Help the Thorntons keep going through life on life's terms

Thank you for coming to our GoFundMe page and for supporting us in this journey of healing. As a lot of you know already, I have been battling some serious health conditions for most of my life. I was first diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy at the age of 9 after spraining my ankle jumping on a trampoline. RSD is a rare, severe, and extremely painful condition that causes the brain to react to trauma by shutting down function to the affected limb. The main problem is that it never turns back on when the threat is over. This causes an extreme pain response to stimuli which, in a normal scenario, should not be painful. In my case, it causes drastic temperature changes ranging from ice cold to blazing hot, as well as coloration changes due to lack of blood flow. I am currently sitting at a baseline level of 9 out of 10 pain, for those familiar with pain scale charts. If you would like to learn more about RSD/CRPS, check out RSDS Association, they have tons of information available. On top of my RSD, I was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis or JIA around the age of 14, then Type 1 Diabetes one month before my 16th birthday, fibromyalgia sometime between 14 and 18, then came endometriosis around 24, hip dysplasia at 26, spondyloarthropathy around 27, and most recently ankylosing spondylitis at 33. Every single day is painful for me, but I have learned to live with it and hide behind a mask that so many of you know me as... happy. In fact, a lot of you have told me how much you look up to me because I have gone through so much, yet I always have a smile on my face.

But right now, I am not okay by any measure, I am extremely depressed and quite frankly I am fighting feelings of hopelessness daily. My family is also not doing well; we are stressed, we are exhausted and we are scared. One month ago, our lives changed after I sought treatment for my arthritis which began to flare in my hands. That treatment unfortunately was the causation for this downward spiral of my RSD reawakening in my right leg. We have been seeking treatment from a provider in Seattle and are finding that there is a chance that some of these treatments may need to come out of pocket, due to the fact that a lot of specialty care isn’t covered by state insurance. Some of you also know that Jessica was in a car accident a year ago that messed her back up and she hasn’t been physically the same since. On top of my constant health conditions, she is now facing the reality of chronic pain too and is currently seeking treatment for damage to her lower back, likely all caused from that initial accident. We both are about to have a lot of medical bills coming our way, on top of our day to day expenses of keeping our lights on.

We are facing many obstacles right now as we try to find treatment options that will allow me to get function of my leg back. One of our biggest obstacles and stressors is that of our finances. The reality is that I am not capable of working currently, so we are down to a one-income household. At the advice of my doctors, I have applied for disability, as well as WA Paid Family Leave, but the decisions on both of those are still pending. I am unable to receive any benefits from my employer due to my employment status as a Per Diem employee. I took this job because it allowed flexibility to take time off for doctor's appointments and flares, but we didn't consider how it would affect us if I was unable to work long-term with no access to benefits. We are struggling right now to keep up with our finances, and the extra stress is not beneficial to my RSD flare. There is a HUGE correlation between stress and pain. Trying to keep both our mental health under control during this time is crucial to mine and Jess’ healing.

So many of you have asked us, asked me, how you can help. We haven't had the courage to say what it is that we need because our pride tells us there is shame in it. But our reality is that we really need financial help right now, so we are asking our community, our friends, and our family for your support. We can't stay sustained on Jess' income alone while trying to get me the help I need, going to multiple doctor's appointments and trying our best to pay our bills on time, if at all. We are slowly sinking and so we are asking for your help and support. We know that finances are tight for everyone right now, which has been a huge factor in our struggle to ask for this aid from all of you. It's hard to assess what our fundraising goal actually is since we don't know how long I am going to be unable to get back to work. Nor do we know if my applications for assistance will be approved on the first try. So we really need the help of our community to see us through this time indefinitely, while we remain hopeful that a timeline will start to carve itself out. I know this has been a long read, you all know I can talk for an extended period of time, so thank you if you've read up to this point. I will do my best to keep you all updated on my progress, as well as our family's during this difficult time. Thank you for your continued love and support for us.