Help me beat myocarditis no.2

UPDATE:

One year later I still need your help. All of the funds that I collected are now gone - I went for check ups all across Zagreb, paid for private clinics, paid for my blood work to be done and, most of all, paid for my food which is probably the most expensive part of it all. The dietary restrictions I have and vitamins I have to take are incredibly expensive and I can't afford them on my own, since I still can't work. I take 20 pills a day, so I have to be extremely mindful of my gut and I what I eat, which is sometimes also hard, because I have days when I can't get up from the bed and have to order take out. Everything from the food, vitamins, honeys, teas and, most importantly, health check ups, is really expensive and the money I managed to collect actually went down the drain pretty easily and quickly. Some appointments cost 6000 euros just for one appointment, so some stuff I wasn't even able to go to or try. My health has also been pretty much the same - I still have to lay in bed a lot, still get heart palpitations quite often and I, once again, found myself in the hospital this summer, so nothing's changed. Apart from the heart, I've been having problems with my tumor, which I now have to get looked at next week and I also had an operation of a possible melanoma, which also turned out to be benign, so that was good news. The doctors in Croatia can't seem to figure out what's wrong, but because of the restrctions I couldn't go anywhere else. Now that COVID-19 is a little bit under control I would like to start exploring my options outside of the city I live in, which means going on trips around Croatia and outside of Croatia. Right now I have 15 Croatian doctors to visit and they are scattered all around the country: Rijeka, Osijek, Split, Zadar, etc. That means I have to drive there, stay there, go back and pay for everything myself. I also managed to collect some connections from Graz, Berlin, Vienna, The Netherlands and Italy. But that also means I have to collect money to get there. I, too, apart from getting my heart checked-out, have to do my blood work and go to other specialists, not just cardiologists. I truly cannot to this without your help. Again. I'm really desperate, but a little bit more hopeful now. I feel that if I manage to collect as much money as possible that I'll be able to go to other countries and seek help there. Apart from your help, if you do decide to donate, I've reached out to my University so they can help me translate the numerous papers about my illness, so that I can show them to other doctors who don't speak Croatian. I've also reached out to many other institutions in and outside of my country, so this situation I find myself in is not for a lack of trying. I thank you in advance if you decide to donate and hope that this time next year I'll be able to greet you with some good news. Thank you for your support, again, I really appreciate each and every message and penny that comes my way.

p.s. I had to make a new account, because my Paypal changed, just for information purposes.

MY STORY:

(CROATIAN BELOW) Hi people! I'm Zrinka and me and my heart have been having an ongoing battle for about 8 years now. When I was 17, I had a severe heart burn that landed me in the hospital and it turned out to be myocarditis. It is a heart muscle inflammation caused by viruses or bacteria, but can also be caused by other numerous things and can be autoimmune ( https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/myocarditis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352539). The doctors in my hometown didn't react properly, because they didn't know what it was and so I ended up with scars on my heart. However, after numerous check-ups I was told that I shouldn't have a problem with it anymore and I went to lead a normal and healthy life. However, that changed in April of 2018 and it hasn't stopped since. Since then, I have been hospitalized at least once a year (but usually more) for a reoccurring myo(peri)carditis and still to this day I have not received an answer of why this is happening to me. I don't have a proper diagnosis nor do I have the proper medications to take for it. This condition has brought me severe physical pain and is to this day preventing me from having a normal life. I can't go out of my house without worrying if I'm going to catch a virus or bacteria that is going to inflame my heart and I can't work since I can't do prolonged physical activities. I also had to stop attending college for a while, which has caused me to go broke, since I was denied access to a scholarship that I was getting because of my good grades. In addition to that, last year (in 2019) after almost a year of mind-numbing headaches that lasted for weeks straight, me crashing into things, things falling out of my hands and having severe vertigo, I was diagnosed with a, thankfully, benign brain tumour. Luckily, the tumour is not growing right now and is not malignant, so at least there is that. I am beginning to feel desperate, because not only am I not getting answers about the state of my health, I am also not being taken seriously by the public health workers who keep telling me that everything will be fine since I am young. My heart has now suffered five of these inflammations and I was told that the first one would be final. They are not actively engaged in trying to discover what is wrong with me and I'm starting to feel weaker every day both physically and mentally. I need help. I need to collect donations in order to go to private clinics and do everything that can be done in order to find out what is going on with my heart and to get the help that I need so I can start living as normally as possible and get the right treatment or go deal with it surgically (i.e. get an operation). I am asking for help because I feel that after 8 years of dealing with this alone (and going to public hospitals) that there is no other way of discovering what is going on. I thank you in advance for whatever your help may be! _________________________________________________________________________________

