My name is Julie Herman. I am a 57-year-old wife of 38 years, a mother of 5 grown children, & a grandmother of 3. I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I am creating a LFEBridge campaign to enable me to receive specialized medical treatment over a week’s stay in Chicago. My health story began in 1996 after I was bit by a tick while serving on a youth mission trip in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Up to that point, I was very healthy. I was slim, energetic, & able to keep up with an active life as a mom of 4 kids who were 9, 8, 5, and 4 years old, plus being involved in my role as a pastor’s wife. After the trip to Appalachia, I began to have flu-like symptoms that wouldn’t go away. I tried to seek treatment for whatever was going on, but it took 15 years of unexplained illness, testing, research, & prayer before I was finally properly diagnosed with Lyme disease. During that time I had our fifth child and miscarried our sixth. Our fifth child was born with Lyme disease! Lyme disease does different things to its different victims. For me, Lyme causes widespread chronic pain. I suffer constantly from migraines, severe muscular and myofacial pain, spinal degeneration that has required multiple surgeries and fusions, broken bones, hormonal imbalances, non-alcoholic liver disease, and a myriad of other symptoms. I cannot count the number of radio frequency ablations, spinal epidurals, nerve blocks, joint injections, trigger point injections, EMG’s, and prolotherapy injections I have received. I also suffer from chronic metabolic deficiencies that require me to visit a hospital outpatient clinic multiple times a week for IV infusions. Life with Lyme has been very difficult and very expensive. Pain has become my constant companion whether I like it or not. Over the years that I’ve had this terrible disease, I can’t even estimate the number of medical professionals that I’ve consulted. Twenty-seven years of having Lyme has cost us everything. My husband, a former pastor, currently works as a hospice chaplain. We have never had a particularly robust income level, but Lyme has sucked our bank accounts dry. Just last year alone, my medical expenses that were billable to insurance were over $1 million. Since late 2019, I’ve been seeing a very bright young physical therapist following a head/neck injury. His name is Dr. Mitchell Hall, PT, DPT. Dr. Hall has recently taken continuing education classes for a treatment therapy called Fascial Counterstrain. This technique sounds promising, even for a patient with all of my issues. Here’s what Dr. Hall has to say about referring me for this treatment: “The technique is called Fascial Counterstrain, and it is used to identify and treat the tissues that are spasming and causing pain/dysfunction in various areas of the body. Our bodies hold onto different inflammatory chemicals that impact every tissue in our body, which is what FCS targets and aims to reduce. It is unique in that it aims to treat the root cause of the issue, not just cover up the symptoms that a patient is experiencing. My hope in referring (Julie) to see Dr. Kevin Cronin, PT, ATC, JSCC, is that he can effectively diagnose the main drivers of (her) issues, as well as give (her) lasting relief for things that we have only been able to get temporarily resolved, just to have them come right back. He is one of the most experienced FCS practitioners in the region, if not the country, and I am confident that he will be able to provide a great service for (Julie) that is undoubtedly worth the time/money for (her) to go.” With funds provided through this LFEBridge campaign, I will travel to Chicago to ARC Physical Therapy to consult with and receive treatment from Dr. Kevin Cronin, PT, ATC, JSCC. Dr. Cronin said this about Fascial Counterstrain: “Fascial Counterstrain is, by far, the most significant evaluation and treatment discovery for painful conditions that the physical therapy profession has ever known. In the future, it will revolutionize not only the practice of physical therapy but the entire healthcare industry as well. Counterstrain is already the most effective non-invasive approach for relieving chronic intractable pain, period. The applications for Counterstrain seem endless. The future is here, and it is both bright and exciting!” - Kevin M. Cronin, PT, ATC, JSCC When I go to Chicago in early August 2024, I will be under Dr. Cronin’s care for 6 days consecutively. During my appointments, Dr. Cronin will use the Fascial Counterstrain method to test and treat areas of widespread pain throughout my body. Any funds raised through this campaign will go towards: - Gas - Hotel accommodations - Food - CoPays for treatment If people are especially generous and we raise more than our goal, we will use the excess to pay off outstanding medical expenses, of which I have plenty. I am very excited about what this treatment could do for me. It could change my future by changing my health. I pray that Almighty God will use you & your generosity to financially provide for me to see this doctor. I hope that through the application of Fascial Counterstrain principles, I can finally find relief from the years of pain I have endured. Thank you! And God bless you for your kind generosity.
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