James was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on December 16th, 2015 at the age of 17. He was the only teenager in northern California to have MS at that time.

He was admitted to the hospital where he underwent several MRI's and blood testing to diagnose this nasty disease.

We went and requested Lyme Disease testing to be done and it was, where it came out negative. UNFORTUNATELY, the testing that our insurance did at the time only did certain tests and did not do the extensive testing that would detect a "dormant" disease.

Now, Jimmy has been going through a lot in the last year; side effects from his MS medication that nearly killed him where he had to be in the hospital for nearly 3 weeks and had to undergo surgery for a severe septic infection. This has made him unable to work and has caused mental health challenges.

Jimmy is a kind, thoughtful man that has had a lot thrown at him in life that he does not deserve, but he is thankful for everything he has.

We would like to try and raise money for extensive tick borne illness testing through IGeneX Inc. Unfortunately, this is not covered by insurance and is totally out of pocket for this testing.

Please see: https://igenex.com/

Any and all help in getting this testing done will be a great help to confirming his MS diagnosis and knowing that we are on the right track.

Just for background knowledge here are some similarities between MS & Lyme Disease:

Shared Clinical & Biological Features

1. Symptom Overlap: Both conditions commonly manifest with severe fatigue, muscle weakness, numbness, tingling, vision problems, and cognitive impairment (brain fog).
2. Relapsing-Remitting Courses: Neurological Lyme disease can present in "flare-ups" or periods of relapse and remission that mimic relapsing-remitting MS.
3. Demyelination & Inflammation: The Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria (which causes Lyme) can provoke the immune system to attack nervous tissue, leading to nerve inflammation and demyelination—the exact mechanism that defines MS.
4. Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) Reactions: Both diseases can result in elevated white blood cell counts and the presence of oligoclonal bands in the spinal fluid, leading to frequent misdiagnoses

Again, any and all help will be appreciated!