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Abygale is a 15-year-old, 4th generation Floridian from the west coast of Tampa Bay.Despite dealing with severe health issues over the past few years, Abygale continues to be resilient, compassionate, caring, a shining light of hope, determined and courageous.This experience has been life changing for her and our entire family. Abygale loves her family and animals, especially dogs, cows, and chickens. She loves all aspects of nature, has a passion for crocheting, sewing, and cooking/baking, however her love for hiking, horseback riding, paddleboarding, and snorkeling have taken a back seat for a while.
Abygale’s severe health issues began in early of 2021 at the age of 12, just out of the blue. Her symptoms started at first with sporadic vomiting with severe abdominal pain a couple days a week. Her intermittent vomiting then progressed to a nightly occurrence. She began vomiting after every meal and soon was not able to keep anything down including liquids. After seeing multiple specialists under the guidance of her amazing local Pediatrician, Abygale was hospitalized at John Hopkins All Childrens in St.Petersburg, Florida in April of 2022. After weeks of comprehensive testing, she was released with many tests coming back with no explanation of why the motility in her stomach was not functioning normally. Abygale had a second extensive hospitalization at John Hopkins All Childrens just a few weeks later. Later, we were sent home once again, hitting yet another “dead-end” with no improvement, and no diagnoses.
Abygale’s health worsened and declined rapidly over the lack of nutrition her body was not able to retain, so we decided to seek medical care from Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. With feelings of frustration and hopelessness, we were committed to not giving up. She was hospitalized yet again in September 2022 at Shands. There the decision was made to remove her gallbladder and undergo further extensive retesting that lasted weeks. Battling constant infections and inability to hold down any nourishment, her health continued to progressively decline. Her gastrointestinal team installed a temporary feeding tube which after multiple complications, the tube was then replaced a month later by a gastrostomy-jejunostomy tube ("G-J tube"), which requires replacement surgically every three (3) months.
Exhausted mentally and physically and still searching for answers, we were resolved to not give up. The entire family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio for Abygale to receive treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in January 2023. Multiple physicians were consulted that specialized in gut dysmotility and with her other symptoms was diagnosed with dysautonomia, which is an umbrella term to describe an autonomic dysfunction.
After returning home to Florida, with multiple different medications to stimulate the stomach muscles, and to control her nausea and excessive vomiting, it was recommended for us to go to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. Abygale was admitted shortly after for further testing and to also explore if her pancreas was a possible factor in her illness. We later found out, this was not the case. Cincinnati Childrens Hospital conducted tests to explore the function of her gastric systems and reaffirmed her dysautonomia diagnosis.Additionally, she is on the hypermobile spectrum and suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) along with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). EDS and POTS are both considered autonomic nervous system dysfunctions and she suffers daily with chronic pain, nausea, insomnia, dizziness, irregular heart rate and body temperature fluctuations, joint dislocations, and many other issues that no 15-year-old should have to deal with.Despite Abygale seeing some of the best specialists from all around the country there has been no improvement and to this day remains a patient at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital and is on tube feed for all her caloric and nutrient intake as well as needed hydration.
Earlier this year, however, our family heard of a glimmer of hope and an amazing life changing story about a local Tampa Bay girl, named Bella.She too was seen by all the same doctors Abygale visited with a very similar story. Bella’s family went down the same path looking for answers, and eventually were told to consult with a Dr. Katinka. Dr. Katinka heads a clinic in Fayetteville, Arkansas called the Spero Clinic. "Spero" is Latin for "hope". Here is the link to Bella’s Story: https://youtu.be/IfP_uzHV3ts?si=9XqZhnaqVlEllMDg
The Spero Clinic is a medical treatment center that specializes in resetting the central nervous systems and the brain, by reducing inflammation and chronic infections in the body, they focus on healing the Vagus nerve. This clinic has achieved remarkable success in putting patients from all over the world into remission. Their comprehensive 12-14 week Neurologic Rehabilitation program offers hope for Abygale’s future. However, the costs of this program and their alternative approach to holistic healing is not covered by our insurance. This is where your kindness and support become invaluable. For Abygale to attend this program and receive the care she needs, very similar to Bella, we will need to raise $58,000.00 for her entire stay at the Spero Clinic. Amazingly, this cost includes all medical treatment at the clinic, take home medical devices, plus lodging and relocation assistance. As of last week, our deposit was paid, and Abygale has been accepted into the Spero Clinics program in Arkansas with a starting date set for May 6, 2024.
Our family feels this is our last resort and humbly asks you to consider joining her on this journey of recovery.Your contribution of love and support will help bring us one step closer for Abygale to regain a pain-free life and experiences of joy that she has unfortunately missed out on for such a long time. Assisting us to raise the necessary funds to complete the program will be the answer to our families prayers. Please feel free to watch the documentary below to further understand of how The Spero Clinic has changed the lives of so many suffering with Dysautonomia and EDS patients with an incredible 84.4% success rate. https://youtu.be/ZIk9dbn0auM
We thank you from the bottom of our family’s heart for taking the time to read Abygale’s story and any assistance in sending her to the Spero Clinic.
With our sincere gratitude,
The Brinson Family
We are partnering with the Burning Limb Foundation for our fundraising campaign. Burning Limb is a 501c3 non-profit, organization that provides a tax-deductible donation platform so that any donations towards Abygale’s treatment may be tax-deductible. If we used a traditional fundraising platform like GoFundMe, a portion of your donations would be eaten up by fees for management and would not be tax deductible.By using The Burning Limb platform, 100% of the donations received will go directly to Abygale. In addition to this platform, The Burning Limb Foundation will also provide seed money towards Abygale’s treatment.