Natasha's Medical Assistance Fund
Donation protected
This is hard to write. My wife, Natasha has been… well… she’s sick. Really sick…. since April 1, 2014. As of this moment as I’m writing this, it has been 13 months and a few days of her dealing with a crippling headache, brain fog, minor memory loss, nausea, vomiting, chronic fatigue, skin sensitivities, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, poor digestive system… and that is just to name a bit of it…. virtually all of the bad stuff that you hear in those medicine commercials on TV when they’re speed reading the side effects of their medication. Except, there is no medication being taken that is causing it. Any medication prescribed by a traditional MD or Nurse Practitioner has proven to not work. At all. The laundry list of medications that they have prescribed for her, have given Tash all of the side effects and none of the proposed benefits. From staggering drowsiness to depressive and suicidal thoughts… for all of the side effects, none of the benefits accompanied the reactions.
We have been to the ER 7 times, Urgent Care twice, Neurology 6 times, an OB/GYN(and urgent surgery to removed dead and cystic ovaries), a Urologist, a Nutritional Therapist, 3 chiropractors(including a craniosacral therapist) and Primary Care countless times (and that includes switching practices multiple times… doctors and nurse practitioners) with literally no answers. They’ve poked and prodded her so many times and have given limited suggestions on what should be done to fix it. From Medications with names that belong in Star Trek to long needles jammed into the base of her skull multiple times that injected numbing and steroid shots… supplements, vitamins, food elimination, hot therapy, cold therapy, drugs, oils, medical marijuana, surgery, altitude change, organic everything…. you name it, we’ve tried it. And nothing…. nothing has even come close to working, or even taken the edge off.
She currently lives at about an 8 on a scale of 0-10, pain wise. That’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with flare ups to a 9 coming more often over the last few weeks. No break. No reprieve. Imagine going to lay down at night to try and sleep but mentally not being able to drown out the pain, keeping you up. Sure you may “look fine” on the outside, but the pain you are battling with internally is…….. overwhelming. All in all, it’s just a bad case all around.
Essentially we have begun the transition to Naturopathy. Our insurance covers Naturopath visits if we can be referred by our Primary Care, though it will only cover 3 visits. We have the notes from our *former* PCP that states that they will refer, but only for acupuncture. Even though a discussion about a referral to a naturopath was had and agreed upon. It was then followed by notes from the insurance company saying that “per review of the chart notes, the diagnosis is below the line and not approved”. The diagnosis being “tension headache”.
Today was Tash’s first appointment with a Naturopath, who specializes in chronic pain and illness. It actually looks like we may have a pathway to getting her well. The only downside is that it comes at a cost….. worth every penny, but a cost nonetheless, to get the all of the testing, office visits and ultimately, the treatment, to heal her body.
For full transparency, we have been paying for a lot of the previous treatments(outside of the MD realm) out of pocket/reserves but unfortunately, the reserves have exhausted. Quite frankly, as humbling as it is, we need help. I think I may be starting a series of posts about navigating through Tash’s condition, whatever that condition turns out to be both here and on my personal website… but it will give you all insight into where we’re at, and what we’ve been facing.
I have been debating setting this up for some time now. I wasn’t sure if I would go through gofundme or just set up a Paypal account, or both, or basically… whether I should do this at all in the first place. Honestly, if I could just do this on my own, I would, but I am hoping and praying that I can help my wife get the medical attention she needs sooner than later.
Last year, I had requested some friends to send out a card to her… just to show some support. Never would I have ever imagined that, 9 months later we would still be here… still without any answers. Not something we thought even possible.
If you have would like to send is a word of encouragement in lieu of a donation, that is always welcome too and can be done through www.oddzuki.com! It'll be the top post for a while. But hopefully through this campaign, not for long at all... Thanks for reading what apparently has turned into a book.
For now – K.
We have been to the ER 7 times, Urgent Care twice, Neurology 6 times, an OB/GYN(and urgent surgery to removed dead and cystic ovaries), a Urologist, a Nutritional Therapist, 3 chiropractors(including a craniosacral therapist) and Primary Care countless times (and that includes switching practices multiple times… doctors and nurse practitioners) with literally no answers. They’ve poked and prodded her so many times and have given limited suggestions on what should be done to fix it. From Medications with names that belong in Star Trek to long needles jammed into the base of her skull multiple times that injected numbing and steroid shots… supplements, vitamins, food elimination, hot therapy, cold therapy, drugs, oils, medical marijuana, surgery, altitude change, organic everything…. you name it, we’ve tried it. And nothing…. nothing has even come close to working, or even taken the edge off.
She currently lives at about an 8 on a scale of 0-10, pain wise. That’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with flare ups to a 9 coming more often over the last few weeks. No break. No reprieve. Imagine going to lay down at night to try and sleep but mentally not being able to drown out the pain, keeping you up. Sure you may “look fine” on the outside, but the pain you are battling with internally is…….. overwhelming. All in all, it’s just a bad case all around.
Essentially we have begun the transition to Naturopathy. Our insurance covers Naturopath visits if we can be referred by our Primary Care, though it will only cover 3 visits. We have the notes from our *former* PCP that states that they will refer, but only for acupuncture. Even though a discussion about a referral to a naturopath was had and agreed upon. It was then followed by notes from the insurance company saying that “per review of the chart notes, the diagnosis is below the line and not approved”. The diagnosis being “tension headache”.
Today was Tash’s first appointment with a Naturopath, who specializes in chronic pain and illness. It actually looks like we may have a pathway to getting her well. The only downside is that it comes at a cost….. worth every penny, but a cost nonetheless, to get the all of the testing, office visits and ultimately, the treatment, to heal her body.
For full transparency, we have been paying for a lot of the previous treatments(outside of the MD realm) out of pocket/reserves but unfortunately, the reserves have exhausted. Quite frankly, as humbling as it is, we need help. I think I may be starting a series of posts about navigating through Tash’s condition, whatever that condition turns out to be both here and on my personal website… but it will give you all insight into where we’re at, and what we’ve been facing.
I have been debating setting this up for some time now. I wasn’t sure if I would go through gofundme or just set up a Paypal account, or both, or basically… whether I should do this at all in the first place. Honestly, if I could just do this on my own, I would, but I am hoping and praying that I can help my wife get the medical attention she needs sooner than later.
Last year, I had requested some friends to send out a card to her… just to show some support. Never would I have ever imagined that, 9 months later we would still be here… still without any answers. Not something we thought even possible.
If you have would like to send is a word of encouragement in lieu of a donation, that is always welcome too and can be done through www.oddzuki.com! It'll be the top post for a while. But hopefully through this campaign, not for long at all... Thanks for reading what apparently has turned into a book.
For now – K.
Organizer
Kenny Adams
Organizer
Bend, OR
