Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello - one third of the way through the winter semester, I developed what I and my doctors (4 different doctors who weren't my family physician) thought was strictly a bacterial infection. It started as a UTI, which it took me several weeks to realize what it was because I've never had one before. However, it turns out what I had in addition to this (typically E. Coli apparently) UTI, was a candida overgrowth that was very significant. The synthetic antibiotic they prescribed me actually made the candida overgrowth explode as the antibiotic killed off much of my gut biome, our only defense against fungal and yeast infections, and it exploded. I was misdiagnosed as it being bacterial again and took another round of antibiotics, despite the urgent care department having swabbed the growth which exploded out an old laporoscopy scar I have on my belly button where it raced outwardly at a fast rate. Luckily I was able to ascertain with little doubt the reason antibiotics weren't only not working but were actually making it significantly worse was because it wasn't bacterial, and fortunately I had booked an appointment with my family physician previous to this issue. It takes me almost 2 months to get an appointment with her, so I got lucky in that regard. In any case, fortunately she listened to me because I had experimented with antifungal creams and spray (Micatin) and the ulceration on my stomach responded to it, and I had all the symptoms of a yeast (candida was the most likely candidate - I've had them before, just nowhere near as severe as this) infection, and she prescribed me a powerful systemic antifungal which covered candida. Unfortunately, it had entered my brain by penetrating my blood-brain barrier and I suffered acute brain damage which absolutely devastated my ability to learn novel mathematical applications such as in STAM 200 statistics, however interestingly, left subjects such as religion and entrepreneurship which I've loved and been extremely interested in my whole life ... fortunately these were the other 2 courses I was enrolled in and I was able to complete them with great effort. Statistics however, I would sit and study for 4 hours (as long as I was able to sit and quasi-focus for) and wasn't able to absorb and process and integrate much more than about 30 minutes worth of reading as previous to the infection. I did keep in touch with all 3 professors however and submitted documentation of the trials I was forced to navigate, and Anna Rooke my statistics professor tried her best to accommodate my situation, however in the end the damage to my brain was too severe to complete the work required to pass the course and I was forced to withdraw early. She has told me she will support this appeal, for the record, which I'm sure you'll find out soon enough anyway I guess. That sums up the essentials of the horrific ordeal I went through, and I'm hopeful that you consider this appeal because I am 51 years old and averaged around 90% in the first 4 modules, and although I was really doubtful about my statistical math skills previous to the course I ended up really liking it and doing well much to my (pleasant) surprise. Thank you for your consideration, I honestly did my best to overcome the mystery, but after repeated misdiagnosis and the length of time it takes to even get into an emergency department or urgent care, it simply got way out of control so by the time I diagnosed myself the damage was done. Truth is, I am even questioning whether I will be able to finish the 3 summer courses I'm enrolled in as the recovery time for this kind of situation can be up to a few years long, even for people like me who take specialized nootropics daily such as reishi extract, lithium orotate, etc. Unfortunately my next family physician appointment isn't until May 13th, so I won't be able to get you a proper, specifically catered letter which you may need to adjudicate on this until then, however I have photographic evidence of the abdominal ulceration, which I highly advise only those able to look at fairly gruesome medical conditions be the ones to inspect (trigger warning - nasty, obvious infection). I apologize in advance if these photos are inappropriate, however it's important to understand how severe it was for me. The implication is that if you have a candida infection so severe the cell count is so high that the organism is so desperate for food that it literally explodes out of your belly button, then it is also throughout your body, which it was. I had not figured out during either photo that it was fungal yet, and you can see the progression it took. Please forgive me if they aren't appropriate, I never know where the line is times like this and I only seem to have one shot at submitting evidence, which as far as doctor's notes, I lack at this point but as previously mentioned, I will make sure to give my family physician a head's up before my appointment that I need a letter supporting my claim for this petition/appeal so I should be able to pick it up at my appointment, but no guarantees on that. It won't take her long to write one, though - she's an amazing doctor and even with her massive workload she gets things done like this efficiently.