MANSFIELD — Eight years ago, Mansfield’s Jessicca Berry felt an itch on the bottom of her left foot. Today, she suffers from two rare diseases, which at times leaves her debilitated.
In 2011, Berry lived a full life as a parent of four children, a volunteer EMT, a nursing student and worked with children educating children on fire safety.
That year at nursing school, she felt a persistent itch on her left foot. Eventually, the burning and tingling feeling moved up to her calf.
“It felt like I had just pulled a muscle,” Berry said. “I continued with my day limping along.”
Eventually, her clinical instructor advised she get her leg checked. She blew off the idea until her other leg succumbed to the same pain.
She passed out at nursing school, was taken to the hospital and was told to follow up with a neurologist.
Two frustrating years of doctors and incorrect diagnosis followed. Finally, in 2013, she learned she had chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and autoimmune encephalopathy.
Both diseases attack her nervous system and inflame her brain, she said.
The diseases make it hard for her to move her extremities — arms and legs. The myriad of short-term health remedies are time consuming and expensive.
After years of research, The Berry family has found a solution: a stem-cell transplant.
The transplant, Berry said, will remove some of her own stem cells and extract out the mature antibody cells.
“If you think about how children are products of their environments, these antibodies are the same way,” Berry explained.
The immature stem cells replicate the mature stem cells, which attack her nervous system and organs.
The transplant would extract stem cells from her body. Then remove the mature cells along with chemotherapy, obliterating everything.
Berry will also take drugs to wipe out her immune system leaving no memory of the infected cells. Then her immature stem cells will be transplanted back into her body.
“If there is nothing influencing them to do (the wrong things), they’ll do the right thing,” Berry said.
The procedure has a 92-percent remission rate, Berry said.
With the disease halted, Berry’s body should no longer create further damage, she said.
“Otherwise,” Berry said. “She could be put permanently in a wheelchair.”
In July of 2018, she was accepted by a clinic in Monterey, Mexico. Berry said she was not accepted for the transplant in the United States.
“The doctor is world-renowned. He spent years with the Mayo Clinic,” she said.
The procedure will cost $54,500, not including travel or living expenses during the month she’ll be there. Berry added if the procedure were completed in the U.S., the cost would be about $150,000.
The Berry family has created a GoFundMe account in hopes of gaining help with the medical costs.
Currently, the family is $21,000 toward the $60,000 goal. The Berrys have created a Facebook page with information on her quest.
Several fundraising events have been scheduled for her benefit.
On May 4, Holy Trinity will host a taco salad dinner and silent auction.
On Aug. 18, Twin Lakes Golf Course will host a golf outing.
The procedure is slated Nov. 11 and payment must be made before the operation.
“We can move it, but I really don’t want to,” she said. “I moved it once before and that winter, I had a urinary tract infection and had a cold. It was really bad.
“I want my life back. It would be a miracle, amazing if I could get to have this procedure.”
