Help Scott Beat Lyme Disease

Jesse Heid is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Teka Klopfenstein.

Donation protected

Friends, Scott Klopfenstein’s health is in trouble and he needs massive community support to continue his treatment for chronic Lyme disease. If you’ve ever been touched by Scott’s beautiful heart, or if your life has been touched by his music with Reel Big Fish and The Littlest Man Band then please seriously consider contributing to his care.

What happened to Scott???

In 2015 while living with his family in Brooklyn, NY Scott noticed he felt ill all the time without rhyme or reason. There was a constant feeling of early flu symptoms with malaise, fatigue, lack of appetite, severe gut issues, and new migraines without a known cause and his sleep struggles worsened.

By 2017 those of us closest to him started to see odd changes in his behavior and personality. He was obviously less focused, less present, less motivated to work towards the goals he’s always been deeply passionate about as he lost so much of his executive functioning.

Eventually, some of the worst traits began to emerge as he was quick to become enraged for no apparent reason. Severe depression became frequent and often brought on bouts of self-harm which were super alarming to those who love him because we all know what a gentle, kind, and committed family man he is. He is utterly devoted to his soulmate Teka and their beautiful daughters, to his community and his art. Also, Scott loves life and has a solidly spiritual view of existence - none of this made any sense. We were all perplexed, Scott even more so.

Scott and his family poured their resources into psychotherapy, nutritional therapy, and psychopharmaceuticals since regular physicians simply said he was “fine”. He devoted himself to meditation and self-help techniques as well and all the above helped a little bit, but really it was just a drop in the bucket because his issues turned out to be medical and dire.

Once the pandemic hit and the intensely stressful emotional toll of his father’s passing took hold, Scott’s health finally nose-dived and fully tanked.

Nothing going on in Scott’s body made sense to us until I personally got diagnosed with chronic Lyme. As I learned about this awful disease the more I realized it sounded exactly like what Scott was going through too. Until one understands how incredibly complex Lyme is they couldn’t imagine how it adversely affects every organ system in the body, including the brain. This harrowing symptom in particular is very dangerous and called neuroborreliosis and he needs expert care for it.

Scott got tested at my urging and sure enough he tested positive for 5 different strains of Lyme and several other common coinfections and comorbidities like babesia (known as American malaria) and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), all of which are complex, painful, and difficult-to-treat diseases in their own right, on top of the chronic Lyme. Unfortunately, this is a very common scenario for Lyme patients.

Lyme infections can be relatively easy to treat with the right antibiotics for a specific window of time for a fresh and new infection. For an old infection that hasn’t been treated in time, Lyme & co are rather infamous for being very arduous, complicated, and painful conditions to treat. The goal is remission here, to get his infection load as low as possible and his immune system as functional as possible so his body can achieve getting these bugs into dormancy and he can start to heal back to a place of relative health, normalcy, and functionality.

How We Can Help…

As tricky as chronic Lyme disease & co is there is so much hope! There is no one size fits all treatment for chronic Lyme though there are many different treatment approaches that patients try until they achieve remission. Once Scott and his medical team discover his uniquely effective bio-individual treatment plan he needs the funds to commit to treatment for a substantial amount of time.

We need to raise enough money for Scott to be able to try several treatment options over a few years span that include everything from combination antibiotic therapy, herbs, peptides, homeopathy, bacterial phage therapy, supplements, supportive oligonucleotide therapy (SOT), immune system modulation with low dose immunotherapy, magnetic therapy, ozone therapy, IV therapy and any other new treatment that might be developed in the near future.

Why Is Chronic Lyme Treatment So Expensive?

Lyme literate medical doctors do not accept insurance because insurance companies will not approve Lyme treatment after the window for fresh infections that can easily be treated has closed. This enables lyme specialists to be free to treat each patient individually depending on their needs without interference from insurance corporations. However, it makes the cost of a single doctor's appointment astronomical. The typical therapies for chronic Lyme like SOT are thousands of dollars to try, and he deserves a chance to try therapies like this and to try everything that could help him achieve remission.

The sad truth is that working and middle-class folks typically can’t afford proper Lyme treatment, it takes extraordinary resources to be able to afford quality Lyme medical care. It’s been eye-opening to see that the majority who achieve remission and regain their health are not only lucky - they’re wealthy! They had the resources to afford the best doctors and pay for the most effective treatment for years. It’s probably an underestimate that about 500,000 folks a year get infected with Lyme, this could be you, it could be any of us! But only those with immense resources will have a great shot at beating this bug if they don’t get treatment right away, even then chronic illness is still a significant risk.

We scored Scott an awesome and experienced Lyme-literate medical doctor in Los Angeles and he got through the testing phase and initial treatment that he responded positively to. Frustratingly, that process alone wiped out his funds for treatment and he only just got started. He needs money not just to continue treatment this year but also for the next few years as that’s typically what it takes to get healthy again. The money we raise together will directly fund his medical care.

WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!!!

Scott is a vital community member, we cannot lose him. His wife cannot lose him. His children cannot lose him. His fans cannot lose him.

If you cannot contribute personally please share this GoFundMe as widely as possible. Know that his recovery process is not going to be easy, so please reach out and support him on his journey.

Our financial ask may seem high but the reality is it’s the typical cost of about 2.5 years of quality chronic Lyme disease treatment with a qualified specialist. Scott's wife Teka will be managing the funds for his treatment.

Your contribution is helping to save the life of a soul mate, precious father, beloved mentor, beautiful friend, and celebrated musician and artist. We love you and we thank you deeply.

From Scott:

“Hey Gang,

I want to express my deepest gratitude to you who have come to this GoFundMe. I have been humbled by this disease, but more so by the outpouring of love and support that I have received from you all. It has been a difficult time for me and my family. This is helping us on the road back to recover our hope as well as my health. So thank you. Thank you for truly everything.

Much Love and respect,

Scott”