Brittany's Lyme Disease Journey **UPDATE**

MAJOR Update on Brittany:

Thank you so much for all the prayers and support for our girl! This has been without a doubt one of the scariest experiences of our life. As many of you know, Brittany has been getting aggressive treatment for pneumonic tularemia. For the past 2 weeks, she had been extremely sick with the worst vertigo she’s ever had. She couldn’t even sit up! Well on Friday, we had the scariest experience. Brittany was unable to speak to us or move at all and the entire right side of her face was drooping. She was trying with all her might to push words out but we were not able to understand her at all!! She was in a lot of pain. We called 911 and they immediately life flighted her from our house to Grady. When we were there we found out that she was in acute kidney failure from Gentamicin toxicity and that’s what caused the stroke like episode. She had a dangerously low potassium as well! They worked hard trying to get her kidneys back to normal levels. She is still extremely sick but we are finally back home and she’s resting. We are having to keep a close watch on all her levels and praying this never happens again. We are so overwhelmed with all the love and support from everyone!! We are praying things look up for our girl so soon! She is so tired of fighting but continues to persevere! She is still so unbelievably weak and we still have a long road ahead of us, but we are keeping the faith that things are going to get better soon

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Brittany & her family live in our neighborhood in Senoia Georgia. Our hearts have been moved by the struggles this family is facing with her physical challenges.  We are launching this campaign to allow family, friends and others to come along, by their side, to assist them. 

First a little about Brittany..... Brittany is a 21 year old college student who someday aspires to be a Registered Labor & Delivery Nurse. Brittany was on her career path and near graduating from nursing school at Georgia College. Brittany looks like a perfectly normal young woman, but she is living in the midst of a horrible nightmare.

Brittany is a wedding photographer. After a photography session, Brittany noticed she had been bitten by a deer tick. Brittany had no symptoms for a few weeks, but then she developed flu-like symptoms & overwhelming exhaustion. She went to the doctor, where they diagnosed her with depression and insisted she start taking anti-depressants.  After several months, there was no change. Brittany began to have headaches, nausea, dizziness, memory loss and heart palpitations. 

Brittany went to multiple specialist, and she was continued to be misdiagnosed. Finally after a year and a half (from the time she was bitten), she was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease and  6 co-infections: Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, Rickettsia Epstein-Barr Virus and Human Parvovirus.  It was awesome to finally have a diagnosis, however she could not find a doctor, locally, who could treat the extent of her illness. 

A few months ago, Brittany woke up to excruciating pain in her legs which has severely affected her ability to walk. She was fainting several times a week. Her muscle tremors and headaches had also become significantly worse. She began to experience Bell’s Palsy as well. What used to be every now and then problems for her had taken over her everyday life. Her Babesia coinfection had grown much stronger

At the suggestion of a friend, she sought out a specialist in Texas, who they are confident, can successfully treat her. She was diagnosed with Chronic Late Stage Neurological Lyme Disease. Local doctors are not capable of treating her stage of Lyme which is forcing the family to travel to Texas for treatment. 

Brittany is so sick, they must first, build her immune system. The only thing that will make her better is IV antibiotics, but her body is so sick that she cannot handle that at the moment. Brittany will be on weeks of nutritional IVs along with doing 10-pass ozone therapy (which takes a huge toll on the body and can cost up to $15,000 per treatment which is not covered by insurance). She will also have to be placed in an ozone sauna to help detox her body of all the Lyme toxins that the medications are killing off. Once her body is strong enough, she will do IV Rocephin (antibiotic) infusions daily for what could last several months.  None of these treatments will be covered by insurance

Not everyone with Neurological Lyme Disease have the same symptoms. In fact, only about 15% of Lyme Disease patients get Neurological Lyme Disease. Making matters worse, the CDC does not recognize neurological Lyme as a separate disease, as a result, all treatments are paid out of pocket by her family. For more information, please see https://rawlsmd.com/health-articles/neurological-lyme-disease-what-you-need-to-know 

Brittany and her family will be forced to temporarily relocate or travel between Atlanta-Dallas to get the necessary treatment to save her life.  

Any of us would do absolutely anything we could to alleviate our child of this kind of pain & suffering. 

Over the next several days, we will all gather with family to give thanks for all we have. Please take a moment to help others in need.  Please donate $5, $10, $25 or whatever your heart leads you to do. Thank you so much for your generosity.