Helping Hands for Hannah

Catie Nielsen is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello, my name is Catherine Nielsen. At 34 weeks pregnant they found my youngest daughter Hannah, now age 2, was going to be born with a severe kidney disease called bilateral vesicoureteral reflux and hydronephrosis; it broke us inside. About a year ago. after several very painful and heartbreaking tests, we found out just how severe her disease was. There are five grades of this disease 1 to 5. 5 being the worst. Hers is a grade 4. Shes endured 18 kidney infections. 18 long, hard and painful kidney infections. Not to mention round after round of antibiotics and pain meds. Imagine knowing your baby has known pain since before she's even known love. We struggled for 2 years to find a doctor that could help her. 6 doctors and 3 different states later, we finally did. Dr. Kennedy at Stanford Children's Urology Clinic. It was like music to our ears when he told us he could help our little girl. She will be having surgery May 12th at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, which is 6 hours from home to re-implant her ureters, which we're praying will stop her infections. This will require her to have pre-op appointments and an almost week long stay in the hospital, as well as follow up appointments after the surgery is done. We won't know how much damage has been done until the surgery is over; her struggles won't end here. Though Ronald McDonald House might be an option for housing, we've been told to prepare for them not to have room for us to stay, since they house 48 families a night and are currently not accepting reservations. We have pretty good insurance through the military but our insurance doesn't help with housing because my husband has National Guard insurance and not active Army. We'll need to get a hotel to stay close to our baby girl, pay for meals, medications, and travel expenses going to/from home and the hospital. Not to mention all of the medical bills we already have from her (nearing over $5,000) and our out of pocket costs of nearly $1000. We're asking for anything you can help with, even if it's just a prayer in her name which means more to us than any amount of money. Anything above and beyond our needs will be donated directly to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. She's our princess and so full of love, you have no idea what helping us out would mean to us. For everyone who donates or prays for our little girl, if you'll provide us your address Hannah would like to send you a handmade thank you card.