Olivia Goodreau is the founder of LivLyme Foundation, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to children and their families struggling with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases while also supporting the work of researchers and scientists who are dedicated to finding effective treatments and cures for tick-borne diseases. Olivia is also the inventor of the free global APP TickTracker, Tickmojis APP, and recently launched her latest free APP, LongHaulTracker.
Olivia founded the LivLyme Foundation in 2017 when she was 12 years old to raise money for children who cannot afford their Lyme treatments, to fund research to find a cure for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and to educate the world about ticks.
Olivia has given over 100 grants to children ranging in ages from 2-21 to help with their Lyme and tick-borne disease treatments. She has had over 1000+ applications from 49 states.
Olivia has given multiple scientific grants to Stanford University, John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and University of New Haven.
Olivia’s memoir “But She Looks Fine - From Illness to Advocacy” launches May 9th, 2023. So many young people are faced with life-changing hardships— from illness and disease to loss and calamity. What Olivia discovers through her journey with chronic Lyme, and what she has been sharing with the world, is that inside of every predicament is also a possibility. This is the story of how Olivia turned the physical challenges and emotional hardships she had faced since she was a little girl into an engaged life of advocacy for others.
Olivia has testified twice in front of the U.S Department of Health & Human Services, Tick-Borne Disease Working Group and both the House and Senate in Washington DC. Olivia has testified behind closed doors to Congress at the request of Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey. She helped pass the Kay Hagan Tick Act at the personal request of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, which appropriated $150 million dollars for tick-borne diseases. Olivia helped lobby with Center for Lyme Action and spoke at their inaugural “fly in” for another $91 million for tick-borne diseases in the congressional budget. Olivia has presented at U.S Department of Labor, The White House, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, The U.S Census Bureau, U.S Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), Stanford University, Harvard University’s Dean Center for Tick-Borne Illness, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Institute, Entomological Society of America, Microsoft, Boy Scouts of America, University of Colorado School of Public Health, Focus on Lyme, Midcoast Lyme Disease Support and Education, Center for Lyme Action and various other organizations.
Awards received include “The Bravery Award” from Stanford University’s BioADD Laboratory (as the youngest recipient), the “Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes”, the “Women Who Inspire” in the #beboldforchange from Nigeria’s Florence Ozor Foundation, the 2017 “People Who Inspire Award” from Ride Out Lyme, 2019 “The Power of One” award from Focus on Lyme, 2019 International Women’s Economic Forum’s award for “Young Innovators Creating a Better World for All”, “Bluebird of Hope”, from the Alex Hudson Lyme Foundation awarded for displaying courage, providing hope, and creating change. In 2017, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper proclaimed April 8th as “Olivia Goodreau Day” in recognition of “her commitment to increasing awareness of Lyme Disease and to supporting scientists, doctors, and researchers as they work to improve treatment and find a cure”.
Olivia has an annual LivLyme Summits since 2018, where she had the top tick-borne disease scientists, doctors, government officials and advocates from around the world speak to a virtual audience of over 1700+ guests from 34 different countries. She offered free Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits for over 400 doctors to learn about tick-borne diseases.
Olivia is the youngest inventor to participate in the US Department of Health and Human Services’, “The Opportunity Project” (TOP), a 14-week tech sprint with her APP. TickTracker was selected by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services as the “top tech tool” that is solving global health problems. Olivia presented her app at the White House and at the U.S Census Bureau in 2019. In 2021, Olivia was selected as one of 6 winners in the U.S Department of Health and Human Service’s LymeX “Education & Awareness Healthathon Challenge”.
Olivia has interned at U.S Center of Disease and Control (CDC), Stanford University, Duke University, and University of Southern California’s labs.
Olivia is the Advisory Board Chair for Youth Advocacy for Invisible International non profit. Junior Ambassador for Lyme Disease Challenge, “Take a Bite Out of Lyme”, non profit. Featured in the book, “Being a Better Human Teenager”. Featured in Forbes Magazine, “Tireless Teen Takes Ticks To Task”, and over 20 local & national TV appearances and featured in over 25 news and magazine articles.
