Jen's Healing Journey

We are writing today to give you an opportunity to help our sister. All of us who know Jen can say that she is one of the most positive, joyful, and perseverant humans we've ever met. While she may appear on the outside as this beautiful and bubbly young woman with a gorgeous smile, you truly never know what someone is going through behind the scenes. Unfortunately, in many ways, Jen's life has been on pause since 2014. She hides her pain well. Her story is long and complex, but the gist is that she is fighting relentlessly to find a path to healing and she has found hope in a new, yet costly, treatment plan. We are outlining her story below and ask you to consider donating to help cover the costs of this treatment.

Since her diagnosis with Crohn’s disease as a teenager, she has proven again and again that her body is not like others. You know when you hear a commercial for the side effects of some pill or surgery that affects .001% of the population? That’s Jen. Over the past eight years she has battled complication after complication. In 2017, she underwent a major surgery that was supposed to be the “last one.” While this surgery was successful in mitigating her symptoms and reducing the likelihood for cancer recurrence, her surgical wound has never healed. For five years she has tried every treatment protocol available. Her top-notch medical team (including specialty surgeons, immunologists, neurologists, oncologists, and more) have been unable to find the way to heal her wound. She has tried more treatments than we will list here and has advocated for herself relentlessly with doctors and insurance companies that fail to make it easy. She has tried everything from wound vacs and chemical cauterization with a daily home nurse, to red light therapy, stem cell grafts, and reconstructive surgeries. In addition to all things Western medicine can provide, her team includes integrative and functional medicine doctors. She has changed everything about her lifestyle and environment to find healing.

In a quest to find answers, Jen recently learned that she has Lyme Disease that was diagnosed considerably late. Some people see “Lyme” and think that you can take a round of antibiotics and call it a day. It’s never that simple for Jen. Unfortunately, the medical community is still in disagreement about treatment for Lyme or even whether it exists as a chronic condition. That means that Jen’s very good insurance will not help her in treating this condition. Jen has been battling multiple illnesses for decades. It has been eight years since the first emergency surgery that both saved her life (literally, the surgeons said she had hours) and would also start a sequence of subsequent life-altering surgeries and treatments. It has now been five years that Jen has lived with a sitting disability and has been essentially homebound. At this point, Jen is willing to do just about anything to be better. Unfortunately, the cost of this treatment is significant.

This is a big ask, but it’s also the only option that provides hope. Her entire team (Western and Eastern doctors alike) agree that there is “something” severely interrupting her immune system. Until her immune system is healthy and functioning, her wound cannot begin to heal. Eradicating Lyme is complex for a person with her medical history and there are no guarantees that the Lyme treatments will be the magic wand. However, this extensive 9-month treatment protocol provides hope that she will get her body to a place where it can begin to heal.

We want nothing more than for our sister to enjoy a full and beautiful life. We want her to heal and to enjoy the simple things in life again. It has been exceptionally difficult to watch her endure so many health challenges and setbacks in her young life. We are kindly asking for your help in getting our sister the treatment she needs. Donations of any amount that you're able/willing to make will be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read about our sister's health journey and thank you sincerely for your support.

-Kristen Ricci & Kelsy Lavoine