Support Willow's Journey to Recovery

Hey there! My name is Jordan and I am creating this gofundme in order to help out my childhood best friend of 17 years! You see, when Kylee and Shaq found out they were having another babygirl in 2021 they never imagined what would be in store for them. 3 years ago they were told some bad news that no parent wants to hear. Their babygirl had some pretty severe medical issues. Keeping the pregnancy was never a question so their lives changed pretty quickly. Willow was diagnosed at birth with left club foot, congenital scoliosis, and hemivertebrae. X-rays also showed her having first rib syndrome, missing 2 ribs, as well as birth trauma. Despite all odds and going against doctor’s recommendations to terminate, she was otherwise healthy and thriving. As she grew and her body changed other issues had been identified. Over the last 3 years she has also been diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus which was found during one of her hospitalizations due to pneumonia, flu, and RSV. Basically meaning there is something abnormal with one of her heart vessels. Which she will need surgery to fix that will be determined at a later date as her current medical issues are more urgent. As if that wasn’t enough, she has suffered with digestive issues, kidney issues and spine issues to name a few. Recently, she had started to complain of pain in multiple different areas of her body and was worsening despite any interventions and physical therapy. She started to have severe muscle weakness and would have spells where she couldn’t walk. Despite all of that, she remained happy and spunky as ever.

Kylee really stepped up to the plate by voicing her opinion and fighting for more answers. Reluctantly, her Ortho ordered a sedated MRI. It wasn’t until those results were received that we were told things were a lot worse than we thought. The MRI showed spinal canal stenosis, missing vertebrae, kyphosis, narrowing of her spinal canal and stretching of her spinal cord, and her L5 vertebrae is fused to her pelvis. These results warranted more imaging so she then went for a STAT CT scan which showed, severe retrolisthesis. She is currently awaiting to be scheduled for major spinal surgery where they plan to remove T1 & T2 vertebraes and replace them with rods and pins. They will also fuse her C5 and T5 vertebrae. She will have a long road of recovery ahead of her and will need to be in a ‘Halo’ for quite sometime with very limited mobility and anyone who knows her knows that is going to be tough. Especially, when she wants to go play with her “sissy”.

As if that wasn’t enough, Shaq and Kylee also have 2 other kids. 12 year old Carl “Mook” and 5 year old Avrianna. With a very small village it can make things complicated. On top of that, they were recently informed that the management company that owned their house, sold it without notice. They have until the beginning of April to move.

I am trying to raise these funds in support of Shaq and Kylee during this very hard time. If you cannot afford to donate then please just say a prayer or share this post for my niece. She is an inspiration to us all. I’m hoping this will help ease any financial burden so that they can afford to get through this battle.

All proceeds are going to go towards, medical and household bills, food, transportation, moving costs, childcare etc.