Olivia hopes the LivLyme Foundation will positively impact those that suffer from all tick-borne diseases. Olivia’s hobbies include drawing, reading, scuba diving, water and snow skiing. She loves her family, her dogs and loves to hang out with her friends.
Olivia will be attending UCLA in the fall of 2023 majoring in public health and double minoring in political science and global studies.
Connect with Olivia at:
https://www.tiktok.com/@livlymefoundation
https://www.facebook.com/olivialyme/
https://www.instagram.com/livlymefoundation/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/livlymefoundation/
Pamela :Hi, this is Pamela Worth from the Hello Health Encouraging Wellness Podcast, and today I have Olivia Goodro. She is the founder of the LiveLine Foundation, as well as the Tic Tac Tick Tracker and Long Haul Tracker, and Tick Emoji's apps. Olivia, thank you so much for being with us today. I can't wait to hear more about your story and your journey and the many amazing things that you're doing
Olivia : Yeah, thank you so much for having me on!
Pamela : So, tell us a little bit about the foundation and how and why you got into this?
Olivia :Yeah, absolutely. So, I was bitten by a tick at the Lake of the Ozarks when I was seven years old. I was going into my second-grade year, and I didn't see the tick, and I didn't have a bullseye rash and then a couple of weeks later, I started having very classic Lyme disease and tick-borne illness symptoms. I felt like I had the flu.
I just kept on progressing with these symptoms, and I started blacking out and losing my vision for periods at a time. I couldn't physically hold up my head to do my math homework, so my teachers were letting me lay down on the floor so I can do the work. I felt aches and pains all over. People thought that maybe I had a virus, something was going around the school.
Over the course of 18 months, I saw 51 doctors, and every single one of them misdiagnosed me or didn't know what was wrong with me until my 51st doctor. This was after 18 months of CAT scans, EKGs, MRIs, upper and lower endoscopies. I had my adenoids removed and dozens of blood draws.
At first, they told me that I was dehydrated. I'm at a high-altitude state here in Colorado; you need to drink more water. For a Colorado native, it's a tiny bit offensive just to say that. Then, they thought something again was going around the school. They thought that maybe I had late-stage autism. They thought that I had ADHD and a ton of other neurological disorders. They then misdiagnosed me with Wilson's disease, which is a terrible genetic disorder. At that point, I was eight years old, and while other kids were out on spring break, I was being told that I would not live as long as the other kids in my class, which was truly heartbreaking.
The DNA test came back saying that was negative, and then they thought that I was making it up. When they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, they kind of turned on me and said, 'Do you think your parents love your little brothers more than they love you? Do you have friends at school? Are you lonely?' I love my parents, and I have great relationships with everyone, so I was really confused why they were asking me all these questions.
Finally, the 51st doctor came around. She saw my symptoms and said, 'Hey, I have a patient who has similar symptoms to you, and they ended up having Lyme disease. Let me do a Lyme test on you.' I was off the charts. I believe that I was so off the charts I set a record for the children's hospital or something like that. I was put on 30 days of doxycycline, said that I would be back to normal by day 25. I actually thought that I was going to be okay in the end.
By day 35, I was back to square one. I felt terrible. So, three years later, seeing four more doctors, I finally met my current Lyme-literate doctor, Dr. Richel Horwitz, and he has saved my life time and time again. I'm getting treatment from him. This is very early on; I had just met him a couple of days ago. So, we had just figured out when to schedule my appointment with him.
A couple of weeks or even days before I met Dr. Horowitz, I decided that I wanted to start a nonprofit. I had read a story about a mom and her son living in their car so they could afford the boy's Lyme disease medication. Out of all the stories I had read while doing research and trying to find other people like me, that story really stuck with me. I decided that I could either sit around and wait for someone to help me or be the help and be proactive in my own health and really be on the front lines to help myself and other people.
