110 ICU Admissions to Rebuilding Her Life: Meghan’s Story With Stiff Person Syndrome and CRPS

Chance Meeting at the RFK Reception 0:00

And I was probably not at the reception for more than five minutes, and I met you. And it was indeed life-changing, not just for me, but more so for my daughter. Like, I have chills. We're only like right now. My hair on my arm is changing. and deeper healing not only saved my daughter's life, but you gave her new life. So very profound experience. I recall you saying I think our doctors can help your daughter and I remember you telling us exactly what you said about praying before you walked in and you referred to it as divine.

And I very clearly remember that. Sometimes I know when it's like a divine moment and I'm like, whoa, this is definitely a define moment. Welcome to the Deeper Healing Podcast. I am Danielle Howley. And Iam Tiffany Jackson here at Raw and Real from recovered patients sharing their healing journeys in their own words and from medical experts pioneering new approaches to chronic illness. These are patients who found answers after everything had failed them. Join us at the deeper healing podcast. Hi, this is Danielle Halley and Tiffany Jackson with the Deeper Healing Podcast.

We have mind-blowing guests today. guest and her mom. This is Megan and Cindy Bayer, and I thank you so much for traveling in today. I know this was a drive for you, And I'm excited that you're here in person. And normally I would just go right into like, tell, you know, let's hear your story, but I do want to talk about this magical moment that happened that caused us to be introduced to each other, which will lay the grounds for like how did we even get here? I was going to an RFK event. This was years ago.

And I remember I with Dr. Bowerschmidt and we were walking in and I had this like quiet moment on the way in. Lord, let me meet the right people tonight. The second we walked in the door, I split off from our group. I'm all about like, Let's go mingle and meet with people. You were the very first person that I met. Um, Cindy, and I remember it's like, hi, I'm Danielle. How are you? You know, how'd you get here? And you said I have an extremely vaccine-injured daughter. And I said, oh my God, so sorry.

I've been following Children's Health Defense, been follow RFK's journey, you know I had to be here tonight and it was very hard for me because my daughter's in the ICU. Whoa! You're here, traveled here and your daughter is in hospital. And I remember thinking, I have no idea if we can help them. But I said, the smartest doctors I've ever met in my life, would like to introduce you to them, and I literally walked you,

Gardasil Vaccine and Early Symptoms 3:08

like took her arm and brought you over and introduced you Dr. McCarter, Dr Bower-Schmidt. And this was the beginning of how we met. I can honestly say that's never happened before or since. That was just crazy. So, what do we say from that? So I remember very distinctly that was in, I believe, July of 2023. Meg was, yes, she was an ICU on a ventilator. And I was probably not at the reception for more than five minutes. I met you, and it was indeed life-changing, not just for me, but more so for my daughter.

Like I have chills, like really like right into my head, my arms changing. I mean, you and deeper healing. not only saved my daughter's life, but you gave her new life. So very profound experience. I recall you saying, I think our doctors can help your daughter. And I remember you telling us exactly what you said about praying before you walked in, and you referred to it as divine. Mm-hmm. Sometimes I know when it's like a divine moment and I'm like, whoa, this is definitely a define moment. And I think up until that point, we basically were keeping Meg alive with conventional medicine, barely.

I remember after meeting you all that I went home and told my husband, who's conventionally trained as an emergency physician, I myself am a physician assistant. And I remember his response was, well, if it didn't work, people wouldn't do it. So that began our journey with Deeper Healing. That's wild. I know. Going back to the very beginning, because I think this is really how we all got here, including myself, Tiffany, probably the world. You know, your husband's an M.D., you're a physician's assistant, you lived in Pittsburgh, You have a daughter.

The systems that be, the medical systems, they make a recommendation. You do it. I mean, I was that person too. And I think a lot of the people out there are that or are on some journey of that until they're not. And so that's, let's go back to the beginning. Let's get back. Yeah. Listen to bits and pieces of your testimony. And I'm sure some of our listeners are out there like, what happened to her? You did mention vaccine injury. So 15, are we 15 years old when this starts? 16, 16. Okay. You're a teenager.

You're living in Pittsburgh, your parents are, you know, medical people, professionals, and they're like, hey, let's go get our vaccine. So actually, it was August 24, 2012. And actually it wasn't even a wild child visit. It was actually a sports physical. I played varsity basketball in high school. So I was needing a sport physical for the upcoming season. They did the physical, all of the usual things. Then at the end of that physical they said, hey, you're due for a Gardasil vaccine. We recommend it.

