If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider/practitioner with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Through this “marriage of art and compassion,” Dana aims to share her new hope with others in a lifelong way.Īll content found on the Website, including: text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. She sees her new life as a gift and wishes to keep giving with all her newfound strength. Once Dana recovers, she plans to maintain the website to fundraise for other cases like hers. In turn, contributions and art sales raise money for Dana’s treatment. This fundraising platform promotes the work of upstart artists by linking their portfolios and posting their art for sale. By founding “Art Is Life,” she rekindled her passion for art while continuing her treatment and recovery. Though the successful campaign is now closed, you can read the original story on her fundraising website Upon beginning her recovery, Dana wasted no time in paying forward the generosity she witnessed on her behalf. The fundraising campaign was successful, and Dana received the lifesaving treatments she needed. Thankfully, when the world heard Dana’s story on GoFundMe, people came together to help give Dana a new life. New Yorker left BEDRIDDEN for almost a decade and sick all of her adult life after being poisoned by toxic mold in her apartment basement.Even some of her medications had become toxic, and her body was beyond its limits. The same response left her vulnerable to Lyme and hundreds of thousands of foreign chemicals found in our daily environments. However, certain respiratory diseases or immunological deficiencies can lead to much more serious reactions.Ī rare genetic condition left Dana’s body without the ability to detox from exposure to the black mold. Certainly nothing as debilitating as Dana experienced. Even so, the most common reaction to black mold spores are symptoms similar to seasonal allergies. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it isn’t uncommon for homes and buildings to contain black mold. The culprit was black mold. It had infested Dana’s home for years, unbeknownst to her and her family. After a series of desperate tests, doctors finally identified the hidden truth that had stolen Dana’s life. Then her body suddenly started exhibiting life-threatening reactions to almost everything in her environment, including her medications. However, doctors still could not find the underlying cause of all these terrible health issues. Doctors diagnosed her with Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID), chronic Lyme disease, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Her condition reached its worst point in 20. Tasks as simple as speaking, chewing, typing, or even simple movement became impossible for Dana. But her painful condition forced her to give up even this simple joy. Some of her lifelong passions included artwork, which she promoted online through her blog. This and serious neuropathy restricted her mobility over the years, eventually leaving her completely bedridden. She suffered from constant and severe pain throughout her whole body. In her original GoFundMe story, Dana’s mother described the physical battle that Dana fought every day.ĭana spent her childhood “increasingly ill,” and the lack of diagnosis led to symptoms that persisted into her adulthood. What was worse was that she didn’t know the cause. We all typically take pains to keep our bodies well and healthy, but what if that isn’t enough? A Living Nightmareĭana Anhalt lived with the nightmare of her body turning against her for 35 years. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t always work the way they are meant to. Becoming sick or injured can be an uncomfortable to a downright frightening experience at times. They carry us everywhere we need to go and enable us to live the lives we envision for ourselves. Our bodies are our most faithful companions in life.
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