When I met Dr. Horowitz, I said, 'Hey, I'm having a Gala, and I would love for you to speak.' He said the only time he could do it is April 8th, and I thought it was perfect. I didn't have a nonprofit or anything else planned; I completely decided on the spot. When he finally left his conference in Colorado, my mom turned to me and asked, 'So, a Gala, for what?' I said, 'I want to start a nonprofit.' On April 29th, 2017, I started the Liv Lyme Foundation. Our main goals are to help kids who cannot afford their Lyme disease medication and to provide funding for scientists for better treatments, cures, testing, and making them more affordable and available to everyone else.
Pamela : That's amazing! Thank you so much for talking about this. As we're thinking about Lyme disease, what are some of the most typical symptoms?
Olivia : Yes, absolutely. So, Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses have a very wide range of symptoms, and they are classic chameleon diseases. I was misdiagnosed dozens of times because my symptoms were so varied. They would use words like 'obscure' because they didn't really know. They would think it's one thing, but then they'd say, 'You're lacking this one vital symptom,' and they would go over to another illness and say the exact same thing about it.
For me personally, and I know this is common in most Lyme patients, I experienced brain fog. It feels like there's cotton stuffed in your head, and you can't think straight. Sometimes you can have light sensitivity and sound sensitivity. I had light sensitivity, especially. It makes you feel like you have the flu or some other common sickness, like a common cold. That's how people often start with their symptoms when they first enter the healthcare world. They go in saying, 'I think I have the flu.'
I also had aches and pains, and they would move around, which makes it hard to diagnose. For example, one day your elbow hurts, and the next day it's your knee. I experienced blacking out and losing my vision, although this is less common. I had Lyme disease affecting all my organs, including my brain. So, brain fog, word jumbling moments, mixing up sentences, and phrases were significant issues for me. It's like losing words on the tip of my tongue.
I know people who have lost the ability to walk and others who have lost the ability to read completely. I have a good friend, retired Colonel Nicole Malikowski, who describes her symptoms by saying she went to the pet store to get food for her cat and then realized she didn't have a cat at all. Neural Lyme presents a giant range and variety of different symptoms. The main ones I had, like brain fog, body aches, and flu-like symptoms, are by far the most prevalent and probably the most common indicators of a tick-borne illness.
I also had multiple co-infections, including bartonella, babesia, POT syndrome, relapsing fever, and antitrypsin deficiency in my liver
Pamela : From what I understand, that's fairly common, though, because once your immune system becomes compromised, you really become susceptible to so many other things very easily. So, what are some of the common medications and treatments that you've seen, and which ones do you believe are most impactful now?
Olivia : Yes, so the insurance companies will only cover 30 days of doxycycline (Doxy-cycling). When you hear Lyme disease, more or less, you hear doxycycline right after it. If you got bitten by a tick, got tested, and went on doxycycline within probably 12 hours of each other, that would theoretically work. But most of the time, that's not the case. You see it, you say, 'Oh my gosh, a rash is forming,' or, 'Oh, I don't feel well,' and then you go get tested. For me, a year and a half later, I was well beyond that point where maybe this wasn't chronic anymore. I have chronic Lyme disease, so I've had it for 12 years now. Had I seen the tick, had I gotten tested, had I gone on doxycycline, I would have been completely fine. It's all about timing. Timing is so vital when you have the illness.
So again, doxycycline is the first treatment that you'll obviously do. Treatments often range from supplements to antibiotics, probiotics, and many different kinds of treatments. They're all spread out because nobody really has a cure yet. Everyone is trying everything. I know people who go hardcore with antibiotics and probiotics. I know people who just do herbs and supplements. I know people who even go as far as to do a treatment called Bee Venom, which I don't know if there's enough research out there to prove that it's effective, but people are so desperate to have answers and to feel better that they will try anything, including stinging themselves with bees.