And so my mom, obviously, at that point was just like, okay, my PCP was my dad's classmate. So there was a level of trust there. She had been my pcp for probably three or four years at And so we did the vaccine, and I do remember that it hurt way more than typical vaccines. But other than that, I was like, okay, let's move on with our life. I have a basketball game tonight. Let's just move. Within about two and a half hours, had a fever, could not stay awake. Just body aches everywhere. I did not miss basketball games, but I didn't play that game that night.

And that was the beginning. Were you even connecting dots at that point? I don't even know that I would have connected that dot. I wouldn't have been like, oh, you're getting sick. Well, that's was our initial response. Yeah, OK. Not at all. OK, did you have like any local like inflammation or like your arm was hurting really bad or anything at the site where they did it? Oh, I I. Don't remember anything about the sites specifically. Do you remember having body aches within a couple of hours? So I remember nothing specifically about injection site though.

Okay, so what happens next? So now you're sick at home, you think you are just getting the flu or going down with a cold.

Progression to CRPS and Severe Spasms 8:14

A couple days went by, still felt pretty bad, but school was starting up again. So I just essentially continued on with my life. And it wasn't really until about six or seven weeks later. When I was in history class, 1030 in the morning, I called my mom and I said, Hey, my hand and my finger are hurting really, really badly. and my finger was red, hot to the touch, and extremely sensitive. I had sustained an injury to my hand earlier in the summer and it was exacerbated by a basketball injury, so it's been a whole process of surgery and healing from that.

But then On that morning, something happened in that class and it just started hurting really badly. And so I called my mom, she came and picked me up. We saw the hand surgeon the next day and he said to me, you know, I know what you have. I believe you a condition called complex regional pain syndrome or CRIPS. The kind of bizarre thing is that it doesn't really occur in kids as young as you, which come to find out it is increasingly common in kidses young and even younger. But at one point it was not extremely common.

It was typically seen in originally in Civil War soldiers. And obviously medicine during the Civil war wasn't the same as it is now. But that's really where it started. We did some testing, we confirmed the diagnosis as much as you can confirm it because it's a diagnosis of elimination. So you were kind of being normal living at that point. You were sick, then you kind went back to school, and then had this hand thing. Yes. And it was refractory. The hand therapy started that day when she saw the hand surgeon.

Over the course of weeks to months, it not responding to conventional therapy. And at the time, we didn't really understand why. We saw several people who were experts, and we were told that no, it couldn't be complex regional pain syndrome. At the, time and later came to find out the reason that it wasn't responding conventional was because it was immune-mediated. Now, we didn't know that at the time. It was some time later, even a couple of years, until we learned that the reason it wasn't responding to conventional therapy was That was about five years.

When you say conventional therapy, are you just talking about physical therapy or were you doing like steroids and other injections and things? Occupational therapy was a big part of it. Mirror therapy and mirror therapy modalities. Nerve blocks. And nerve blocks so it was not responding. Then were symptoms marching on in other ways? Yes. Let's hear that list. Oh no, I'm afraid. So the biggest thing that came to be the hallmark symptom that essentially turned my life upside down was severe muscle spasms.

Essentially, they were most severe in my extremities. I would get contractures in hands, in arms, and in knees and ankles. So my limbs would twist into all kinds of bizarre positions that still blow my mind to this day. But that originally started in April of 2013. And we were originally told like, oh, this is just only a secondary to the complex regional pain syndrome. But again, not responding to any of the therapies. Some muscle relaxers would maybe work for 30 minutes, but then they wouldn't work anymore.

We tried everything to keep my feet flat. But my foot ended up turning in on both sides and locking at the ankle. just moving on their own. So they were moving, but they would turn in and they'd lock at the ankle. And they're dislocated. I mean, I have copies of the x-rays actually. The rest of my leg and my arms and portions of torso, my jaw, tongue, that would all spasm. Even my face. My face would sometimes spasm, like up and down. So it almost kind of looked like maybe I was having a stroke or something, but I mean, it wasn't.

