Julia's Medical Fund: Lyme Disease

The Bainbridge Community has been blessed to have Heather and Rick as friends and neighbors on our island for over 20 years. Heather is a school counselor in Silverdale and Rick commutes to Renton for work at Boeing. If  you know them, you like them. It is just the way it is because it is just the way they are. Kind, caring, intelligent souls who are the first people to volunteer, the first people to offer help and  the first people to reach out and welcome somebody into their home and into our community. Now it is our turn to reach out and give back and lessen their burden.  Their daughterJulia is sick with lyme disease and her treatments have depleted Rick and Heather's savings and available resources. But this is an amazing community. We help each other. It is what we do. So dig deep. Hug each other and help out. Thank you. -Katrina

From Heather and Rick:
It has been a painful and stressful journey. The hardest and most gut-wrenching part of being a parent is when your child is sick. Our daughter, Julia, is sick with Lyme Disease. Her monthly medical bills for treatment have exhausted our financial resources. Despite having health insurance and  both of us working full-time (including as many overtime hours as allowed), we  have depleted our savings and maxed out our credit card options. We are selling our house this Spring in order to lower our living expenses but her treatment will continue for at least another year and a half and with a monthly out- of- pocket expense of over  $1,200month, we are in need of help.
Julia has always pushed herself beyond pain… an excellent golfer during her high school days, she began to experience back and joint pain while on the course. In college, her symptoms worsened to include “Brain fog”, lack of memory retention, speech issues, depression, severe weakness in her legs, headaches and continued pain in her back and joints. The possibility of lyme disease did not cross her Doctor's radar and her condition was dismissed as part of a thyroid disorder.
After pursuing additional medical testing during the summer of 2015, her condition worsened and her symptoms were so debilitating that she was unable to return to college. She continued to be tested for a variety of diseases and conditions. Finally, the puzzle pieces were put together and the big picture emerged: the conclusion was Lyme disease accompanied by the autoimmune disease, Hashimoto.
People falsely believe that lyme Disease does not exist on the West Coast and that is comes exclusively from the bite of a deer tick. This is incorrect. People do get Lyme on the West coast! And it  is NOT only a tick- borne disease. It can be contracted from mosquitoes, spiders and other insects. And a thyroid condition can make people a more attractive target for insect bites. We have learned a lot during the course of this painful journey. 
While we have found ways to treat her thyroid condition, the appropriate treatment for Lyme Disease has been challenging and expensive and has zapped our financial resources. Because most medical professionals (especially on the west coast) do not believe lyme  disease exists, Julia's symptoms were often dismissed or attributed to other diseases. We were told that because “she never had the telltale bullseye on her skin, she  could not possibly have it.” But, in looking back, we believe that Julia probably acquired the disease over 9 years ago, possibly when she was at summer camp in the San Juan Islands.  Maybe she did have the tell-tale bullet rash at the time  but we were never made aware of it by camp staff. Unfortunately, her disease is now very advanced. 

The good news is that, in the spring of 2016, we finally found an amazing specialist in Seattle who treats Lyme disease with every resource available and Julia is responding well to the medications. Her treatment course will continue for the next year and a half. She is back in school and on her way to becoming a teacher. Her brain fog and memory retention are so much better! She is able to study and complete her courses successfully. Her joint and back pain still bothers her but not all of the time. She continues to improve but it continues to be a long, uncomfortable process. Still she does not complain.
Julia does what she can to support herself financially, but has been unable to maintain steady income with her class schedule and medical issues. Adding over $1200 in monthly medical expenses is not possible at this time.

We will do anything to help Julia get better and to realize her dreams. But now we need support.  Having a sick child and asking for help....the hardest test of a parent.  - Heather and Rick