Ms Reynolds suffers from Multiple-Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS), a symptom complex of Lyme Disease and multiple tick borne co-infections. 

Now 26 years old, she has lived with the condition for more than half her life, but it wasn’t until October, 2016 that doctors could give her a conclusive diagnosis. 

Living with MSIDS has seen Ms Reynolds endure debilitating symptoms that include chronic pain, chronic fatigue, seizures, sleep paralysis, pins and needles and tremors.

Her family has spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to find the correct diagnosis and, now that MSIDS has been identified, they face a monthly cost of around $3000 for medication. 

As it went undetected for so long, her case of MSIDS is life threatening and requires a specialised treatment that can only be done overseas. 

The family organised a benefit concert in November, headlined by country musician Adam Harvey, which raised around $15,000 and has helped them be able to afford the first stage of the treatment. 

Ms Reynolds’ mother, Jacqui Monroe, said her daughter is also physically ready for the invasive treatment and will head to Malaysia this weekend to start it.

“When she got diagnosed with the tick borne disease, they had to get her to a point where enough of the different strains of the disease have come to the surface that they’ve treated enough that the Borrelia strain is the dominant one, because that can be heat treated,” she said. 

The treatment will be carried out several days and see Ms Reynolds on antibiotics for a few days before she is put under anesthetic, at which point her body will be heated to 42 degrees. 

Following this, she will have more antibiotics and then probiotics.

“It’s almost life threatening, this whole treatment itself, as you can imagine, having your body heated up to 42 degrees,” Ms Monroe said. 

“It is absolutely freaking me out, absolutely scaring the hell out of me.”

Ms Reynolds will be in Malaysia for 10 days in total and will still need to be treated with antibiotics when she comes back.

Unfortunately, the treatment doesn’t end there. 

Ms Reynolds will need to go back to Malaysia six weeks later for another round of the treatment and, if it doesn’t work, will need to wait another six weeks before heading over for a third round. 

Ms Monroe said that if the treatment is effective, her daughter will finally be able to take back control of her life. 

“From word of mouth and talking to so many people that go over there, because apparently that whole clinic over there is full of Australians seeking treatment, and when they come back it’ll still take a few months … but within three or four months of treatment most people are back to three or four days back at work, or at least trying to get back to work,” she said.

Over the coming months, Ms Reynolds’ family plans to do more fundraising for her specialised treatment. 

“We’ll be looking at another couple more fundraisers,” Ms Monroe said. 

“Gulgong will be doing a golf day for us in May, which is great.”

Each round of treatment costs approximately $15,000, which is not subsidised, in addition to the costs of medication.

The family works extremely hard to afford Ms Reynolds’ care and has had to sell a lot of their possessions.

“We can’t stop it, if we stop the treatment she will die because it is in her brain,” Ms Monroe said

“A lot of the drugs she has, if we stop them, first of all the withdrawals will be a bad enough thing, but if we stop any of the treatment now the bugs will kill her.”

People can help by donating to the GoFundMe page.