Kaylyn Mayer’s list of symptoms – unrelenting fever, extreme fatigue, severe abdominal pain and rapid weight loss – baffled doctors.

An active teen who loved spending weekends playing travel softball, Kaylyn was practically bedridden with virtually no appetite throughout the fall of 2021.

“She went from being able to do so much to absolutely nothing,” said Ashley Mayer, Kaylyn’s mother. “Going up and down the stairs caused her to be very tired and out of breath.”

Repeated emergency room visits yielded no answers. The uncertainly gnawed at everyone, especially Kaylyn, and the lack of a medical diagnosis made her condition seem hopeless.

The Mayers then came up with an audacious and unconventional plan: Visit the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as an emergency room walk-in with no appointment. By the time the Mayers flew to Minnesota, Kaylyn was so weak that she was rolled into the hospital in a wheelchair and barely weighed 100 pounds.

“I’m telling you, I literally googled, ‘How to get into the Mayo Clinic,‘” said Andy Mayer, Kaylyn’s father. “I read something that basically said, ‘Just go.’ We took that chance, and I’m glad we did. I think God put us there.”

The Mayo Clinic quickly admitted Kaylyn on that frigid night in December 2021, leading to a diagnosis of long COVID, a chronic and still mysterious condition which can occur after a COVID infection, lasts at least three months, and can include a wide array of symptoms. Long COVID is not contagious and doesn’t spread between people, but it can cause long-term issues for patients like Kaylyn.

She stayed at the Mayo Clinic for several weeks – celebrating Christmas 2021 and New Year’s there – and stayed several more weeks while treated on an outpatient basis.

Kaylyn experienced a mild COVID case in September 2021 that caused her to quarantine at home. “I got over it in about a week,” Kaylyn said. “Then, that next week, I went downhill from there.”

Fast forward to 2025 and Kaylyn is preparing to complete her senior softball season, graduate from Victory Christian School in Pell City and play college softball at Rochester Community and Technical College. While she walks and talks much like other teenagers, she continues her daily battle with long COVID, a battle she may wage for the rest of her life.

The last three years have been full of highs and lows as Kaylyn has learned to live with and thrive despite battling the side effects. It’s one reason she is one of 52 regional winners in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program’s Achievement category, which honors high school athletes who have overcome personal adversity. Regional winners earn a $3,000 scholarship and could win more at the at the 40th annual Bryant-Jordan Awards Banquet to be held Monday night at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.

A total of 104 high school senior student-athletes – 52 in the program’s Achievement category and 52 in the Scholar-Athlete category – were selected as regional winners. More than $12 million in scholarship funds have been distributed to student recipients by the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program since its inception in 1988.

“Tenacious,” Victory Christian softball coach Ted Rorrer said when asked to describe Kaylyn. “The reason I say that is she has had the deck stacked against her, and she’s overcome everything she has had to deal with and still makes it out there on that softball field.”

Getting Better

Doctors diagnosed Kaylyn with three major health disorders, all caused by long COVID:

– Gastroparesis, also known as delayed gastric emptying, a condition in which food moves too slowly from the stomach to the small intestine and causes nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

– Dysautonomia, a rare nervous system disorder that disrupts autonomic body processes.

– Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, a condition known for causing excessive increase in heart rate upon standing or sitting upright.

Any of the conditions can be debilitating, but the combination is especially tricky to treat effectively. That’s one of the reasons Kaylyn is participating in a National Institutes of Health study at Columbia University dedicated to learning about long COVID in an effort to develop more effective treatments.

Kaylyn said she continues to battle chronic pain, dizziness, fatigue and nausea daily, as well as a racing heartbeat. She takes 12 prescription medications, and she learned coping mechanisms for dealing with her complex symptoms during her stay at the Mayo Clinic.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through this stuff,” she said, “but I’m here now and I’m so grateful for how God has brought me through it.”

Over the last few years, she played high school softball and volleyball with a feeding tube, which snaked through her nose, and with PICC line, a thin, flexible tube inserted into a vein in her upper arm.

That eventually led to the insertion of a PORT, a device implanted under the skin in her chest, to allow Kaylyn to take fluids intravenously four times a week.

 “Coming out there and practicing and playing softball with a feeding tube hanging out of your nose, not a lot of kids would do that,” Rorrer said. “A lot of kids would use that as an excuse – an excuse not to come out there in the freezing cold when the season starts or in the 100-degree weather when it ends – but that didn’t slow her down any.”

Kaylyn said she has sometimes heard snide remarks from opposing players, coaches and fans about her feeding tube, which she admits took a psychological toll on her. “It definitely made me stand out,” she joked.

Through it all, Kaylyn said she leaned on her deep Christian faith, which was bolstered by her classmates and teachers at Victory Christian.

“My parents would always be so worried, but I have this bracelet (that says), ‘Trust the Lord with all your heart,‘” Kaylyn said. “That verse has just gotten me through it all. I’ve always said prayers, and I’m just like, ‘God, I know I’m in your hands’ and He just guides me through it all. I have so much to be grateful for. It’s crazy how He has this plan for me and where He’s brought so far. He hasn’t failed me, and He’s never going to fail me.”

Kaylyn’s parents agree that their daughter’s faith never wavered, despite countless medical appointments and multiple hospitalizations.

“She leaves me speechless,” Ashley Mayer said. “Even in the times where I have questioned my faith and thought, ‘Why, God, why?,’ she has always been, ‘But I have a story to tell.’ She is such an advocate now and social media is so powerful, and she posts things to help people to learn more about dysautonomia and POTS and gastroparesis. She’s always said that if she can help one person, and one person can learn to keep going and keep pushing and keep fighting for their health, it’s worth it. She’ll always say, ‘God has this. I know He does.‘”

The Mayers also thank the Trussville community, where they live, for mobilizing to help them raise the $50,000 needed to pay for the Mayo Clinic treatments when their insurance company would not cover it. In addition, Kaylyn said the support from her family and everyone at Victory Christian, especially her coaches, gave her confidence that she could recover and play sports again.

“Surround yourself with the right people. It matters,” she said.

The Future

Kaylyn signed to play softball at Rochester (MN) Community and Technical College, located just a few miles from the Mayo Clinic, and said she felt God led her to the school.

The prospect of returning to the softball field motivated Kaylyn.

“That is what brings her happiness,” Ashley Mayer said. “What brings her joy is being on that field. She is a completely different person when she is on that field, and it shines bright every time she touches that field.”

Kaylyn’s medical odyssey, especially at the Mayo Clinic, influenced her to pursue a degree in nursing.

“So many of them have changed my life, and so many of them have encouraged me and lifted me up,” Kaylyn said. “It showed me that’s what I want to be for people. I want to lift pediatric patients up and show them they are going to get through it and make a long-lasting impact on their life like these nurses have done for me.”

Those who know Kaylyn best say she’s already inspiring others.

“She is my hero,” Andy Mayer said. “She’s the strongest person I know – hands-down my hero, my absolute hero. I can’t imagine what she’s gone through. To be able stand there today, it just amazes me.”