Help Lauren Heal

Throughout her life, Lauren has suffered from numerous medical conditions, which often went unaddressed and ignored. One particularly challenging battle is her battle with scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder that affects the muscles, bones, and connective tissues of the body. After years of quietly suffering, Lauren has finally begun to receive the medical attention she needs. She’s learned that she is also suffering from two other conditions, Fibromyalgia and Sjogren's Disease.


The debilitating nature of her diseases has put her out of work and she has just lost her home as a result.  With numerous trips to the ER, hospital stays, doctors appointments and expensive medication, Lauren has acquired a huge financial burden she cannot afford. Despite the numerous hurdles she has been through, Lauren remains optimistic.   I ask you to donate whatever you can spare to help this brilliant, talented and compassionate young lady get back on the road to recovery!



A note from Lauren:



I've always been one to fight for others. I never learned to do the same for myself.

This is largely what brought me to this Spring: after years of my pain being dismissed by doctors and others I trusted, I began to quietly waste away. It began in early 2017 in my stomach; a growing inability to digest food of any kind. Summer 2017 the pain in my stomach often became crippling, spreading throughout the trunk of my body and beginning to limit my activity. A fall down my apartment stairs in October bruised my spine and damaged my muscles; doctors said it was essential to keep moving through the pain in order to heal. I did that, unknowing at the time that I had neurological damage from scleroderma and oncoming fibromyalgia that would cause my body to be unable to heal from this, and that damage would only worsen with movement. So would the extreme and continual pain, now spread through my entire body.

I stopped working in January, picking up a few hours nannying to chip away at the growing pile of bills, and trying with all I had to “keep moving” as I watched my muscles and bodily functions slowly disappear. First rapid weight loss; then, over a few months, my hands lost strength and ability, coming with muscle spasms much of the day that rendered them useless; over these months, I would lose muscle endurance, spending most of the day in bed, unable to get the physical strength to move around. The pain was unreal, now filling my entire body with insane sensations. It began to feel like I was pressing against barbed wire with every movement, a sensation I still endure.

One day late April, my body gave up. I had a lung infection it couldn't fight off which spread to my heart, sending my body into a frenzy of extreme pain. It was too much for my weakened system to handle, and in an instant I lost the ability to walk or even hold up my own weight.

I feel blessed beyond belief that I had friends who stepped in and fought for me.

Late nights in the ED, then admission to the hospital at the U where I was given diagnoses of Sjögren's syndrome and Fibromylagia, and where specialists would soon connect much of my pain and dysfunction with the linear scleroderma on the left side of my face, head, and neck. Through a very difficult time in a rehab center, I learned to walk and use my hands again, which brings us to today.

I need help. I need to pay medical bills, unaddressed from months of not working and now blocking my access to certain specialists. This will only grow as I continue to seek treatment at the U, and to fight for a better future - with physical, medical, and psychological therapies as I seek to repair as much damage as possible from all this. Dealing with my mental health will also be an extremely important part of this - my anxiety, particularly around medical issues and asking others for help, is now unbearable and carries with it intense depression. My system cannot handle stress, and therapy will be key to building a healthy future.

That's where YOU come in.

Just your awareness makes a difference - these things could go unaddressed with doctors for so many years in part because there's so little awareness even in the medical community about these diseases and how to treat them.

Money is unfortunately critical, and anything helps.

But what else can help is unique to you - do you know of a specialist or therapist you'd recommend for my conditions?(trying to stay Fairview as much as possible to keep access at the U) Maybe a program or other method worth trying?

Is your house a place I could stay during a part of this journey?

Would you be available as a temporary home for my animals during these transitions? (Sammie the shi-poo and Jax the cat, both incredibly loving and sweet. Ideally, Sammie will stay with me where I go, but having people on hand for potential hospital stays is critical. I found Leo a loving new home when I became too weak to give him the exercise he needs, and he is doing great.)

Do you have time during the day and might be able to go with me to appointments or therapies when I'm not strong enough?

Let me know at [email redacted], or shoot me a text or call at [phone redacted].

Thank you for your support, it means the world to me, and very really, my future.

Thank you for being here, for fighting for me, and for helping me learn to fight for myself.