Help Jesika Ellie get Treatment & heal Mikah
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***update: upon return to Michigan for our veterinary appointment Mikah has been diagnosed with early stage Encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from tick-born disease Ehrlichia that she was diagnosed with in 2017. She is currently on antibiotics and we are both getting much needed rest as we both heal from these illnesses. My fundraiser will be shifting to obtaining funds to care for healing her (this has all been VERY expensive and i’m patiently waiting my approval for disability. Funds will also be used for I’m getting myself to Idaho as my bartonella symptoms have been increasing with the chaos that has been 2023 and the significant black mold exposure i had in Tucson. Funds raised will go to her appointments, medication, and my own treatment (with Dr Smith of Dynamic Health in Couer D’Laine Idaho) for bartonella/Lyme disease infections ***ty!! xo 
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Hi! My name is Jesika Elius. In 2015 I contracted lyme disease while working as an Archaeologist on a job in Kentucky. I came back from the field one day and had over 100 seed ticks in my ankles. After years of being sick I was finally diagnosed through a Western Blot test with CDC positive lyme and also Bartonella. This illness has left me with debilitating symptoms which have made it impossible to work a regular 9-5 job.In August of 2021 I lost my home and spent over a year houseless, sleeping on a friend’s couch without a space to call home. i’ve been unable to work to get myself proper housing (until last week) due to debilitating lyme disease and bartonella symptoms. I’ve applied for disability and am currently in the waiting period as they review my case (yay) ✨ i recently had a medical appointment for an evaluation with one of their doctors and it is indeed moving forward, although i’ve been warned it could take up to two years to start receiving benefits, and more often than not disability applicants have to appeal the decision with a lawyer.
I hope to go back for Lyme Disease/Bart treatment with my doctor in Idaho this spring/summer of 2023 which will cost approximately $2000 for treatment, hotel, uber, and food. This treatment helped me immensely in May of 2021, but lyme is similar to cancer in that it goes into remission and is not usually cured. I had a few months of feeling pretty close to my old normal baseline, until my symptoms returned with a vengeance while living in black mold at that friends house (he’s an angel, mold is Satan) this past year.
since publishing this fundraiser Mikah has had some significant urgent health issues and needs to see a vet ASAP. i got her in the other day but didn’t have enough for recommended blood labs ((edit: I just spent the last of my cash on blood work because I need her to be OK))
We just moved into a moldy apartment ((again- Unbeknownst to me it was in the plumbing, it’s a significant issue and I’m going to try to switch apartments but I don’t even have energy for this y’all ;( )) which both mikah and i are extremely sensitive to and has been causing a lot of health issues for us both.She is losing clumps of hair again, is wobbly when she walks (balance issues) and is experiencing more anxiety than usual ;( I dream of having a safe, stable place to heal that is mold free. Black Mold exposure is what initially brought out my dormant lyme disease symptoms in 2019.
In case you are a stranger to me, allow me introduce myself…First, you should know that I am one of the strongest women on this earth. I grew up in metro Detroit until my parents moved me to venezuela when I was 12. I spent my formative years there and it had a grand effect on me and who i would become
while in University in May of 2000 my grandmother who helped raise me unexpectedly passed away from an aggressive form of Lukemia. One of her friends told me it was her dream to see me finish college. I decided to go back to school in her honor and this led to an ongoing hiatus of my band, Alder and Elius. After college I spent a lot of years working as an Archaeologist, and later Wildife Biologist, and Environmental Inspector.
Mikah came into my life in 2009 and became my service dog for CPTSD at one years old. She is a very special soul and literally kept me on this earth more times than i can count when i wanted to throw the towel in and give up.
Lyme is an unbearable illness that can go into your brain if left untreated and that’s exactly what happened to me. I developed Alzheimer’s type symptoms at 39 years old and often didn’t know how or if I would get better. I had little to no support from my family and could not even make a basic meal for myself. thankfully the treatment with my dr in Idaho at Dynamic Health aka Lymestop (2021) is what ultimately healed my brain, and much of my body.
But while healing (herxing) from treatment I lost my home, and had to move into a friends storage room to keep us from being on the street. The black mold in his house brought my lyme and bartonella symptoms back within months and i’ve been struggling ever since.
I know that no matter what happens, even if this fundraiser dies, I will survive. I have strength and grit from all that has happened in life and i believe these struggles have enabled me to be able to handle my current situation better than most could.
This being said I am utterly exhausted and would love nothing more than to have a normal,stable place to call home.
Mikah is really struggling lately and I’m also having some added Lyme/Bart symptoms come back from what seems to be constant mold exposure (Tucson is extremely moldy due to monsoons and flooding that have gotten more intense).
I know in my mama bear heart that i have to make sure she survives this, no matter what it takes. I will nurse her back to health and then get myself to Dr Smith in Idaho once again to get the needed treatment for myself. This means we have to return to Detroit soon to see her long time doctor and get her sorted ((we saw 2 vets in Arizona and received poor veterinary care and misdiagnosis for $600 in Tucson. i can’t afford to spend more money on appointments that waste our time allowing whatever is going on to progress ))
The journey back will be hard and expensive, but she has the wagon/chariot and we will make it work. This being said we really need help with lodging and vet bills in Detroit. i still don’t have this part of things figured out but we hope to stay with a friend for free for as long as possible but this is also complicated by sensitivities we have to the inevitable mold in his very old historic house.
this app is subpar and is giving me issues uploading pics so please visit @mikah_no_tail on instagram to see why this girl is extra special
****************other ways to donate:
venmo- @pisghetti and cashapp-$Pisghetti***********************
thanks fam. all donations will be paid forward in time. i have big plans for the future. i see you and appreciate you more than i can express xx <3
Organizer
Jesika Elius
Organizer
Farmington, MI