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When Chris was growing up she was athletic, artistic and a good student. She was a cheerleader, played softball and played the clarinet in her school band.
As a teenager she became a drummer, a weight lifter and a long-distance runner.
After completing high school she joined the Marine Corps and served on active duty for six years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
After a successful enlistment, she reenlisted to make the Marine Corps her career.
While stationed at Camp Lejeune she was working and training in a heavily tick infested environment, particularly the deer and lone star tick. Whenever she returned from training she had discovered that many ticks had bitten and remained attached, dead, to her body. What she didn’t realize was that these ticks carry Lyme disease and infected her repeatedly. That’s when EVERYTHING changed.
Now, when Chris reported for duty she developed migraine headaches daily. She started losing muscle mass and the ability to keep up with her fellow Marines during training. The pain and fatigue became so debilitating that Chris would eventually lose the ability to report for duty at all. Since she had just earned a promotion to sergeant her superiors in command accused her of malingering, (faking illness to get out of duty) and she was subsequently facing trial by court martial for being sick with what we now know was un diagnosed Lyme disease. She prayed for months while awaiting trial knowing that she could lose her rank, pay and serve time in the brig. One day God answered her prayers when a commanding officer called her into his office and said that based on her award of two good conduct medals, he would drop all charges and give her a medical discharge of 10% for migraine headaches. After that, in 2003, she flew back home to California and met her husband Keith.
By now Chris was 26 and her health continued to decline at a steady pace. Shortly after their engagement she developed symptoms called depersonalize and derealization. She would intermittently lose the ability to know who or where she was. When she reported her symptoms to the VA she was diagnosed with military PTSD and placed on various antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, narcotic pain relievers and muscle relaxers. By mis diagnosing her at this point, after she had Lyme already for almost a decade, the medications covered the symptoms while they were progressing under the surface. Thinking she was under proper care and fully trusting her VA doctors, she was convinced she was getting better and she decided to get married and have children.
After the birth of her second child Chris’ health continued to decline on a more rapid pace than before. She was diagnosed with severe postpartum depression, fibromyalgia, a bladder condition called interstitial cystitis, irritable bowel syndrome. She was placed back on a lot of the same meds as before in such doses and combinations that have become lethal for many celebrities. She dropped down to 100lbs and stage 2 kidney disease.
By this point Chris felt convinced she was dying and she reached out to an organization outside the VA to help her get off all medications. She succeeded in tapering and thought she was past the worst of it. Then the mystery seizures started. ER visits, Christmas in the hospital, slurred speech, insomnia, food aversions to things she used to love and incredible pain. Little did she know the disease was just getting started.
As Chris’ Lyme disease was rapidly progressing her symptoms became more like Alzheimer’s and Lou Gerigs disease than Fibromyalgia. She started having seizures and tremors daily, and still does. She has lost the ability to speak clearly on more days than not. Chris can no longer prepare a meal for herself and sometimes she must be fed as her hands do not work. Because of the insomnia, which has been going on for over a year, she cannot sleep until after 10pm and then the night tremors and terrors start so the rest is not adequate while she fights to stay asleep. She gets up around 1:30pm and is in a huge amount of pain and cannot walk well or speak clearly. She needs to have someone by her side most times of the day because she is so scared all the time. Her husband has become an almost full-time caregiver for her but with two special needs kids and having to work the load is getting too much. She is now to the point where she needs a caregiver at the house to be with her throughout the day. To help her with her appointments scheduling and for taking her to the doctor when her husband is working.
Chris is now on Low Dose Immunotherapy, LDI, and there is hope as this method has been successful for others by putting the Lyme into remission, there is no cure for chronic Lyme, but it is a long, two-year process. Unfortunately, Lyme gets much worse while it is dying off. She will never be healed completely but just to be able to live a life outside her bedroom would be a miracle.
Chris needs a regular physical therapist as she is experiencing a lot of muscle atrophy from being chair ridden. She needs to continue the expensive but hopeful treatment of LDI for the next two years. Almost everything to do with Lyme is NOT covered under our insurance. Chris needs to have a caretaker at the house for her 5 days a week until she can feed herself. She will need to continue her very extensive supplement routine which is $100s a month. She needs to see a therapist for extreme depression as the Lyme has made her consider taking her own life to end the misery. She also needs massive amounts of prayers. Her faith has remained strong through this whole thing, even if at times there are doubts, she knows the Lord is there for her.
Chris needs a regular physical therapist as she is experiencing a lot of muscle atrophy from being chair ridden. She needs to continue the expensive but hopeful treatment of LDI for the next two years. Almost everything to do with chronic Lyme is NOT covered by insurance companies. Chris needs to have a caretaker at the house for her 5 days a week until she can feed herself. She will need to continue her very extensive supplement routine which is several hundred a month. She needs to see a therapist for extreme depression as the Lyme has made her consider taking her own life to end the misery. She also needs massive amounts of prayers. Her faith has remained strong through this whole thing, even if at times there are doubts, she knows the Lord is there for her.
In addition to Chris’ treatment both of her daughters have tested positive for Lyme as well. They were both born with it so their treatment needs to start soon so we have a better chance of remission. Although both girls were born with multiple co infections of the Lyme virus, Ava was born with the Babesia coinfection as the dominate strain and this has manifest itself as autism. Zoe was born with Bartonella and Babesia, and she has severe ADHD and ODD. They are both in special needs classes and are showing outward signs of Lyme. The girls need to get on the LDI treatments as soon as possible.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to our story. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers! We firmly believe that God is here with us every day, guiding our steps and providing wisdom, and we feel so blessed for any prayers and donations made.
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