Justyn – From Wheelchair to Walking

I first started having symptoms when I was 14 after I returned from a trip to Wyoming. Shortly after returning, I had pneumonia (or so we thought). I was entering the 8th grade. I had always had ok grades and had great relationships with my teachers – and then things changed. My grades starting going downhill, I suddenly needed reading glasses. My teachers thought I had ADHD. I started getting terrible migraines and suffered from extreme knee and joint pain. My mom assumed this was growing pains.

These symptoms continued until I was 19. In addition, I started having back pain. I went to a chiropractor and it did nothing. I went to an Orthopedist and was told I was fine. About a year later, while still seeking answers, I caught a 1,200 lb. mako shark off the coast of Oceanside, California which took an amazing amount of physical strength. Then a week later I became completely disabled. I had to quit my job as a deckhand on a sport fishing boat and became completely dependent on my mother.
After spending another year of searching and misdiagnosis, I was told I had Lyme disease and that the fishing event had “woken up” the dormant disease. I became very disabled suffering from a myriad of symptoms, even paralysis which put me in a wheelchair.

I used my LymeLight Foundation grant for essential oils, transportation fees (which I needed for transportation to and from my doctors) and to start a new treatment called UVL. The UVL therapy worked and I regained my health. I went from being in a wheelchair to walking, and regaining the use of my arms. A very happy day for me was attending the LymeLight Foundation Grant Recipient Reception in 2015 and meeting the other grant recipients and the LymeLight team. I am incredibly grateful to the LymeLight Foundation. They have given me my life back.

Update:

On 7/26/2017 I am happy to report that I have gone from a few good hours a week, to a few good days a week. I have not used a cane, a back brace, a knee brace, or a neck brace all year. I still have very bad days, but they are less and less. My progress would not have been possible without the grant I received from LymeLight. With the help from the grant I was able to do treatments with my doctor 2 times a week for months, we hit my body hard and fast.

I continue to try new treatments, I have started the Bruhner protocol, and am hopeful it will be the final push I need. I hope that one day I can go back to work and maybe even college.

None of this would be possible without LymeLight Foundation’s generous grant.