They will absolutely say yes to any kind of treatment if they think that it works. For everyone, it's not just a one-size-fits-all treatment. I can tell you right now, I have done the supplements, I have done the hardcore antibiotics. I have been on both ends of that spectrum. What worked best for me is a combination of antibiotics, probiotics, and supplements.
You take the antibiotics, and they kill the spirochetes. Lyme disease is a persister disease, which means it has biofilms. Antibiotics and probiotics help. Some are called biofilm busters. You want to get rid of the force fields or shields, so you can actually attack the parasite, the bacteria, the illness. For me, a combination of all three works super well because antibiotics can help you a lot, but they can also destroy your gut in the process. That's why you use probiotics and supplements. You want to make sure that even though you're trying to fight something, you don't want to debilitate your gut, your liver, and other parts of your immune system. You want to make sure that you are well-rounded and healthy.
My doctor put me into remission this year, meaning that Lyme disease within me is in a dormant state. I am at 96%, and 100% is obviously the best you can be. He did this with a dapsone treatment, finding out that dapsone, a 100-year-old leprosy drug, could kill Lyme disease because leprosy and Lyme disease are both persister bacteria and persister illnesses. He combined this with methylene blue and a various cocktail of probiotics, antibiotics, and supplements. I was taking 42 pills a day for 9 weeks. It was tough, but it went from 86 pills a day to 42 pills a day for 9 weeks. Now, I don't take any pills at all, and my pill cases have been empty for months. It's the best thing to see. It's a brutal treatment, but for me, I feel like this is the closest we are yet to a cure.
Pamela : Super, so what type of supplements were you on during those nine weeks?
Olivia : Oh, goodness, okay. I have to think about it because 42 pills are a lot, and so some of them I don't remember. I definitely remember being on peppermint oil, I believe. You would take that; it tasted terrible, and I still can't have anything peppermint because it tastes so bad to me now. I was on that. I believe I've been on broccoli seed extract, grapefruit seed extract, and a ton of other different oils. I'm kind of forgetting the names of them because there were so many. I would put them all into a shot glass of just oils.
But yeah, peppermint seed extract, I believe, was by far the one that he definitely wanted me on. He said, 'If you have a bad day and don't want to take these ones, sure, don't take them, but you have to take this by all means.
Pamela : Yeah, when I was going through what was happening with my son, he had a viral and bacterial infection that had crossed the blood-brain barrier. Similarly, they said, 'Look, it's got this whole biofilm going on around it, and the only thing that can really get through that are some of these oils.' So he was on things like boswellia, turmeric, oregano, olive leaf extract, things that could really break through that biofilm."
Olivia : Yes, that was a big one for me too. Yeah, terrible, but..
Pamela : It does, but that's a known killer of bacteria, the nasty kind. So, I think you know, I love what you're doing. So, tell me a little bit about the foundation, some of the grants that you currently are offering. Are there any particular types of groups, geography-wise, or anything in particular that you work well with?
Olivia : Yeah, so the process of giving grants out to kids is my favorite and least favorite part of my job because I read through every single grant application. I don't know if I have any exact numbers, but it's a big pile every year, huge. I would read through every single application. I would know all the kids by name. I would read them more than once. How I would do it is one to five, with five being they're in dire need and one being they don't know if they have Lyme disease or not. All of them, without fail, are threes, fours, and fives. I have never put down a two or a one at all.
I read these applications, and I am bawling my eyes out every single year. It always happens. I just cry my eyes out because these parents and even the kids who are writing their applications have been through so much as well. This is kind of a time for them to really let it out because many times they talk about how doctors didn't believe them, family members didn't believe them, their spouses didn't believe them, or they were even in disbelief for a while. They had CPS called on them, went through divorces, lost jobs, lost houses, became homeless. All of these terrible things happened because of one tick bite. I feel so bad but also so connected to all of these people. I read them multiple times, give them a score if you will, and narrow it down. I read them again, probably at least four or five times.
