Each year, Nashelle Jewelry selects two recipients for the Nashelle Warrior Campaign. Nashelle Warriors are inspirational individuals from the Bend, Oregon community who are currently facing extenuating medical challenges. The campaign is designed to raise money to help support the recipient’s medical expenses. 100% of the net proceeds from the jewelry are contributing to the family’s ongoing medical expenses. Today, we want to highlight one of our 2017 Warrior Recipients, mom, Danielle Pratt with some questions about her battle with Lyme Disease and being a mother to her three children.

1. What is your day to day life like living with Lyme Disease? What happens on a typical day?

My day to day life actually varies. Some days I wake in so much pain that I cannot move my limbs, other days I can get up and move but just simply showering exhausts me enough that I have to go back to bed for a few hours. Each day presents itself with new issues… some days I can’t move my neck, today my back seized up and I could not bend it and was in horrible pain. I often have days that I cannot speak what my thoughts want. I stutter for a long time before some words form and then I say something all jumbled up, I have no short term memory, my hair has not grown in 9 years now and is all falling out (I’ve traded my friend photography for extensions for the last 8 years. ). I cannot remember the last time I did not have a migraine or severe pains and cramps in my neck.

I am now struggling with being very low emotionally. This is a new part of this disease for me, and it is very overwhelming and discouraging.

And to top this all off, I watch my kiddos get worse and their own personal Lyme Disease symptoms increase or new ones develop each day.

In this mess I also home school a 1st, 6th, and 7th grader, often times from my bed if I cannot move. I try to make meals for my family and rely heavily upon my kiddos and hubby for help with these. I do manage to get our kiddos to and from sports pretty well if I can get myself into the car!

2. How has the disease impacted your family and your ability to be a mom?

This disease has cost us over 3/4 of a million dollars and two homes. We cannot have insurance coverage for any treatments, and have sacrificed so much to be able to pay out of pocket for the last 26 years to treat my health issues.

I began having such severe pain episodes each night starting late December.  My husband and kiddos would have to slap my face, palpitate my chest and shock me to begin breathing again. I would come back to being coherent and would see my children and husband or parents in tears, saying they thought I was going to die, and seeing utter fear on their faces. Because of this emergency at hand, my parents bought us one way tickets to Hawaii where we have some family as well and we up and left everything we knew 48 hours later. Our kids left all their animals, their Christmas gifts, their friends, youth group, church, family, and our ranch. This disease has continually ripped everything out of our grasps, but the five of us are continuing to fight together fiercely for the life we long to live!  We cannot go home until it’s at least 70* and so that means that we are stuck here on the island, where even though it’s beautiful. The painful disease is still here…  just not as intense.  It is a financial struggle to afford housing, and bills on top of all of my health and medical expenses each day!

I have so much mommy guilt because of all that my kids eyes have had to see and all my tears. Their ears have heard doctors say that I am dying and that I had months to live. Their hearts have been so heavy for as long as hey can remember with all my pain and sickness.  I just want them to be able to be kiddos, have joy and not so much stress all the time.

3. What do you hope your future looks likes?

I hope for way less stress financially. I want more time spent with our family filled with laughter and brighter smiles and joy filled eyes. I cannot remember times not weighed down so much by the vast stresses of life.

4. What advice to you have to give to other moms who have Lyme Disease?

I would tell other moms to not give up though you feel all alone. I would tell them that they are doing an incredible job even if they can only get dressed for the day, they are not failures, that they are warriors. To live every day to its fullest in that moments abilities and to not be too hard on themselves!

5. Anything else you want to share about your journey and anything related to being a mom?

I would just encourage everyone to “Live It Out”. Whatever it is that you get to walk through in this life we’ve been given… do your very best with it. I truly believe that God chose me to walk this path, He could stop this in our lives and I pray He does each day. He could and can heal us, but whether He does or not. I want to be a vessel that is used for His glory. This story is His and at the end of the day or the end of my life, what matters is what I do with this gift of life that God has given me. I want to encourage others to give their stories and journeys and battles back to Him… to “Live It Out”!

To read more about Danielle and her life with Lyme Disease, head over to her blog: BeautyFull Mess.

To support Danielle and her family, all the net proceeds from her Live It Out Necklace and Live It Out Men’s Cuff go towards the Pratt family’s medical expenses.

Be on the look out for our upcoming blog post featuring our other Nashelle Warrior, Hudson Boeddeker’s mom, Melaine.

Photos by Erin Fisher Photography.