Hope for Adam

Posting a plea like this is not something I normally do. In the online world, I am a pretty private person and mostly keep to myself. However, I feel so strongly about this, that I’m breaking my habit.

My best friend’s son is suffering from late stage Lyme Disease. Before his diagnosis, we were very confused and concerned about the symptoms he was showing.   He had extreme personality changes, a marked decrease in memory and cognition, persistent muscle ticks and extreme exhaustion to name but a few.

When Adam came back to this area for help, it was finally determined that he has Lyme Disease with co-infections. The CDC has set guidelines for treating Lyme Disease - 6 weeks of oral antibiotics. While this treatment works very well for those who have recently been exposed, it doesn't work for late stage.

Adam is highly intelligent and holds two masters degrees. He has sent out hundreds of job applications and often gets a first interview. While he looks good on paper, Lyme Disease has affected his brain so much that he struggles getting through the interviews and rarely gets a call back for a second. He has even applied for minimum wage jobs locally to no avail. His mom & step-dad are able to keep his student loan lenders at bay for now, but I don't know how long that will last and his upcoming medical treatments are costly.

Some days, he is unable to get out of bed. At only 32 years old, he frequently has chest pain, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. The Lyme spirochetes have invaded his heart as well as his brain.  Just last week, he developed Bell's palsy. What he has been going through is heartbreaking.

Late stage Lyme Disease is not well understood by the medical community and I have been told that the CDC does not recognize chronic Lyme as an actual disease. At least 6 of the physicians that he has seen have basically said, well, there’s not really anything else we can do.   

Can you imagine that? Try for just a moment to image yourself or worse, your child, suffering as he does. This young man is a smart, funny, caring individual. He is now in almost constant pain, has uncontrolled muscle spasms, severe exhaustion and memory issues among so many other things too numerous to mention. Most days he is bedridden. I cannot even imagine how Adam feels every day. He’s a young man trapped in a cycle of pain, weakness and exhaustion.

After extensive networking and research, Piper was able to find a doctor who specializes in his condition. He has been started on a very high dose of oral antibiotics for 5 weeks, then he will receive a PICC line for IV antibiotics. That treatment will last anywhere from 4 months to a couple of years. He is also on many nutritional supplements to help build his immunity and protect his digestive system from the effects of the antibiotics. Unfortunately, because late stage Lyme disease is vastly unrecognized in the medical community, insurance will not cover the office visits and possibly not all of the treatment. I know they have already spent thousands just trying to get answers.

As a show of support for Adam, I am posting this page to try to raise some funds to aid in his recovery and give him hope for a future. This is a young man with so much ahead of him. It’s frustrating what insurance will not cover. I believe in Adam and I know he’ll go on from this to make others aware. Please give what you can and thank you from the bottom of my heart.