As many of you know, Rose has been fighting chronic, long term Lyme disease and has received numerous treatments this past several months, thanks to your help. You can read her story in our previous fundraising campaigns below.
We think the Lyme disease is gone and she will be getting retested by the premier lab for Lyme disease testing at the end of January.
In spite of this, our Rose is fading away before our very eyes and the doctors can't seem to do anything to help.
Twelve years of untreated Lyme disease has taken a major toll on her and she needs all the help she can get to rebuild her taxed body.
She has been tube feeding since 2009 with commercial formulas and we have never felt very good about it because the main ingredient in all of them is maltodextrin and the rest of the ingredients are refined and/or synthetic. I just recently found out about a whole, REAL food tube feeding formula made in the US that does ship to Canada. Please go to their website and read about it: http://functionalformularies.com/#sthash.X5AUi5WZ.dpbs Be sure to read the story of how and why the formula was developed. Below is a comparion of the formula Rose is currently on and Liquid Hope. After looking at the difference in the ingredients and the nutritional composition of both, I think it will be pretty obvious why she NEEDS to switch to Liquid Hope!
Liquid Hope ingredients:
Filtered water, organic garbanzo beans, organic green peas, organic carrots, organic whole grain brown rice, organic whole grain rice protein, organic flax oil, organic sprouted quinoa, organic sweet potato, organic broccoli, organic almond butter, organic kale, organic garlic, organic turmeric, organic rosemary, organic ginger, organic wakame (seaweed), vitamin blend and mineral blend (all natural for high absorption)
Per serving :
Calories: 450
Total fat: 19 g
Sodium: 160 mg
Potassium: 1174 mg
Carbohydrates: 49 g
Fibre: 10 g
Protein: 23 g
Water: 214 g
Peptamin AF ingredients:
Water, Maltodextrin, Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Whey Protein (from Milk), Medium Chain Triglycerides (from Coconut and/or Palm Kernel Oil), and less than 2% of Cornstarch, Refined Fish Oil (Anchovy, Sardine), Soybean Oil, Fructooligosaccharides (Soluble Fiber), Soy Lecithin, Inulin (Soluble Fiber From Chicory) vitamin and mineral blend (mostly synthetic)
Per serving:
Calories: 300
Total fat: 13.7 g
Sodium: 200 mg
Potassium: 400 mg
Carbohydrates: 26.7 g
Fibre: 1.3 g
Protein: 19 g
Water: 203 g
We want to get Rose going on this formula as soon as possible. All tube feeding formulas are very expensive. The one she is on now costs about $1000 a month, and is covered by the provincial government.
We are about to embark on a fight to have the government cover this new one, but it could take some time to do because it is from the US and not on the list of covered formulas in British Columbia.
We have fought the government before and we have won! We were the first to ever have our provincial medical plan cover treatment at the gastroparesis clinic at the University of Mississippi hospital and also to cover the cost of having Rose's gastric electrical stimulator surgically implanted in Montreal! I have no doubt we can win this one too!
The new formula will cost approximately $1300 a month, including shipping. Rose is on disablilty and only receives $900 a month, so there is no way she can afford to pay for her own formula.
While we are battling to have the cost covered, we want to get her started on this potentially life saving whole food formula asap and that is where you come in. Please donate what you can and share this with as many people as possible! Time is of the essense. Rose currently weighs only 65 pounds (at 5'5") and last week alone she lost almost 3 pounds. This is literally a matter of life and death.
