Rachel’s Healing Fundraiser

While getting older is often a bitter-sweet experience, Rachel turning 30 takes that experience to a new meaning. At many points over the last several years, we have feared that Rachel would not reach this milestone.

While we are of course incredibly grateful that she has found the strength to get up and fight her health battle with everything she’s got, despite every obstacle set in her way, she still continues to face a myriad of challenges. As she approaches this milestone birthday we are also reflecting on so many years lost to severe physical sickness resulting in continued financial hardship.

 If you are someone lucky enough to know Rachel in any capacity, you know that she is truly one of a kind. She is a fierce friend, passionate advocate, and has a heart of gold. Rachel is the type of person who would (and did) give her last dollar to help someone else in need. Despite appearing healthy on the outside for most of her life, Rachel has suffered from underlying chronic illness her entire life that she tried seeking help for repeatedly and diligently, even as a child. Her summer vacations were spent in Crescent Lake, New Hampshire, and in 1997 and 1998, repeat emergency tick bites changed the course of her path forever. The ticks that bit her passed along several pathogens and infections that grew and worsened over time, inviting in other emergencies, immunodeficiencies and chronic illnesses along the way.

Through her many years of chronic illness, western medicine has responded to her case by minimizing the severity of tickborne illness/parasites, by denying Rachel’s experiences despite a plethora of physical evidence, and by neglecting its responsibility to learn more, help heal, and evolve as entity. Reviewing her childhood medical records speaks profoundly to the fact that she repeated similar complaints about the same common systems within her body her entire upbringing, and was persistently gaslighted, ignored, misdiagnosed, overmedicated, and ridiculed or punished despite obvious physical patterns that medicine should have been able to acknowledge and identify.

 When Rachel’s health came crashing down in her early twenties, we turned to our amazing circle of friends and family for support in finding answers as to why this beautiful, young, and seemingly healthy person became shockingly ill. Through the tremendous generosity of others Rachel was able to undergo extensive testing and treatment at the Mayo Clinic. In the years to follow, Rachel has worked with countless specialists, often physicians known to be among the best in their field, while her conditions have continued to worsen. In her endless pursuit she has been provided with diagnoses of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Central Sensitization Syndrome (which includes many criteria markers such as Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,) as well as the discovery of a mass in her pituitary gland with other unexplained abnormalities in her brain scans, positive/active tickborne infections, and several other diagnoses. Due to Rachel’s own tireless efforts to understand her most painful ailment to date, she has discovered that she has Morgellons Disease.

 Unfortunately, this discovery has resulted in more barriers than she has ever faced before. Morgellons is sadly seen as a “controversial” diagnosis in western medicine. Due to a lack of awareness and treatment available in the United States, Rachel has had to develop an entire wellness protocol to carry out herself at home, on a painful mind/body/spirit mission to clear out the infection that this disease causes before it takes her life.

Due to her chronic pain, cognitive side effects, and full-time schedule of medical treatment, Rachel is currently physically and financially dependent. She has been unable to work for several years. Rachel is unable to manage everyday life functions such as cooking, cleaning, reading, and doing laundry without support. She can’t afford any of her basic needs, such as clothing, gas, or bills. Despite enduring unimaginable physical pain daily, Rachel has also had to pursue two separate disability cases throughout her health collapsing. To the shock of all involved, the government denied her first disability case after years worth of cooperation, evidence, advocacy from providers, and increased symptoms sustained due to the exhaustive process. Her attorneys had to open a brand new case for her, in which she has not received any decisions or notices in over a year. She has been denied any assistance throughout her suffering due to the rarity and severity of her case at her young age, while that has not changed her lack of ability to provide an income for herself. What has kept Rachel pushing through unimaginable pain and countless barriers is knowing that she will one day be able to help others so that they do not need to experience what she has. We have all come to believe in her miracles just as much as she does.

While the need for a fund for Rachel has existed for years, her situation in the last several days has become even more terrifying. Rachel is currently fighting for her life in the hospital and facing doctors who continue to dismiss her and offer no treatment options. Please pray for Rachel, share her story, reach out if you have any potential resources in her fight against Morgellons, donate if you can.