Battle for a diagnosis - LTF blog post

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Hi everyone, my name is Wendy and I am the Founder of the Lyme Treatment Foundation! 4 years ago I launched LTF and I wanted to share some photos (below) with you guys from our past events and a little of my own journey battling Lyme disease.

I was diagnosed with Lyme in the summer of 2017. I was dealing with heart problems, seizures, neurological issues, I could no longer read, comprehend conversations, I couldn’t sit up, or even make a phone call.

I was so sick and doctors were passing me off. Diseases like fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis (MS)  were thrown around, but I did not have a diagnosis.

In March 2017, I found Dr. Richard Horowitz’s tick-borne disease questionnaire online and scored a 110 on it. 46 is considered highly likely of a tick-borne illness. I brought the results to a neurologist and he told me that those doctors only want your money.

In June 2017, I was hospitalized for my heart and still had no diagnosis.

I was alone in the hospital after meeting with a cardiologist, immunologist and more, and still no one knew what was wrong with me. I really couldn’t fight anymore.

When the doctors left the room, a nurse came back in after them and whispered to me, “Wendy, I think you have Lyme disease”.

I said, please can you help me? She knew a Lyme doctor named, Dr. Jody Greenfield, from Get Well Medical Care of South Florida and I was able to make an appointment with him that week! That nurse truly saved my life and I am forever grateful for her!

My doctor started me on antibiotics before a blood test even came back positive because of how severe my symptoms were.

A year went by and I was truly haunted by the fact that some people couldn’t afford Lyme treatment, so I came up with the idea for LTF! I founded LTF on Aug 1st 2018, but it took me 6 more months to feel well enough to officially launch, and on Feb 8, 2019, we had a launch party and the rest is history! 

Thank you all so much for your incredible support! My hope for LTF is to help people have access to Lyme treatment, fund meaningful research projects and inspire hope for those fighting.

Since launching, we have raised $630,000 to help others battling Lyme. Thank you all so much for the amazing support! Grant applications open on February 15th. Keep fighting! We will change this.