Sarah's IV Treatment Fund
Thank you for checking out my GoFundMe page! I am raising funds for a targeted IV Treatment intended to treat chronic Lyme disease and Toxic Mold disease. Please help me not only be released from this burden of disease, but unleashed into my God-designed purpose.
(*All donations that exceed my goal will go toward outstanding medical bills, travel costs and to help cover living expenses while taking 5-weeks away from work to undergo treatment in Chicago.)
Check out my story here:
In the summer of 1995, I was a healthy and vivacious young woman with a bright future ahead of me. I loved the outdoors, and that summer spent a month in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains working on a ropes course at a camp for youth. I was studying radio, TV, and film and aspired to do work both behind the camera and in front of it, hoping this adventure would take me all over the world. I was an avid runner, spent some afternoons working with inner city kids, and most evenings with my nose in a textbook. My life was vibrant and full of potential.
When I returned to university that Fall, I began to experience pain in my joints and in a few short months could barely walk. I saw many doctors and got zero answers, and a few misdiagnoses. My life had turned in a drastic new direction and I felt I'd been blind-sided by my new reality "” constant and chronic pain, and the despair and disappointment that came with it.
Faced with a debilitating disease, I felt as though my life was disintegrating. I began to lose hope. I could no longer do the things I enjoyed, and routine activities, like going grocery shopping, took all the energy I had for the entire day. While my friends were worrying about who to ask to the Homecoming dance, I was wondering if I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I was faced with a decision: Would I be held captive by my life circumstances, or would I pursue freedom? Thankfully, I chose the latter.
Slowly and steadily I pursued healing, believing, with all my being, that it was possible. I embarked on a complete lifestyle redesign with a new found focus on healing, balance, self-care and wellness. I began to explore nutrition, fitness, bodywork, detoxification, coaching, and body-centered psychotherapy; all supported by my spiritual practice of prayer, faith, and trust in God.
My story is one of resilience and over-coming that happens to take place in the context of physical limitation. Dealing with chronic pain and health issues doesn't limit my work to individuals with that same experience, but connects me to the collective human experience that life doesn't always go the way we might hope and plan. We are never powerless to choose how we are going to respond to this reality. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, says that "man's last freedom is the freedom to choose how he will react in any given situation."
We all have circumstances in our lives that convince us that our dreams are just too much, too hard, too far out of our reach. But, I believe that each circumstance in our life is there to teach us, to increase our capacity for life, and strengthen us in the pursuit of a meaningful, joyful life.
www.integratetolive.com
