Dear friends and family,

Some of you may already know what I have been going through the past several months but most of you don’t.

Since giving birth to Royce, I have progressively been having some worsening medical symptoms and have lost weight rapidly despite trying to gain, or at least maintain, a healthy weight. If you saw me now, you would think I was just skin and bones and truly that is what I feel like. To put it into perspective, at my 6 week postpartum check up I had already lost all of the baby weight plus 10 pounds, and since then I have lost roughly 20 more pounds. Since February my doctors have been trying to figure out what is going on. I have been diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism. One of the symptoms of this condition is kidney stones. I have had kidney stones since 2020 when I was pregnant with Noella, but it appears I have had this condition since at least 2019 but have gone undiagnosed. Looking back, I always had some vague symptoms but did not think much of it because they were not severe enough and were easy to attribute to being a new mom.

This April, I started to have some really bad pain from what I thought was a kidney stone. After multiple doctor visits, urgent care, and the emergency room, we finally figured out I have multiple kidney stones on each side and a very large one on my left side. This large one is too complex to be taken out easily and I unfortunately have to wait until July 15th to have surgery to remove it. I had a stent placed on April 18th to prevent a blockage but since then I have had worsening pain, most likely caused by the stent, and a kidney infection which landed me in the hospital for a stay from 5/6 to 5/11. In addition to the kidney surgery, I also need surgery to remove at least one of my parathyroid glands. The surgery for that is May 30th and I will be traveling to Florida for this procedure. My other option was to wait until July 29th and have it done locally. I thought a lot about it and feel like my symptoms are so severe that I need this parathyroid surgery done as soon as possible so that I can start the process of healing. I also desperately want to get my life back so that I can go back to being the mom I once was and have the energy and strength for Noella, Aurora, and Royce. They are my biggest motivation and my angels.

I have already accumulated and paid quite a bit of my medical expenses pertaining to both issues but I am still looking at a mountain of medical bills to come. Additionally, I have been off from work since April 18th and because I had taken maternity leave within the last year, I only have a small amount of leave left.

All of this has been a lot for me to process emotionally and it has been a struggle for me to ask for help when I need it because I don’t want to be a burden. I have lots of help from the moms in my life: my mom, Christian’s mom, and my grandmother. Words cannot describe how thankful I am for all of the help they have given me and my family during this difficult time. Christian has been very supportive and helps out as much as he can at home while also running his business in the busiest season of the year. They all have stepped up in unimaginable ways to help with the children on a daily basis. They have also been helping me with keeping up with household tasks, but while they have been carrying the load for a while now, I do not want them to get burnt out.

It is apparent that I will be needing at least another 2-3 months before I am really feeling better. I am asking for help in any form: words of encouragement, help with the kids, help around the house, help with meals, and getting to and from all of these appointments that I have. Also, if you wanted to just come visit and keep me company for a little bit, that would mean the world to me too. I am setting up a meal train as well: https://mealtrain.com/dvd7o6

This has been incredibly hard for our family and we are grateful for any help. Thank you ❤️‍