiple anti-anxiety meds and sedatives.) Thanks to advocating for herself and pushing for further tests to rule out pathological causes and a wonderful referral from friends Melissa and Adam St. Jean they finally discovered she has POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) which affects the heart, a severe movement disorder, AND Dysautonomia or Autonomic Dysfunction. Her ANS (the part of her brain that controls everything in the body we don't think about like the heart, bladder, digestion, breathing etc) isn't functioning properly and THERE IS NO CURE. Through neuroplasticity exercises (similar to those used on stroke victims), medication and diet adjustments she is showing improvement already but her insurance won't cover it, so we're increasing the goal. We're so grateful to all of you! Please continue to share her story and encourage others to give what they can.
*** 5 MONTH UPDATE: Despite testing negative for most inflammatory diseases she presents symptoms for such as: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ehler's Danlos Syndrome, MS and Parkinsons, Chantal's ANA levels (inflammation markers) are still very high. Her neurologist has prescribed a 3-day at-home steroid infusion to hopefully alleviate her symptoms.
*** 6 MONTH UPDATE: After doing A LOT of personal research and consulting with her endocrinologist Chantal pushed for an ultrasound of her ovaries, where they found a teratoma tumor on her left ovary. While teratoma's are rarely cancerous they never go away on their own, continue to grow and can cause neurological symptoms in some women. She underwent a laparoscopy to remove it. The staff at NYU Langone Brooklyn were AMAZING! Here she is directly after surgery:
*** 7.5 MONTH UPDATE: It has been about 7 weeks post-op and Chantal is doing EXTREMELY WELL! Many of her neurological symptoms have improved and she is up to walking almost 2 miles unassisted! Her cognitive and fine motor skills are still a struggle and her POTS is worse but she is working closely with her doctors. Chantal has lost 2 very dear friends recently and the weight of everything that has happened to her this past year seems to be really affecting her, she has become depressed and withdrawn. We are working on it with her and all your continued support and reaching out helps so much!! We can't thank you enough. Thank you for loving our girl as much we know she loves all of you.
With love from our family to yours <3
Fundraising team (3)
Gloria Salminen Ann
Organizer
New York, NY
Chantal Erasmus
Beneficiary
Chantal Erasmus
Team member
Elizabeth Presson
Team member