It was muscle spasms. I'm literally feeling scared. And this was how long after the vaccine just for the date? So is this a year later now we're having the spazms? That was in, that started in February of 2013. We're about six months out from the vaccines. Okay. So immediately get kind of sick, then back, and then the hands began. And then this is now progressing toward like, it's getting way extreme. Mm-hmm. The pain went from here, or from her to here to her, to the other side. Took over this arm and it just went everywhere.

I mean, it quite literally just, well, for a while there, I felt like every other day, there was more territory that was taken over by pain. And that's a lot to take on mentally. Yeah, Megan. You're literally in high school. I'm a junior in High School at this point. Okay, so mom and dad are kind of like, what the heck is going on? So I can only imagine the doctor visits, the hospital visits. I cannot, I'm pulling down a scroll right now. We went to multiple multiple hospitals, multiple physicians, tried multiple therapies.

And it was probably a couple of years where we had an amazing pain management physician at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. I mean, he was truly amazing and he really had the ability to think outside the box and that was what Meg needed. She needed someone who was willing to do that for her to the point where he had a lot of resistance from even the institution itself. And then I guess eventually we got to a point where they started to entertain other possibilities. And it was actually this physician who first thought that perhaps she had a very rare condition called stiff person syndrome, which is one to three in a million in the adult population and even rarer in pediatric population.

They did the initial testing for that. She did have the GAD65 antibodies in her blood as well as in his spinal fluid. And the only time that you really see it in the blood, you see in type 1 diabetics, but in spinal fluid you only see at in stiff person syndrome. That led us to... the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We went there in May of 2016. Um, we had an initial consult with a physician there who was considered to be an expert in stiff person syndrome.

Searching for Answers and Stiff Person Syndrome 16:58

He scheduled a day of testing the following day, and on the third day we were going to return for a follow-up visit before we flew home to Pittsburgh. The last thing I recall is Meg saying, wake me up after you get your shower in the morning. And so I got up, I get ready. I went to awaken Meg, she was unconscious, unresponsive. And I called 911 and that led to her being in a coma in the neuro intensive care unit for 10 days. They had no idea as to why, you know, certainly they ruled out, infection and the most common things.

It was determined. that it was polypharmacy that had been prescribed. So we were very concerned. We weren't sure whether she was going to wake up, whether was she going survive that. It was an extremely difficult time. And by the grace of God, she did. She had some cognitive impairment. There were many things we were concerned about after that hospitalization. We returned to Pittsburgh. She did recover from that, but essentially we I would say keeping her alive. Um, she really wasn't improving. But we we're keeping here stable, um, literally.

barely. And are you 17 years old? So at this point, I'm 19. Okay. I graduated high school and I started college. You're still spasming. So you're not even walking now because that's not working. Yeah. That's what I was curious about. Like you were not walking. No, she was in a wheelchair. Now the wheelchair was have been around since 2013, but in 2014, that's when it became a 24-7 constant fixture in my life. This story is just so unbelievable. It's literally like, just when you think it can't get worse, don't say that because put your seatbelt on.

So we actually, the physician there at Mayo did not believe that she had stiff person. And we weren't convinced nor was our physician at Children's Hospital. So, we went to the Cleveland Clinic. We also went a physician in New Jersey, I believe. I ended up seeing Dr. Scott Newsome at Johns Hopkins, who, in my opinion, is the world's expert on stiff person syndrome. Extraordinary. And we were blessed to be able to get Megan to see him. He did confirm the diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome and we still follow with him to this day.

Can I ask something? This is something that has gotten much... I don't know if it's just I'm more aware of it, but there's a lot more people with this now. Like I think of Celine Dion and like I know there are some major celebrities, But also just a whole lot of more of them. Am I incorrect in saying that? I mean, I do think that's correct. I knew that after Meg was diagnosed, my husband actually saw someone in the emergency department who had the diagnosis and the patient was quite shocked that my Husband even knew what this depression syndrome was.

And then, of course, since Meg has been diagnosed, we know people from around the world who do have stiff person syndrome. Yeah, it seems like it's way on the ramp up. And for our listeners out there that have never heard of stiff-person syndrome, can you explain exactly what it is? So stiff person syndrome is a neurological disease with components of an autoimmune disease that causes severe muscle spasms throughout the body. And there's some other bizarre symptoms like an exaggerated startle reflex, agoraphobia, not being able to walk across an open space, joint stiffness, pain, overwhelming fatigue for a lot of patients.

and oftentimes tremendous anxiety because the antibody that is is believed to cause a stiff person syndrome and in about 80% of the cases is very destructive to the neurotransmitter GABA and GABAs are body's natural anxiolytic. So if that's being destroyed, then that going to caused an increase of anxiety in a lot of patients. That's pretty much what it is. I'd have anxiety if my body was moving uncontrollably and I couldn't walk. I mean, if you didn't have an anxiety, that would be crazy. She didn' have any other symptoms of that before, right?

