Life-Changing Treatment for Juliann Trudell

Hello! We are raising money for Juliann Trudell. Julie became disabled after long-term complications from a car accident on March 25th, 2011.

Before the accident, Julie led a normal, happy, and fulfilling life. She was an overachieving honor roll student, part of the student union, chief editor of her high school’s literary magazine, and spent any extra time volunteering at the Lancaster Youth Bureau. Anyone who knew Julie knew about her contagious excitement, joy, and dreams of attending the Rochester Institute of Technology to make video games.

Returning home from a prospective student engineering sleepover at RIT, Julie and her parents were hit head-on by a man texting while driving in bad weather in Darien, New York. With significant damage to the Jeep, the family considered themselves blessed that everyone was still alive.

After recovering from their short-term injuries, the family’s legal case was closed. Julie was then accepted to the Game Design & Development Bachelor’s program at Rochester Institute of Technology. Julie excelled at her courses, made new friends and networking acquaintances, won awards for her work, and was filled with hope and excitement on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a game developer.

However, halfway through her degree, Julie began experiencing chronic fatigue, extreme pain, and PTSD episodes, as well as extended month-long hospital visits leading to gallbladder surgery. With the help and kindness of her professors and loved ones, Julie graduated from college and began her lifelong dream of making video games for kids in Troy, NY, believing that her health troubles were over.

(Photo: Julie graduating RIT in 2015/2016)

In 2016, Julie’s health took an unexpected turn, forcing her to make the difficult decision to quit her dream job and return home to Buffalo. The slow-growing physical trauma of the car accident influenced Julie’s genetic disposition for several autoimmune diseases. After several years of juggling doctor’s appointments, specialists, and a complicated medical system, 2022 has finally given Julie and her loved ones some answers.

Julie’s physical diagnoses are:

Her Myofascial Pain Syndrome is the biggest threat to her health and inability to work. For years, Julie has been experiencing pseudoseizures/seizure-like episodes with muscle spasms as a trigger. After completing tests with Dent Neurological, it was discovered that her muscles are still affected by the car accident that occurred over a decade ago. The fascia muscles in her neck are folded/scrunched, squeezing the Vagus nerve in her neck.

(Photos: Julie during extended seizure testing and in Orthopaedic ER after having a seizure at the front desk.)

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body and is connected to several vital organs. It is the source of these episodes and causes asthma-like choking, stomach paralysis, full-body muscle dehydration, migraines, hypothyroidism, and blackout fainting. To attempt to treat the damaged nerve, Julie began to receive Trigger Point Injections, which require six needles inserted into the back of the skull every three weeks to release and smooth out the neck muscles. Though the treatments are excruciating, they’re helpful only in the short term. Julie often faints during the procedure from the pain, and the injections are starting to lose their effectiveness.

(Photo: The path of the vagus nerve in the body - Source: Lim, D., Kim, H., Lee, Y., & Namgung, U. (2016). Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Acupuncture Stimulation via the Vagus Nerve. PLOS ONE, 11(3), e0151882.)

While the treatments help to release the muscle, seizure-like episodes happen daily. Julie’s medical team in the Buffalo area has expressed that there are no further treatment options available and that this will be her permanent, declining quality of life. Julie and her very loving support aren’t ready to accept that answer.

In her search for answers while running out of time, Julie found a deeper gain of relief outside of the limitations of the American hospital system. Myofascial Release massages are a medical massage technique that helps to break up stuck body fascia and release stiff muscles. Over a year ago, Julie started receiving treatment from a Grand Island local, Kathleen Good LMT. These neck treatments have helped her more than any medication and work towards the root cause instead of symptoms.

Julie has to space them out, as each treatment is $90. But the small quality of life she gets back for a few days at a time means the world to her. Kathleen Good is an amazing massage therapist and the Trudell family owes her a world of thanks.

Kathy informed Julie of her teacher, John F. Barnes, PT, who brought the practice of Myofascial release to the United States. He has a treatment center in Malvern, PA. The treatment involves working with Barnes as well as 3-4 other therapists for 15 hours each week. They work on the patient as well as teach them how to self-myofascial release in order to maintain the treatment at home. The medical center requires a doctor’s referral as well as proof of the patient’s extensive medical history.

Getting professional treatment at Malvern has the potential to return Julie’s life to a previous sense of normalcy. She wishes to heal so that she can return to work. Julie has been chronically ill since 2016 and has had to rely on New York State for medical support. As a couple, Julie and Aaron have a resource limit of $3,000 to qualify for SSI. They can’t earn more than that resource limit or they will lose that support.

Julie’s loving husband Aaron has put his life, and most importantly, his career and dreams, on hold to maintain the vowed promise of “in sickness and in health” on their wedding day. Aaron drives Julie to every appointment, catches her with each blackout, and makes sure she gets the care she needs, at any and every hour of the day.

Julie’s bi-weekly immunosuppressant to stop her spine from fusing due to Ankylosing Spondylitis is $12,000 out of pocket. This cost, along with appointment co-pays, medical bills, and other living expenses make their needed SSI a huge necessity.

SSI has not yet been granted to Julie and running this fundraiser has the potential to be detrimental to her case. Being limited to $3,000 but desperately needing a $25,000 treatment to stop seizures is a difficult balance. Because of this, the owner of this GoFundMe is Cathy Kopf, Julie’s dear lifelong friend. Cathy will be handling all the funds and the money to pay for treatment, lodging, and expenses for the treatment trip. Julie and Aaron will not own this money as a legal disclaimer.

John Barnes’s PA treatment center costs $5,273 a week. There is a minimum of a two-week treatment in order to get long-term, permanent results, and Julie needs the payment of one full week to book the appointment. The total number we’re asking for on GoFundMe is $25,000. This would cover a three-week treatment, housing for that time, travel, food, and any medical or home bills while Julie and Aaron are out of town. The remainder of the GoFundMe funds will cover any taxes that will need to be paid, as well as the 2.9 percent + $0.30 of each donation going to GoFundMe as the fee for using their site.

(Photo: Working Budget - Please excuse the GoFundMe image formatting space.)

Any additional funds this campaign receives will directly go towards more treatment time with John Barnes and Julie’s medical bills. We’re not sure if two or three weeks will be enough time for Julie to heal, but this is the last hope for a better quality of life.

This Myofascial release treatment could completely turn Julie’s life around, permanently keeping away seizures and allowing Julie to be able to take care of herself again. It’s a hope that we all have to hold on to.

We appreciate you taking the time to read this and understand that these are hard times for everyone. If you are unable to contribute, sharing the link will be greatly appreciated and help Julie to conclude a long and difficult chapter of her life. We’re using the hashtag #JTsupportsquad and have @jtsupportsquad on Twitter and Facebook if you would like to follow along on our adventure!

Julie, Aaron, Cathy, and the rest of the JTSupportSquad love and appreciate you! ❤️ Thank you for your time.