Help Michaela Beat POTS

It is surreal to me to recall that three years ago I was on this very site raising money for treatment for this very condition. And now, on the three year anniversary of the beginning of when I began to get my life back thanks to God, the kind and giving hearts of so many, Dr. Kyprianou and her amazing staff at the POTS Treatment Center in Dallas which is where we are raising funds to get Michaela to as soon as possible. That program is phenomenal!! Mic was diagnosed with this awful, debilitating condition three short days ago at Oschner's. She is under the care of Dr King and Dr. Macicek...among others through the care of Ocshner's as this condition affects so many aspects of her body. And her case is actually worse than mine was and coming on much more quickly. Anyone who knows me knows that I ended up in a wheelchair and was bedridden very quickly. I am trying really hard to avoid that with my daughter. We will also be selling Tshirts through my PayPal account.  We need $6000 for the initial treatment alone.  Followed by another $3000 for the follow up treatment. That includes a $500 deposit to hold her spot which I have already paid Her appointment is March 20-31. The treatment consists of intensive treatment 3-6 hours a day for two weeks at the center. However, patients do not stay at the center. The link for the program is potstreatmentcenter.com. They do, however, have several hotels that partner with them for a lower rate. We found one for $109/night which comes out to just under $3000, but it does have a kitchen that could save some serious money so we won't have to eat out for all meals. Because of the GI issues and strict diet we must follow as POTS patients, this works out for us better anyway.  

A wealth of information can be found at dinet.org. Thus, stimuli and then tolerance of it, can pose a real problem in living day to day life. So throughout the treatment Dr. Kyprianou will tell patients to go to a bowling alley, or go to a movie, or go to a ball game, or out to dinner, to go try to walk around the mall, etc. She wants to see how well your nervous system is responding to stimuli around you and how well you are  responding to treatment...thus tolerating being in loud crowds that are no problem to most people, but a nightmare to someone with untreated POTS. She will also be sending us to Whole Foods and making diet changes, as well as placing Michaela on any supplements her body needs. All of this will cost extra money, a great deal of it in fact. But, the reason Dr K's program is superior to the others in the nation is her goal is to get her patients off of narcotics and meds to a large degree, and teach them how to cope with POTS. In many cases, especially young girls, her patients go into full remission in the first 6-12 months. I went through her program and have had huge success! There is no one else with whom I trust my child. I didn't raise enough money when I went because I didn't know what to expect. I didn't have enough to go to the follow up visit for therapy and it took me twice as long to go into remission as others at the center with me who went. I want Michaela to have her best chance as quickly as possible as anyone would want their child to.  $12000 is the bear minimum. We actually need more than that to cover all of the extras we have no way of anticipating or budgeting for.  When I went,  my family and close friend, Jason, who was with me, had to rally together to get me what I needed and it was a stressful time. But I do know now that there will be a few hundred more dollars to anticipate. However, since every program is tailor made to fit each individual need at the center and is not a one size fits all umbrella approach, it is impossible to put an exact dollar amount on how much she will need.  But I know the Lord will provide for Michaela the same way He did for me. His plan for my daughter is not to just lay around most days because her heart is beating too fast for her to do anything else. She's salting like she's supposed to. She's drinking Pedialyte like she's supposed to. She's drinking the ounces of fluids she's supposed to. But she's constantly exhausted from her heart rate being so high all of the time. Her sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are basically at war with each other. She may be able to get out and do something for a little while, but then she will come home and sleep for a solid day and wake up crying at times feeling like she's having a heart attack. She's had an echo done. She's had an EKG. Those were normal. We are running other tests and have a series of Dr appointments coming up over the next couple of weeks. But the POTS Treatment Center has a spot available for March 20 and my baby girl NEEDS to have it!!! Please help any way you can. Even the smallest amounts add up quickly....$5, $10, $20, just whatever you feel led to give and are able to budget comfortably. It is absolutely heartbreaking as a single mother to watch my only child stumble and grab onto something because she's too dizzy to walk. So I help her where she needs to go when the episodes hit her. I hold her hand as she cries while she's scared when her heart is racing out of control and her chest hurts. I do what I can to calm her. Having POTS myself, I know precisely how she feels. It is scary. And she's only 16! It's spring. She should be having fun and making memories with her friends! But she just wants to feel better and have her life back. She just wants to dance , play soccer, and get back to what we love again. We are skipped vaca last year to save for this trip and have been pouring everything we have toward getting her the help she needs. She's kinda bummed. We always look forward to the beach. Anyone who knows us knows that. I want her to be able to enjoy the sand and waves this year after missing sooo much. She's missed 34 days of school this year already and will miss more due to appointments and pending tests and treatment.  Please help me help her! Any help y'all can offer is greatly appreciated! For info on the very the center or POTS itself, please click the links below! God bless and much love!❤️
potstreatmentcenter.com
dinet.org