I never imagined this would be my life story I would one day have to tell. I am a mother who has spent years years fighting battles that no one should ever have to and I pray never does. I live with autoimmune diseases and ongoing physical struggles that have made it impossible to work or support myself. I was 26 years old and had given birth to my beautiful baby girl. However I started to feel severely weak, exhausted, heart palpitations, sever pain all over and lost the feeling in my right hand as well as many more symptoms. My body was telling me something was seriously wrong I felt like I was dying. I felt like my organs were shutting down from my brain, heart, lungs even my skin. I went to doctor after doctor with them all telling me I had postpartum depression and needed an antidepressant and to get sunlight. I was telling them I'm the happiest I had ever been being that I just had my little girl. Not of these doctors listened. I had seen over a dozens doctors and no one was helping me and my health continued to deteriorate as the months went by and I knew I was dying. I finally googled my symptoms and went to one last doctor as I was praying God would heal me for my daughters sake. I handed the doctor a piece of paper that I had written down things that had come up when I googled my symptoms. The doctor said I promise you don't have any of these. I told him "I don't think I will be waking up tomorrow this is serious” The following morning at 6 am the doctor called and was he was frantic and said you needed to get to the hospital right now and he was on his way to the hospital to meet me there. Once I finally able to get a word in, he said "I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you sweetheart, the fact that you are able to speak right now and are not in a coma is shocking. Your thyroid numbers are off the chart and you need to get to the hospital now” The process began of getting out of dangerous condition I was in. However my immune system attacked my thyroid as a foreign object and did so much damage being undiagnosed for so long that I have never felt well or had a day of no symptoms. I am on medication that I have to take every day or my body will shut down and I will die. Due to my immune system attacking my thyroid, my vision changes and is blurry at times, my feet are always extremely ice cold, I cant concentrate or remember things because of the intense brain fog. Not long after I was then diagnosed autoimmune arthritis. I was also diagnosed with autoimmune hives, autoimmune psoriasis, as well as vertigo. The arthritis symptoms progressed greatly I am in so much pain now and I have to rely on a walking cane at times and some days I can not get out of bed. The pain was so intense that I went to the emergency room and was referred to an orthopedic surgeon.

I also have a lymphatic issue and it has accumulated in my left breast which I had to have biopsied to rule out cancer (thank God it was benign) however I do need another biopsy of scar tissue in my right breast. In 2022 I began having severe stabbing pains in my stomach and had to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy and was diagnosed with colitis, the flair ups of these my dare debilitating and I can not get out of bed. I had to have hernia surgery October of 2025, that put me back in the hospital with an abscess infection that almost took my life. My immune system is so weak that I almost lost my life in 2024 from covid pneumonia and sepsis. I have not been able to keep a job due to my debilitating illnesses. Stress is a big factor in my auto immune flare-ups and I live in fear every single day that I will be homeless and how I will pay bills, how I'm going to get to the right doctors and specialists as these diseases seem to just keep progressing. I live in fear of how am I going to afford my medication, how am I going to get my medication as I cant afford a car. I don't have any good friends or any close family so not having a support system has made things more difficult the anxiety of not knowing how I’m gonna pay my bills next month and trying to coordinate with Medicaid case managers to get to the proper doctors definitely takes its toll on the auto immune flareups, and my doctor wants me to see other specialists to rule out additional health issues. I currently have Medicaid however its not easy to get the proper doctors/ specialists to get seen. Stress is definitely a trigger for a flareup and I don’t remember the last time. I was not stressed out. Alongside my physical health I struggle with sever depression, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD and the lasting trauma of circumstances that were never in my control.

A major part of my struggle comes from surviving domestic violence by someone I should have been safe with, my husband who I met when I was 18 years old. I was abused physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, verbally and worst of all this happened in front of my daughter. I have been beaten, strangled unconscious, a glass bottle of wine broken on me as I lay sleeping with my baby, my nose is still broken. I tried to make things work because I didn't want my daughter to grow up in a broken home and I would get the charges dropped "due to an uncooperative victim". I have been In therapy for years and now know I had battered wife syndrome. Once I realized my daughter may witness more than just abuse I got the courage to say "NO MORE" which was very hard being that I was diagnosed with all these auto immune diseases no support system and felt so very sick and in fear that I couldn't support my baby. The abuse effected my mental health my sense of safety and my ability to move forward in life, but God gave me strength because I was a mom and my daughter needed me just as much as I needed her. However the abuse did not stop, I spent years years trying to navigate systems that were meant to protect us but instead left me feeling unheard and in no way protected my daughter and I, the corrupt system of DCF and family court completely failed us. Two therapists Have testified that she suffers from sever parental alienation and I should have 100% custody, my ex have a no contact order and he should be in therapy for parental alienation which fell on deaf ears to the judge as well as disregarding and not viewing evidence of physical child abuse. 

The hardest part of all has been my daughter. She should have had a safe, stable childhood filled with love and security. instead of ,domestic violence, court battles, and separation kept us apart and taken away precious time we can never get back The loss is something I carry every day. I cannot change the past, and I do not want to give up on our future. I am fighting to rebuild my health and my life so I can continue being her mother and one day show her that I never stopped trying for her.

I am not asking for sympathy, I am asking for a chance to rebuild.

If you are able to donate, even a small amount will help me cover essential needs while I work toward stability and recovery. If you cannot donate, sharing my story means just as much. Every act of support matters more than I can express. I have lost so much, but I am still here for some reason. I am still fighting .I am still a mother. And I have faith that God can make my life something better.