Then, I pick who I want to give a grant to that year. Most of the time, I will see the last name more than once, meaning that they have multiple kids with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. More often than not, it's because they gave it to them in utero. The moms feel awful. They say, 'I had Lyme disease, I didn't know that I had it, and I gave it to my child or children.' I give them the grants, have everything organized, and then I call the parents. We have their phone numbers and emails as well. At first, when I call them, more often than not, they think I'm a spam caller, so they hang up. I have to say it really fast, 'Hi, I'm Olivia Good from the LivLyme Foundation,' and I call them. I let them know and give them a couple of moments to talk it out. More often than not, they're crying, which makes me cry. So, we're all just a bit of a hot mess.
Occasionally, I get to talk to the grandkids themselves if they're well enough or in the area. That is probably my favorite part. I get to talk to them, hear their voices, and see what their hobbies are. I get to know what they like to do in the meantime. Some of them like to read; I know that for me when I was in the hospital, I loved to read because it required little effort. Some of them like to paint. I have pen pals that are grant recipients, so I write letters back and forth, which I love.
On the other end, for giving grants to scientists, I do my own research on new tick-borne disease testing or something like that. I email the scientists, saying, 'Hey, my name is Olivia Good, and I would love to come out to your university and see your labs and understand more about what you're doing and what you hope to do.' I've given grants to Stanford, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of New Haven, and the next one is Northeastern University. All of them are doing incredible work.
I wish I could give grants to everybody, but that's the end goal. I hope that one day I can provide the cure itself and ship it out to anyone who needs it.
Pamela : That would be amazing. When you provide grants to people, do you have a list of doctors that you know can help, or do you have a community where people can connect with each other who are going through this?
Olivia : Yes, on our website, there is a resource page that has a list of Lyme-literate doctors and other websites where you can find doctors, caretakers, and more. Many times, patients already have Lyme-literate doctors, or they're looking for one. When they ask, we always provide them with that list.
On Facebook and Instagram, there are multiple groups for Lyme disease. In fact, that's how the foundation started because I found a Facebook group and read that mom's story. They can absolutely reach out to those groups, and I feel like it is a very good, open, and accepting community because all these parents and people have been through so much.
Pamela : Yeah, do you find that you hear more from some people in certain states than others?
Olivia : At first, I thought that I was going to hear a lot more from East Coast people simply because you hear about Lyme disease, and you think that it's an East Coast thing. But I have heard probably an equal number of people from all states and in multiple countries. I'm about to sneeze, sorry about that, thank you. But I have had grant applications from all 50 states and in Canada and Australia. Unfortunately, we can't do Canada and Australia yet just because it's an international currency. That would be a great goal to have LivLyme go international.
But yeah, I thought that at first it was going to be an East Coast thing, but ticks are everywhere all over the United States, and they're even in Antarctica on penguins. So they are quite literally everywhere. More often than not, you get bitten by a tick in your own backyard when you're gardening, when your kids are outside playing. They're there. It's not just, 'Oh, you have to be in the thick of the woods to find it.' It could be at parks, backyards, front yards, really anywhere. Even in major cities as well, we had people from San Francisco and Brooklyn. San Francisco, they got bitten at a park. Brooklyn, they got bitten at Central Park. So it is everywhere, and I think that people need to realize that it isn't just an East Coast thing. Don't get me wrong; it's very prevalent on the East Coast, but it's everywhere too.
Pamela :Yeah, so thinking about your own home, what can you do to protect you and your family and try to cut down on the prevalence of ticks?
Olivia : Yes, you can spray your grass with a permethrin spray, which is harmful to ticks but not harmful to anything else. You can also spray blankets, chairs, shoes, socks, and clothing with permethrin, so that even if you don't spray your yard, you have some kind of protection. They don't advertise it, but if you have a dog or a pet, get a Seresto tick and flea collar.