No. No, no. of like anxiety or any muscle aches or things? No. So I mean, I was an athlete, skiing, playing basketball, always doing some kind of mission trip or something. I always on the go, straight A student. like, what does that even mean? And then the other thing that I remember, I try not to read charts, so I come in fresh for these. But I do remember you ended up in the hospital all the time. It was like a cold would turn into, you know. Right. Yep. So she was hospitalized over that, 12-year period.

Over 110 times, she was on a ventilator close to 70 of those times. So for the listeners, just because this went very fast, my hand was hurting, I'm 15. Now it's been 12 years, there's 110 hospital visits. There's literally been consultations with the top doctors around the country. I am sure anyone who said they could help you are like, great, we're coming. Because this is what you do. You try to figure it out. And there are going to be people out there who are gonna be like this us. And we just covered a lot of ground really quick, but that's okay because this is a short period of time.

And I want to get to the hope and the, okay, well, how the heck did you get out of this mess? So I will say that six years ago, Meg was in ICU.

Crisis at Mayo Clinic and Ongoing Decline 24:18

which ended up being 32 days that she was in ICU at one of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center facilities. My husband and I had talked about moving somewhere warmer when we retired, never anticipating that we would move sooner than that. My reluctance was that I felt that we knew the medical system there and I didn't know what the resources would be for MEG if we were to move. A co-worker of my husband's had lived in South Carolina previously, went to work one day and they said the hospital's closing.

And so he came back to the Pittsburgh area, met my husband, they became friends, and they encouraged us to move here. It just so happened that while Meg was in the hospital on that admission, my husbands coworker and friend was admitted to hospital, on the floor above. And my Husband texted me and said, that his friend and his wife, whom I'd not met, was there. And I went to talk to them. Meg was having a bad day. We stayed with her pretty much 24-7. I came back, I sat down in the ICU in her room, and I applied for a job for my husband.

He was working night shift, so I texted him and said, hey, you just applied to a new job. And he said, is it south of the Mason Dixon? And I said yes. And then by the end of week, my husband had this job that he currently has in South Carolina. This is crazy. We started the process of relocating and he had six months out on his contract. What year was this? So we moved, it was 2000. So this was November of 2018. So that was November. We actually moved in, or they moved, in July of 2019. I did not plan on moving.

And I was in the process of renovating a house. So I sort of stayed behind and visited them when I could. It's interesting dates, November 2018 was the month that Dr. B and I decided to start deeper healing. That was a month. We quit his job in January and we opened that September. So we were like a twinkle in the eye when you were moving to South Carolina. puzzle pieces come together and you can only see them backwards. And that's what we discussed on the way over, that there were so many things that came together years prior to us ever moving.

I mean, one of them, and a big influence for us, was following RFK Junior. and his children's health defense. And it was my and Meg's desire to meet him and I would enter these, that he would have these lotteries where you could go and have lunch with him in New York and go out with his falcons. When he announced his candidacy, I thought this is the perfect opportunity. He's going to be at this small reception. I bought tickets for Meg and I. And then she obviously was not able to go. My husband was working, my son drove me, and that's when we met.

That's wild. Wild. So truly, truly divine. There's a big question that I have in my mind. I'm not sure I would have ever connected this to a vaccine. At what point did you make that connection or how did So we don't really remember exactly how we made the connection, but the VAERS report was filed in 2015. Okay. So the Backstage Inverse Event Reporting System Report was put in in late 2015, so somewhere along the way, someone had said like, Hey, there's a connection here. And then when you looked into it, you're like, oh, wait, this is exactly what...

So Meg recalls coming home from school one day when she was in high school and me showing her a study. It was a documentary. A documentary, actually, and I believe it was they were Scandinavians. I believed it Was Denmark, specifically, but there was wonderful documentary that was done about girls that had been injured by Gardasil. And I watched it and I was like, oh my gosh, these girls are describing what I've been going through. Whoa. I looked at my mom and I'm like, it's almost like they could have read my mind and my body like just what was going on, you know, even some of the things that I hadn't really thought to say to any doctors.

