“Howdy, I’m Kayla @Battle2Survive. I’m a young lady that loves life more now than ever! My diagnosis are MSA, SMAS, Autonomic Nervous System Failure, POTs, and other diagnosis.
Growing up I played multiple sports, softball, soccer, running, MMA, and wrestling. I started to have sick days at school in my senior year. We all just thought it was my turn to have sick days now. We were wrong. Things started to get more noticeably worse. In 2018, I had a fall off my barrel horse that broke my back, nearly paralyzing me from shoulders down. That’s when my life took a turn. The next two years I struggled with ongoing migraines, body pains, broken bones/torn ligaments, being tired and confused almost daily. Including multiple surgeries to fix my back and other injuries.
2019-2021, I was in and out of the hospitals, admissions after another. My cardiologist referred me to Specialist clinics and that is when I was diagnosed with Autonomic Nervous System Failure, POTs, and Vagus nerve failure. And GI testing. I had to switch the reality of my life to health care for myself, instead of caring for my clients.
2022 – I have received two a rare diagnosis that are called MSA (Multiple System Atrophy) & SMAS (Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome). MSA slowly shuts the whole body down, no cure. SMAS kills the gut, no cure but surgery can help. I was broken, hearing these both diagnosis in 3 months time, but it gave me answers. I fight everyday I have with life with help from my Fiancé/kids/family. It’s terribly scary having my life flipped upside down to an unknown. I now have to live with the change of having a NJ tube and medical appointments everywhere and still accepting the need to use the hospitals to keep me alive. Accepting this has been hard but I’m so grateful for the health team I have! I can live again!
The saying – Sky above me, Earth below me, Fire within me ♡ – is what I live by everyday to keep that smile everyone knows.”