Bok ekipa! Moje ime je Zrinka i ja i moje srce borimo se jedno s drugim već skoro 8 godina. Nakon jake boli u prsima, sa 17 godina završila sam u bolnici s miokarditisom. Miokarditis je upala srčanog mišića, a uz brojne razloge zašto do nje dolazi, najčešće ju uzrokuju virusi i bakterije. Osim toga, može biti i autoimuna. Pedijatri u Čakovcu nisu reagirali pravodobno, jer prvih par dana nisu znali što se točno događa pa mi je zbog toga srce dobilo ožiljke. Bez obzira na to, nakon mnogo pregleda rečeno mi je da sa srcem više ne bih trebala imati problema i četiri sam godine nakon toga živjela normalno, uz preporuke koje su mi doktori dali. No, to se promijenilo u travnju 2018. godine. Od tada završavam u bolnici barem jednom godišnje zbog recidivirajućih mio(peri)karditisa te do dana današnjeg nisam dobila odgovor na pitanje zašto se to meni događa. Nemam točnu dijagnozu, s obzirom da pored svih dijagnoza pišu upitnici, niti imam odgovarajuću terapiju. Ovo mi je zdravstveno stanje donijelo jake fizičke bolove te me sprječava u življenju normalnog života. Ne mogu izaći iz stana bez da se bojim hoću li ili neću pokupiti neki virus ili bakteriju koja će mi upaliti srce, a ne mogu ni raditi, s obzirom da se moram držati podalje bilo kakvih dužih fizičkih aktivnosti. Osim toga, već treću godinu za redom stiskam pauzu na studiranje, zbog čega sam financijski u teškom kaosu, jer mi je oduzeta stipendija koju sam dobivala. Uz sve ovo, prošle mi je godine (2019.) nakon oko 9 mjeseci mučenja s jakim glavoboljama (koje bi trajale tjednima) i vrtoglavicama otkriven tumor na mozgu. Uz vrtoglavice i glavobolje, dugo me je mučilo i to što sam se popikavala sama na sebe, gubila ravnotežu i što su mi stvari padale iz ruku te mi se mutio vid. Ni tad me nitko nije ozbiljno shvaćao. Tumor je, na sreću, benigni i ne raste, što je super vijest. Počinjem se osjećati nemoćno, jer ne samo da ne dobivam odgovore o stanju svog zdravlja, nego me nitko ozbiljno ne shvaća, s obzirom na to da mi doktori neprestano govore da ću ja „sve to preživjeti, jer sam još mlada.“ Moji su srčani mišić i ovojnica do sada bili upaljeni pet puta, a rečeno mi je da je prvi put bio prvi i zadnji. Nitko od javnih zdravstvenih radnika nije angažiran u aktivnom traženju odgovora što nije u redu sa mojim srcem te me sve to skupa iscrpljuje kako fizički tako i psihički. Treba mi pomoć. Trebaju mi donacije da odem privatniku ili u neku drugu državu gdje će napraviti SVE što je moguće da se sazna što tu točno nije u redu, kako bih mogla nastaviti normalno živjeti i kako bih dobila pravu terapiju. Osim toga, ako ništa od toga neće funkcionirati, da nađem mjesto gdje mi se može napraviti operativni zahvat, ako to bude potrebno. Tražim pomoć, jer nakon 8 godina borbe s ovim ja stvarno više ne znam što napraviti. Hvala vam unaprijed na pomoći kakva god ona bila!