There are also these tick tubes, which are treated with permethrin. Mice have a lot of ticks on them, and the tubes are filled with treated cotton. The mice take it back to their nest, killing the ticks.
You can also go to the LivLyme Foundation, and if you have TickTracker, I would highly recommend getting that as well because it's my app. You can track ticks in real time using geolocation, seeing what ticks are in your area at any point in time, including last year, last month, or even last week. We have data from citizens and from organizations like the Smithsonian, CDC, HHS, and various public and private companies. I would highly recommend that as well, and TickTracker provides additional sources to help you protect yourself and your backyard.
Pamela : Well, how does the data get put into TickTracker? How often is it updated?
Olivia : Yeah, absolutely. We get updates by the day. People are out there, and if they get bitten by a tick or if they see a tick, they can report it. They can give a general location. We won't pinpoint it right in your backyard for safety reasons, of course, but it will provide a general location of where that is. It will then provide a tick risk index. If you have an Apple Watch or if you have notifications on your phone and you're in a high-risk area, it will send you a notification saying, 'Hi, just to let you know, a lot of ticks have been reported here. Please stay safe and do a tick check after this. Stay vigilant.'
When we get data from the Smithsonian and other industries and institutions, that data has been collected in the past. We always ask when and where it was collected, and then we plug that in for everyone to see. In addition, we have TickTracker Pro, which is for scientists and researchers who want data like altitude, humidity, air pressure, and other nitty-gritty details. This is for people who do tick drags, use a white sheet, and drag it across various locations, whether in the woods or plains. They research this and can publish their studies for others to see in that area. It's a common ground for all the tick researchers out there, and they can visualize where other people have done research.
Pamela : Oh, that's wild. Does pest control treat for ticks, or is that kind of separate?
Olivia : I don't know, to be honest, that they do. I think maybe it would be more prevalent on the East Coast where Lyme disease is better known. I know that here in Colorado, they don't, or I guess they never have for us. I think you would probably have to ask your local pest control and maybe lobby for it. Say, 'Hey, this is a big issue; can you do this for us?
Pamela : Interesting. So when you're going through Lyme treatment, have you found that having certain types of foods or different types of foods either set it off or help keep your body less inflamed?
Olivia : I have the biggest sweet tooth, and the worst thing is that Lyme disease feeds off of sugar. Going back to my very first appointment with Dr. Horowitz, my current Lyme disease doctor, we got dinner afterward because it's a success; I've been diagnosed with five more diseases, and finally, kind of on the right track because I finally know what's going on inside of me. It isn't like a big question mark; I know. So we're out there, and he was like, 'I want you to have a piece of chocolate cake.' I was like, 'Easier said than done.' I was like, 'Yes, absolutely, I'll do it.' And I did it. I ate it, and I was leaning on my dad's shoulder. I was super tired afterward. He was like, 'Yeah, that's Lyme disease right there.' He said it does that very quickly, so you have a ton of sugar, and you crash afterward.
I have been heavily suggested to go on a hypoglycemic diet. He said that's by far the best thing you can do if you have Lyme disease or a tick-borne illness. To go on a hypoglycemic diet, and I feel like over the years, I've gotten a lot better. I've obviously matured more, so I don't have sugar whenever I want to, and I watch my body a lot more. Just eating healthy and eating clean foods. If you have the option to choose between Doritos or carrots and Ranch, go for the carrots and Ranch. It's just making sure that you are generally fit and healthy and active, and that helps so much with battling these tick-borne illnesses.
Pamela : Yeah, for sure. What have I not asked? What am I missing? Is there anything else you want to share?
