Help Audrea get Relief from Severe Fibromyalga

Hello! My name is Audreanna Wilkerson. I am a 28 year old female who has practically been in pain my entire life. The only exception was the few weeks my fibromyalgia medication actually worked. In that month I learned how much pain has taken from me, and how much it still is. Things I had struggled to do my entire life, I could suddenly do. It was amazing.... and then it was gone. I want that moment back, and for three years now I've been fighting to get it. I've been told I have severe fibromyalgia, and my options have narrowed to one more thing to give a real good shot. It's called Scramble Therapy. It's where, over a course of a few weeks, you go in everyday and do things devoted to reworking the pathways of the nervous system so the wrong signals stop being sent. Unfortunately, insurance doesn't cover it, and given that all our money already goes to our living and my disability, we can't afford it either. That's why we're finally reaching out for help here.

Though, I should probably start this story at the beginning. I apologize in advance as I've been told my medical journey is a bit depressive. I don't want to make anyone feel sad, but I feel it's important I write my story here so people fully understand why we're reaching out for help.

My journey started sometime in high school when I noticed my hips, legs, and knees didn't quite match-up. I'd always been a bit of a chunky kid that spent a lot of time online, and I blamed this for my physical struggles. Well, at least until I began to notice that people less active and in same, if not worse, physical shape did not struggle the way I did. My family could not afford Healthcare at this time, so my worries stayed with me (and Deme).

(I'd also like to add that high school was the period I developed an eating disorder that sent me down the path of chronic laxative abuse. Even before that though, my mom gotten me an over-the-counter GI medication because of some issues I was having. I don't like talking about my GI issues as much, so I'm just going to give a short summary here because they do play an important roll in the chronic pain. So, because of all these factors, I now suffer from colonic inertia [muscles of the colon do not work]. I've tried several medications and right now we're trying two of those, plus a pricey over the counter concoction. I'll also have to get surgery at some point, and depending on how well our current methods work, this will effect on how invasive the surgery is [just fixing a prolapse to possibly taking the entire colon out and a colostomy bag]. I need these issues fixed, not just because they too take so much of my life away, but I feel they're the first step to better managing my chronic pain because of how much stress they put in the body.)

So, back to my chronic pain story. It wasn't until college that I was able to start getting help. I learned my knee caps were out of place. At the time, since I couldn't afford to get an MRI, I was told to strengthen the muscle and was given these neat-o bands to wear. And for years this is what I did. I was a gym junkie that liked to push myself. My mom would call the tan line left under my knees my 'racing stripes'. I kept moving forward, but I was sadly still stumbling. As time went on I stumbled more and more.

Then Dimitrios and I moved to Texas and under Deme's job I was able to finally get some Healthcare. We originally planned to just have me on it for a year. Get my knees fixed and get out. I learned in the beginning of the year after finally getting an MRI that I had Osteoarthritis and, unless we did surgery, I'd have knee replacements by 30. It was advised not to do both knees at the same time, so our one year of Healthcare turned into two. We got the first knee done with a few complications, but nothing major. And then we did the second one. And then this is where my plan of gaining my life back, being able to do things I'd never been able to do, just completely fell apart.

After the second surgery I began to notice a bone deep ache from the waist down. I'd experienced pain my entire life. There was never a moment my knees didn't bother me in some way, but this pain was different. There was no ignoring it, pushing yourself made it worse, and it literally began to drive me up the wall. So, two months after surgery I saw someone for it and that was when I was prescribed my first chronic pain medication. I suffered from so many side effects (migraines, night sweats, light sensitivity, etc), but for about a month it worked. This was my amazing moment without pain. It was magical. For the first time I could climb a small staircase and not want to chop my legs off.

But then it stopped working. We worked on my Vitamin D. I started another medication. The pain spread from my legs to my back, particularly around an area l had strained while cleaning pools years previously. I started having breathing issues from the muscles in my chest getting too tight. I had to stop wearing bras because they triggered my back. I was given an inhaler for "asthma". I started seeing a new pain doctor and was given another medication on top of the others, plus something for migraines as those kept coming around more and more. Acupuncture just stressed me out, physical therapy made it worse. The pain spread to my arms, my hands, and my jaw. I had to start limiting my speech in fear of triggering my jaw. I had to go speech therapy because it affected my vocal cords. My hands would ache and overtime began to shock me. I was finally taken off my first medication after suffering from 24/7 migraines for weeks at a time. I tried so many migraine medication, and even more chronic pain medications. It took two years to finally get my diagnoses. There are no findings with Fibromyalgia. Nothing pops up on a test. They search to make sure you don't have anything else. Fibromyalgia is a disorder of the nervous system. It turns on your fight or flight for no reason, encourages your body to respond like there's actual danger, and then laughs at your misery. I asked the doctor that diagnosed me what I could do to start an uphill climb instead of the downhill slide my health was taking. He told me nothing, it just gets worse. I thanked him for his help and never went back.

I still believe his words are lies.

I got a spinal cord stimulator placed, so my feet would stop bringing me to tears. Tried physical therapy again. Started seeing a therapist. More and more medications. My brain was foggy, my body was heavy, and nothing seemed to be working. A cold sent me to the ER, and the doctor that "doesn't give pills" prescribed me narcotics. He labeled my case severe when we got to one last medication to try. We climbed all the way to the max dose over a course of several months. Than we moved to the medication above it.

I got my newest doctors. He told me I had three options left. Trigger point, myofascial release, and scramble therapy. After several attempts, trigger point was crossed off. We upped the narcotics. Upped my ibuprofen intake. We learned we have to be very gentle about the myofascial, but we're hopeful that maybe over the course of several months it will be our ally V.S. the enemy it currently is. I'm back at physical therapy. That too will be a snails-paced process.

I'm not completely sure yet if scramble therapy works, but it's the main reason why we decided to make this GoFundMe. Insurance doesn't cover it, and it cost several thousands of dollars we do not have. But I need to give this treatment an honest shot. I'm having to take so many medications that I don't want to take. I'm having to down ibuprofen so much that it literally scares me. And the worse part is it barely does anything. My existence is pain, and I'm just so tired of it. I'm tired of falling. I want to start making my way uphill. I want to prove that doctor wrong.

My original dream when I went into my knee surgeries was to be able to run. Slap on some headphones, and just run down the street. Now, I don't think I'll ever get to make that dream happen. Now, I just want things to not hurt as much. Just a small percent better than where I'm at. Just a day where I can take one less pill. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll feel up to going to a museum, and be able to go through the whole thing.

So, if you could please help us out financially, so I can get scramble therapy and other medical necessities we'd really appreciate it. Even if it's just a small bit. Being disabled is pricey, and we're trying our best to make it all happen but the stress of it all is just pilling higher and higher. The current status of my disability keeps me from working a regular job, so I've started trying to sell jewelry. Deme is currently doing his best in looking for a second job. Both of us have sold some of our things online. We reached out to Disability almost a year ago. Deme has had to start checking his blood pressure regularly, and my back has been flared for months, but we're still going.

We could use a little help though.

Thank you for reading (or skimming) my story. If you could donate that would be super helpful, but I also understand if you don't. Either way I hope your having a good day.