The LaLa's Journey Mission

About Lalas Journey

This journey started with one woman who woke up one day with a completely different life. Independent, driven, working her dream career, taking care of her family and friends, to needing all the help herself. 
LaLa's Journey started in April of 2022, and we have learned so much in this time. Many people have reached out about the LaLa's Journey story with us growing and impacting more people, so this is it, written by Lauren Cataldi:  When it was just my family and friends keeping up with my latest updates, it was easy to send a quick text to everyone because they knew the whole story. Although I will obviously not post a whole story on here of what happened over the last few years, I felt it was important to share a brief summary. On Aug 9, 2020, I went to bed with what I thought was just a migraine. On Aug 12, 2020, that migraine turned into a much worse situation. I went to my family doctor. He thought I was having a stroke in the office. I was sent to the hospital for a CT scan. While getting the CT scan, my entire left side went completely paralyzed. I was terrified. The hospital called my doctor and he said to get over to the ER immediately. While in the ER, they gave me a cocktail of meds that completely knocked me out for about 6 hours. The nurse and Momma had to change my clothes so I could get an MRI. They were not expecting that cocktail to do that but that was just one of the many surprises. They checked my back because they thought maybe I had an unsuccessful epidural shot from 3 weeks before. It wasn't that. They checked my brain as well but knew I would need further followup. I came out of the medication reaction, had function back in my left side from my neck to my hip, but my left leg from the hip down remained numb. I was scheduled with a neurologist the next day. Neuro was extremely concerned and ran every safe test possible. After 3 months, countless tubes of blood taken, 8 MRIs, an EEG both at home and in the hospital, an EMG, and ortho consult, my neurologist looked at me and said that he could diagnose me with complex migraines but he knew that wasn't it. I needed a bigger hospital. Off to Hopkins we went. Well, actually we were at home for the visit because it was covid days and we had a video appointment. Anyways, I met with the head of the neuro department at Hopkins. He told me that from my notes, he felt I had a brain disorder called Functional Neurological Disorder. Its a condtion where your brain signals do not communicate correctly with the rest of your body through the central nervous system. I also have dysautonomia. This is a dysfunction with your automatic nervous system. That means that anything your body does automatically (breathing, digestion, heartrate, etc) could malfunction. The combination of this led to them giving me a 5-10 year life expectancy in February of 2021. Fast forward a bit: I had a psych evaluation with brain function assessments. I was referred to a functional neurologist in Indianapolis, Indiana. There is no cure for what I have but we are trying to get the best quality of life. There are only 26 specialist in the country for what I have and my brain specialist is amazing. I would get brain rehab for a week at a time every 2-3 months. I would still be getting this treatment but we had to stop in January of 2022 because I had no income. I had been waiting since April of 2021 for social security. I was finally awarded full disability in November of 2022. However, although it is a huge blessing, it's still a very limited income. This brain treatment is $3,000+ per trip so it's no small peanuts. I've received physcial therapy since April 2021 and have been through 7 seperate programs now from Hopkins, Indianapolis, pool pt and 4 land PTs. I am currently still working with land PT. We keep praying for a miracle but keeping as much independence as possible works too. I also meet with all my other specialist for different body parts. We determined that the reason this all started was likely due to an allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was put on which only happens 1% of the time. It caused my brain to swell. A simple rash on my back that they still can't identify turned into the nightmare of my life. We cannot fully determine this because I have a cyst on my brain which prevents the doctors from doing complete testing since it would be life threatening, but everything lines up. We have had benefits and fundraisers, tremendous generosity from churches, family, friends and local businesses. We truly wouldn't have survived without the help. That also led to LaLa's Journey coming to life. We have officially been a nonprofit charity since April 2022. So what now? Along with having FND and dysautonomia, I have seizures at least once a week, fibromyalgia, PCOS, left eye blindness, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and many other less interesting concerns. I am receiving treatment from 29 different specialist locally. Every organ basically in my body has to be checked because we have to determine if it is a physical issue or a brain signally issue. For example, my gallbladder was removed in Jan 2023 because it was overactive. It caused issues with other organs in my body. It has been made very clear to me by all the doctors that I am "special" and very rare! That word needs to be stamped on me. It's hard to keep a body going when it's trying to shut down. However, I have the BEST support system in the world. My mother is my guardian angel on this Earth. I have two service dogs who are my beautiful doghters and little life savers. I have faith and believe in miracles. We pray and continue to pray because prayer is not the least we can do, but the most important thing. Your life can change in the blink of an eye. I was an independent, full of adventure and life, therapist to at risk youth, before this happened. Now, I am dependent on someone else 24/7 due to debilitating seizures and a leg that doesn't have feeling, along with a whole host of symptoms that are very hard to juggle. I've learned to walk again but I have to have assistance and it's minimal so you will see me cruise in my electric wheelchair. Always remember that you don't know someone else's story, so just be kind! #Hope #LaLasPrayerWarriors #WeBelieveInMiracles #BeatingTheBrokenBrain