And I was like oh wait, that's connected. Oh wait that is not normal because at this point I am starting to forget. what normal even feels like. It was unfortunate that there was such resistance to accepting the possibility that this could have been caused by the Gardasil vaccine. Even our physician who was a family friend and my husband's classmate from medical school, she would not acknowledge acknowledged that, you know, this was a result of Gardasil. And I believe she said that she couldn't possibly, May could not possibly have this many autoimmune conditions, as many rare diseases.

It ended a friendship, actually. Well, we know lots of friendships have been ended by differing medical opinions out there. We all learned that during COVID. Yes, did we ever. Front and center, you know. Well I have a little personal question for you because you said you're a PA and your husband is an ER doctor. Did I hear that correctly? So before this happened to Meg, and it doesn't sound like you guys really connected the dots for a couple years later, what was your experience in the vaccine community and just coming from a conventional background to where you're at now?

Move to South Carolina and Finding Deeper Healing 30:48

I mean, I'm sure this has been a huge journey for you. It has been, and I can tell you honestly that I myself and my husband were both indoctrinated into the system. And that's truly what it is. It's indolectrination. I had no reason up until this point to question any of it. But when you're faced with having to save your daughter's life, your child's, I mean it changes your perspective. And once you start to research one thing, which for me would have been vaccines and vaccine injuries, it leads to so many other things.

It really does open you up to so many other questions about the system. I actually think that exact reason is why people don't want to go there. even within my own family members and different, because I was very conventionally raised and pretty much did everything that everyone ever said until one day I learned from School of Hard Knocks, like, well, that was a mistake, which is I think a lot of people. But it's very hard. to look at something that you recommended to your child that was harmful, very hard.

And I've had to do that, you've to had do to that. So have millions of other people. Yes. When you can pull yourself away from that heavy emotion, it's really about you put your trust in the wrong place. And that's not your fault. So I want to say that out loud, you know, it's, not, your, fault and intellectually, I know that, but emotionally, um, extremely difficult because I do feel responsible for what has happened to my daughter. I should have asked questions. Should have been better informed.

Blindly trusted a friend. And a system. Because the reality is, you know, it wasn't like you were in there on, is this okay? And I had never had any untoward experience prior to that. Prior to my daughter being injured. And so I know it's often difficult for people to accept. I think they don't want to acknowledge, as you said, It's a hard thing to acknowledge that what's being recommended to us is actually, A, not what they say it is, and B, that it's potentially injurious or life-threatening. And I understand that because I was that person.

I am conventionally trained. My husband is conventionly trained and as I said prior to this, we had no reason to question. But once you reach the point where you're faced with this type of a situation, it really does rock your world. so many people out there like that. So I want to go to the hopeful side, which is I call Megan this beautiful normal girl now. I remember when you first arrived. I might have said this before if I didn't. If I'm repeating myself, I am sorry, but remember when you first arrived.

I never really afraid of sick people. My husband was bedridden. And I've seen thousands of people and I have talked to thousands sick. Very, very sick, probably the most severe in the country even. The people that like, everyone is like you don't know what to do with them. You scared me. Oh my gosh. Oh, my God. So in what way? Were you in a wheelchair? She was everything. And she was ill-appearing. She looked unwell. Like emaciated, like very thin. Yes, she looked very fragile. Fragile, fragile.

And it also had gone on so long. That's the other thing Dr. B always says, if we can shorten the time and get them here sooner, that's better. I thought, oh man, this is like 12 years, it's been going on and so much has happened. Is this recoverable? These are the questions I'm having in my mind and I very rarely do that because I always The body is amazing and everyone is recoverable. So to see you as you are now, which I hope this camera can see, you look so beautiful and you looks so vibrant and your cheeks are rosy and skin looks great and walking.

Like walking, breathing, talking, clear headed. You're like a walking miracle. It's unbelievable. That's why I like cried when I saw you. So tell us your experience at Deeper Healing. What did you, what all did she do? Just list a summary. Cause there's so much that we do there, but I want to hear like what, had the biggest impact you think on you? Well, you were probably skeptical too. Like I'm sure, like, What's this? No, I think we, We trusted, and we had a lot of trust in you. And I have to say, for Dr.