Olivia : Well, you wanted to talk more about the motor functions. I believe that we talked a little bit about that. I will say that there have been cases with my doctor and other patients where he did the Dapsone study, the Dapsone treatment on them, and they were able to get up and out of their wheelchairs after being in the wheelchair for months or years. So, if anybody out there has a tick-borne illness and is wheelchair-bound, you might want to look into Dapsone. My doctor has published his study; it's out there. If you do have a doctor or a Lyme-literate doctor, I would definitely ask and advocate for you to at least be on it. It's not a fun treatment; it's brutal, but it's worth it. I went from being at 70% to 90%, 96%, so it's definitely worth it in my opinion.
Pamela :Yeah, I know, that's amazing. I have been taking my mom down to Mexico for her cancer treatment, and it was amazing to me how many Lyme patients I met. They have been going down too, and the way they were describing it to me was not only rebuilding the immune system but also helping the body detox. A lot of what's going on. So, I don't know enough about Dapsone. I'm definitely going to look into it, but it sounds like it's a very powerful way of killing bacteria and potentially detoxing as well.
Olivia : Also, it's a generic drug, and it's not something that's super hard to come by. It's actually relatively affordable compared to other tick-borne illness medications out there. I will say with the Lyme disease treatment in Mexico, I know a personal friend of mine, an awesome scientist, Dr. Morales. He's in Lime, Mexico, and what he does is more or less cleans your blood for you. In one arm, they take out the blood, siphon it through, make sure that all of the toxins and impurities are out, and then they put it back in. I've heard great things about it, and personally, I mean, who wouldn't want their blood to get clean? That sounds like such a great detoxifying thing to do. I hope that in the near future, I'll be able to go down there.
Pamela : Yeah, I actually did that with my mom for her cancer treatment, and I sat next to her and did it myself. It's interesting; it uses ozone, and what they do is they take a small amount of blood out of your arm, add in ozone gas, mix it up, and then put it back in. The ozone gas kills viruses, bacteria, and fungi. It's wild, and I felt great afterward.
Olivia : Yeah, I bet
Pamela : I think we all can kind of get a little jumbled up from our environment and different things that take our system out of whack. So, you are so amazing. You're smart, you're beautiful. What's next, and what are you doing?
Olivia : Oh gosh! Well, all of my friends are leaving for college right now, which is really sad. I don't leave until September 20th because I'm going to UCLA, and UCLA is on the quarter system. So, I have a bit. My parents are very happy that they get to have me for a whole month. But yeah, I go off to UCLA. I'm majoring in public health and minoring in political science and global studies.
There is an awesome scientist and engineer at UCLA, Dr. Osan, and he has created this super efficient and effective test for tickborne illnesses. It's the size of your pinky nail, a piece of paper the size of your pinky nail with about 50 to 100 dots on it. Just regular dots. All it needs is a phone and one drop of blood, and you can diagnose what illness you have, and if there are multiple illnesses. It costs 50 cents to make, so he's just waiting for the patent right now, and then he could sell it for $17 at Walmart. He could sell it for 30 or 40. I mean, this is an effective test, and you really need effective tests for tickborne illnesses. Now, you have to send a whole blood sample out, and it costs around $5,000 to do. If he could even sell this for half as much, I'm sure that people would obviously go to that because it takes, I think, 30 minutes, he said, maybe less, and it's at your home. It's like a CO test but now for tickborne illnesses. So I hope that when I get there, I can work with him and try to get that out to stores.
Pamela : That's amazing! So, where do people find you? What is your website?
Olivia : Yes, my website is LiveLineFoundation.org, and you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Just look up "The Liv Li Foundation" or "Olivia Lime," and you'll find our profiles. There are also Instagram pages for Tick Tracker and Long Haul Tracker. Additionally, there's a website for my new book, "But She Looks Fine: From Illness to Activism," which delves into my story in greater depth, including my experiences as a child turning into a teenager while dealing with illness, managing the foundation, and school. You can find websites for everything by simply searching for the name, and they will pop up.
Pamela : Thank you and I'll be sure to add those in the show notes as well.
Olivia: Perfect.
Pamela : Thank you so much, Olivia
Olivia : Thank you, have a great day.