Yelm grad and family raising funds and search for solutions to mother’s sickness

Yelm High School class of 2021 graduate Kya Ramirez and her family are turning to the community for help.
When her mother, Shaun Ramirez, fell ill in late January, the Ramirez family never envisioned what was to come. According to Kya, her mother has been experiencing severe migraines and head pressure every day since Jan. 31. Along with the constant headaches, Kya said her mother has been suffering from extreme fatigue.

“Shaun fell ill in January and is suffering from multiple medical conditions including daily head pressure, migraines and severe fatigue. She has been in and out of ERs, specialists, and doctors,” the Ramirez family wrote in a statement to the Nisqually Valley News. “She has been working with her doctor who has gone above and beyond in her care and has also sought out help from naturopaths/functional medicine doctors in hopes of getting better. With the recent medical costs between January until now and the additional costs of naturopaths/functional medicine doctors that are not covered by insurance, Kyas families medical bills are climbing and Kya is hoping to raise money to help in her mom's care.”

In efforts to serve and assist her mother, Kya announced she’d be leaving the St. Martin’s University track team, where she has been a distance runner since 2021. Her father, Robert Ramirez, has also used up all of his vacation time from work to help take care of his wife. Due to the costly naturopathic treatment Kya’s mother is receiving, expenses have climbed and the Ramirez family has launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign at https://tinyurl.com/vycadxet with a goal of $25,000.

“She’s been severely ill since January, and nothing has helped. No medication. Nothing. Naturopath is the route we’re going to for treatment,” Kya said. “She’s been experiencing severe migraines and head pressure. She hasn’t had one day where she’s had a break from that. Ever since Jan. 31, she’s had a migraine and head pressure. She’s basically bed-bound at this point. It’s hard for her to walk up the stairs, so I have to help her. Extreme fatigue is also what she’s been experiencing. Anything she does fatigues her.

“With the GoFundMe specifically, anything helps. We’re just trying to help my mom treat her symptoms physically and hopefully she can get better so this doesn’t last as long as it might. I just want my mom to be whole again,” she added. “She’s been the rock of the entire family and household, and I just want my mom back.”

Until coming across naturopathic treatment options, Kya said healing options have been minimal for her mother. She noted that the naturopathic treatment her mother is receiving is completely out of pocket, and insurance doesn’t cover any of it.

“All of the supplements are out of pocket, all of the labs, everything is out of pocket. The big reason for doing this GoFundMe is to raise funds for us to be able to pay for that. Naturopaths are more equipped to handle something like this,” Kya said. “It’s had a huge impact on my family. It’s just me, my dad and brother that have been helping with her. We are at home every single time we can be. My dad has already used all his vacation to be able to help her. Of course he can’t do that forever because we have to pay the bills. Every time I’m not at school, luckily I’m only there on Mondays, I’m home helping her.”

Kya, a nursing student at SMU, said the decision to leave the track team came as a no-brainer. In addition, she’s received nothing but support from her teammates, colleagues, friends and family for leaving the athletic team to care for her mother.

“Unfortunately, I did have to quit track for this last month and a half of the season. I need to be home as much as possible because I’m someone who helps get her food and water when she needs it. If she needs to get out of bed, I help her with that, too,” Kya said. “As everybody says, ‘it’s your senior year, don’t give up.’ But I’m someone who wants to be there for my mom, so for me, it was a no brainer. I have everyone around me supporting that decision, and everyone told me I’d have no regrets in making that decision. My mom is more important than any track meet or any lap I’d ever run on the track. I can run the rest of my life, but you can’t make a new mom.”

Kya is hopeful that her mother’s recovery will receive a kickstart under the naturopathic methods she recently began. Though she knows it could be a long road ahead, she believes through naturopathy, there could be signs of recovery.

“They try to treat every aspect of the body. They give you all natural supplements to be able to treat your nutrition and help build up your body,” she said. “Emotionally, it’s been very hard. It sucks that nothing I can do for her is helping. All I can do is be there for her, and it’s awful having to see her suffer for 24 hours a day without anything helping. The only thing that helps her, emotionally, not even physically, is just being there for her.”