Bowersmith, I had to that even if something did scare him, you would have never known. No. He's very fearless. he accepted this and just instilled confidence, yeah, in the process. And I think that it was, I the initial therapies where I recall the ultraviolet blood or radiation, Meg did have a Herxheimer reaction to that. And he basically said, okay, this was going to be complicated. We just need to slow down and slow and low. Yeah, and try some other therapies. We also so we did that and then we also did a couple sessions of the hydro colonics which again in true Megan Bear fashion I Ended up having a reaction.

I don't think they've seen before and from it And I think now we probably think that that's a combination of a genetic kinesis tissue disease that I have and probably a lot of inflammation as well. So we did that. You did the intensive detoxification. Yeah, like the two weeks stay in heel. We did not. I would say it's stay and heel caliber, but we drove back and forth. Oh, nice. It was the same intensity as stay-in-heel, we drive back-and-forth. But I also like that you kind of did it like instead of just coming in for an intensive, you did it look kind of longer and slower and kind-of kept coming.

So this is the miracle of you having to have moved to South Carolina. Even though they live in South Carolina, they're not local. I'll say that because people are probably thinking you're just driving around the corner. No, so we were driving about two hours and fifty. Two to two and a half hours depending on traffic. You weren't around a corner, it wasn't easy. And I think we're coming three times a week at the time. three to four times a week, yeah, for different therapies. When did you start to notice, like, improvements?

Oh, well, I got frustrated very early on because everybody kept saying, oh, i feel so good from this UBB, and I'm like I feel like garbage. Like, what's going on here? And it wasn't until Gosh. It was probably about three months. Yeah. And it wasn't for like an additional 18 months until the switch flipped, where I was like, oh, I actually feel like I'm 20 again. Like I feel how I should have felt when I 20. Now I am not 16 anymore, so it would be impossible to say like my 16 year old self again,

Detox, Recovery, and Coming Off Medications 39:28

but I think it's fair to I probably feel 20 or 21 year-old would feel. I'm glad that I get to go back and experience that. I know. And I love that you just said that the switch flipped. Because that's what happened. My husband experienced that, like I remember he was like, I feel so amazing. I'm going to go buy shoes and I'll go play basketball. This is a bedridden person." I was like, what? I literally said, that's impossible. He's like no, it's not, I am doing it because that was all he wanted to do.

And I will say to people sometimes, especially when they are in it intensively and they're not feeling good and we're like that is okay, this is the process working. there's going to be a day when you know you've turned the corner. And I've had so many people through the years like, I turned corner, and I'm like yes, yes. So for you, that was a long process, but- It was like November of 2024. We started this process in August of 2023. That was about November 2024, And so while you're not at Deeper Healing, of course, you guys are doing all the things as well.

A big part of, I think initially, a big of that was actually detoxifying from all of the pharmaceuticals. So she and all patients who have stiff person syndrome are on huge doses of muscle relaxers, very strong muscle relaxeders. Benzodiazepines, she was on Valium. Daily, She was taking 120 milligrams a day. So if you consider someone might take five or 10 milligrams a day, she was on 120. And if we needed to, what we refer to as rescue her, if she were having spasms, we would give as much as 220 milligrams in addition to a potent muscle relaxer called tizanidine.

So I think those initial months There was quite a load to unload. Right, there was. Her full liver. That was a big portion of it was actually weaning her from all of these. She was on a lot of medication, a lots of medications, and I am happy to report that today she is on insulin. Through this she was diagnosed, through the process she's been diagnosed as a typhoon diabetic. I'm not saying gay to that, but I say gay. She is on insulin only. Now she does take supplements but the only true pharmaceutical is insulin.

That is so awesome. This is amazing. So that was like 30 30 plus, 40, even 45 drugs at some points down to insulin. Amazing. I consider that a very small price to pay that my pancreas decided to quit and all of this and I have to take insulin, I considered that as a tiny price. Absolutely. And there's some other things to brag on about you. So obviously you can walk, you're not in the hospital. Where do we even begin about the lack of suffering and getting back to life and having clarity and being able to talk and going back school and get a degree.

So throughout this, I recall when she was at the University of Pittsburgh getting her undergraduate degree, driving into the city picking her up at 6 a.m. to take her to a nearby hospital to have plasmapheresis, returning her. And then I would drive her because she was in a chair and the University of Pittsburgh, as anyone who knows Pitt, it's built basically on a hillside. So it wasn't easy to navigate in the wheelchair. I mean, so I was just, I will just sit on campus in my vehicle and I drive from class to class.

