Tammy O'Hare

I am raising funds for Tammy O'Hare. I met her at church 8 years ago. She is a compassionate, resilient and diligent person with a cheerful smile and quirky sense of humor. However, health issues have lead to a decline in life quality and function.

She persevered through the other side of 14 years of medical errors and misdiagnoses, to successfully stabilize what turned out to be an autoimmune disease, to then be faced with the arduous journey of resolving a sleep disorder. In 2020, an ENT treated her for what was thought to be a systematic fungal infection, which he felt contributed to the sleep issue. Those aggressive antimicrobial treatments lead to painful SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which causes damage and malabsorption issues in the gut, thus extreme weight loss (from 110 to 85). After reviewing her records, current ENT revealed it unlikely she had a systemic fungal infection in the first place. SIBO was a huge setback causing needless suffering, wasted time and further depletion of finances. After 3 years , she has make strides bringing weight up to 100 and in ameliorating many of the symptoms of gut dysbiosis through acupuncture.

After years of multiple sleep studies, an ineffective CPAP run, and mandibular device usage, her research led her to Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS). It is anatomical in nature, occurs in normal weight persons, and not widely recognized, especially by insurance plans. Sadly, as per ENT, she is not a match for surgery.

UARS puts the body into flight/fight mode (sympathetic overdrive) every time there is a micro arousal or abrupt awakening from tongue obstructing and airway narrowing. It affects the organs and musculoskeletal system, thus the root to her chronic exhaustion, pain, brain fog, and still unhealed GI issues. Poor fragmented sleep, less than 5 hours sleep per night, means lack of restorative sleep to heal. This leads to more pain, creates hormonal imbalances, and adds a chronic stress load onto her body. It's a vicious cycle! Please imagine adrenaline/cortisol surges waking you up in fight or flight mode 4/5 times per night.

Acupuncture activates the parasympathetic nervous system (calming), improves pain, and strengthens the muscles of the airways and tongue. She has found the few initial sleep treatments to be beneficial from her current Doctor and acupuncturist. However, insurance doesn't cover acupuncture and the needling needs to be consistent for 3 to 4 months for lasting favorable results to stick.

Tammy is a hard-working woman who went from work she enjoyed and excelled at with a growing future retirement account - now depleted, to the edge of foreclosure, limited funds and loss of transportation. Her desire is to be whole and active again in work and volunteering and in outdoor activities she once enjoyed.

Please consider giving help with medical treatments and expenses to keep a roof over her head so she can get her life back.

I would like to raise $20,000.00. Thank you!