michaelsharrington (Hridayam)

oday I saw a flyer taped between the men’s and women’s restrooms at a nearby city park.  It was my day off and I was doing my regular 1 mile loop.  The flyer was pure grass roots, scaled down to the basics.

These are the types of flyers I feel drawn to read.

The woman: Sarah, is 38 years old and lives in the same city, Ben Lomond.  She’s had lyme disease for 20 years.

There’s a picture of her lying in bed, a picture of her kids and husband in a separate photo, a note discussing how she hasn’t been able to live with her family for 2 years, being bedridden.  They are trying to fundraise 35,000 for a ‘state of the art’ lyme treatment in Germany.

She’s endured lyme-complex (coinfections and neurotoxins) challenges for about two decades.  Most likely her condition was misdiagnosed for years as chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia among dozens of other labels. She has probably endured: debilitating fatigue, tremendous brain fog, aching all over, burning sensations, skin rashes, joint pain, chest pain, poor sleep, nausea and heart palpitations-not to mentions others.

With 330,000 new cases diagnosed every year (not counting undiagnosed), lyme disease (along with type-2 diabetes) are the fastest growing chronic illnesses in the world.  What is thought to be lyme disease may well be viral related or some other type of pathogen.  Tests are often inconclusive while debilitating signs and symptoms persist.

I am guessing the state of the art German treatment facility is the Fach Klinik (Europe is 10 years ahead of the United States on alternative and natural healing according to many holistic practitioners) and the treatments at Fach Klinik include: Major Autohemotherapy (ozone), hypothermia sessions, detox and immune support, massage, foot reflexology, colon cleansing, vitamin infusions, coffee enemas, magnetic therapy and most likely an organic whole food diet and some of the most potent herbs from the Buhner Protocol. (Buhner is a well known master herbalist who has specialized in lyme disease treatment).

This Healing Center, the Fach Klinik) costs 17,000 for 3 weeks.  The flyer said she was going for 6 weeks. That would add up to about the 35,000 she is needing.

My sense is that the ‘state of the art treatment’ does not include IV antibiotics. I would bet the house on it.  I am sure Sarah has gone through mainstream Western medicine treatments with IV antibiotics for years already. Now her immune system is even weaker and full of fungal infections and other complicating organisms and symptoms.

Yes I love these kinds of flyers. They are soliciting local support for one person.  The community knows the individual well and trusts the money is truly being used for her care.

This, opposed to the traditional flyer for the AIDS bike ride or Cancer Run, wherein the money raised, a large percentage goes to the super rich involved in the upper echelon of those corporate organizations.

People give millions to make a few people richer and hope that a ‘cure’ will happen. The the ‘war on cancer’-for example, declared nearly 50 years ago, has not produced the ever- illusive cure. In fact cancer is more prolific than ever before.

So, yes, I would rather give money to Sarah.  She might partially recovery; she might fully recover; she might not recover; she may even die (all bodies do).

None of that matters. What matters is a real human being gets love, support and a new chance at vitality.

That’s where my money goes every time.