And that's how she navigated four years to be able to get her undergrad degree. And I mean, I think you should have gotten a second degree or a third degree and so. Yeah. Wow. Then once we moved here, she decided to. Get her master's in social work and. graduated with that last year too. In May 2024, passed my boards in December, so now I'm working as a social worker and I am loving it. You're amazing. I love being able to advocate for my patients. and support them in ways that I wish that could have been supported.

And in Ways that i was supported because there were some people that were absolutely the shining stars that showed me how to advocate for myself, how To ask for what I needed to ask For accommodations. Those are the people that I keep in mind whenever I'm interacting with my patients and trying to be that person for them as well. I mean, it's amazing. Your journey is amazing, you're amazing! I literally love you. It's funny, like, your the girl I was most afraid of and your'e the most proud of. Like, it's unbelievable.

And you too. You too, Cindy. Thank you. Because honestly, I'm a mama bear. I know what it is like when one of my cubs is not well, and I don't know if it was worse for us or them, honestly. To have warrior parents that don�t give up, keep persisting, we're going to figure this out. They need to have an open mind, because I feel like, when you're in that conventional medicine space, to come out and think, you know, a little, have curiosity and to, question some different narratives. That's a big, big step.

I think when you're so desperate to save your child that you would do anything, I mean, think you are looking for answers and I truly believe that night when I met you was divine. Some of the biggest lessons I've learned is that I think in this space, patients feel as though they're not heard. I that they are discredited. They are disregarded. Conventional medicine, if they don't know what it is, they'll write you off. You either have a psychiatric illness. It couldn't possibly be that there is something organically wrong.

Returning to School and Advocacy Work 46:38

I think the other really big lesson for me, and I this is important for everyone, is that you need every patient needs and deserves an advocate. I cannot emphasize that enough. There have been so many times in the past 12 years where There could have been catastrophic outcomes for MEG. There were drug overdoses, there was a volume withdrawal. These are all medical emergencies where things could've turned out very differently for us. And they all happened in the hospital. Right. I mean, honestly, it is a miracle you're alive.

It is. Like, 110%. It's a miracles that I'm alive and that my brain still works the way that it does. Yes. Your brain is working. Yeah. That's so awesome. You know, testament again. The body's amazing. Given the opportunity, it rallies. And the brain, like we always talk about like, what could be fixed? You know, What can we expect? The brain is one area like the Brain is amazing at recovering. like everything that you went through. And then as you said, the heavy drug use, like that's a whole other, that came after.

I never anticipated It was so concerning, one, that when she was at Mayo that she in a coma for that long that was not medically induced. They didn't know why. And then when I remember taking her home, I remembered the drive home. and her being cognitively impaired. And I just thought, oh my gosh, is she ever going to recover? Because she is extraordinarily bright. I thought oh, my God, she's ever gonna recover from that. It took about six months. So it was about halfway through the next semester in the fall as I decided stubbornly to go back to college in fall.

It was about half of that semester before my brain finally, like my short-term memory came back. So it was just in time to take my midterms. And that was the first semester I ended up on the Dean's List. It ended up working out, but I always say that God has protected my brain. And so there's clearly some more stuff for me to do. He had a plan. You're here at Deeper Healing, so this was an awesome story. This is an amazing, amazing story! May this story help many, many people. As Dr. B always says, he's the clinic of last resort and they have the gift of desperation, which you guys definitely did have.

But may your story shorten someone's runway out there who's going to hear this and may not be as severe as this, but may go, wait a minute, there's something here. I want to find out the documentary name because we're going put that in the show notes. If we can get that, we'll do that. If YouTube hasn't blocked it. Yeah, I have a feeling a lot of them are blocked. Well, if we could find the name. I'd love to put that out there. And we are just in love with you guys. So thank you, Cindy and Megan Baer.

Your story's incredible. Thank you for being the mom that you are and the incredible warrior you were and now you're breathing into the next people that need help. through their own journeys. So, thank you. And please know that we feel the same about you and we are forever grateful for not only saving Meg's life, but for giving her life. Thank you, we got a hug on that. Everybody out there, Thank You so much for joining today. Just check out the show notes and We will see you next time. We hope this episode inspired you.

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