Donate to Aid Oliver's Medical Journey

I am putting together a fundraiser for Oliver, my sweet nephew, who is undergoing tests and treatments to figure out what is going on with his poor little body.

Written by Wesley, Oliver’s dad, and my brother-in-law:

“Last Sunday (July 21st), Oliver, our 10-year-old son, was experiencing some ankle pain to the point where he suddenly couldn’t walk on his left leg. After a couple of days, we saw several doctors and got X-rays and an MRI; there were no apparent breaks or fractures, and we still didn’t know what was going on with his ankle. Some new symptoms developed on Saturday, but nothing critical. We thought we had a diagnosis and were treating the ankle with Advil and rest.

On Tuesday morning, shortly after breakfast, he developed severe pain throughout his whole body that made him scream out in pain and writhing around in bed or wherever he was. The pain would come in waves every couple of minutes. We rushed him to the nearest ER in Baytown, and he was transferred to Texas Children’s ER shortly after that. The episodes of pain came every few minutes for the whole day. He was admitted to the PICU and has been undergoing a variety of tests along with various sedatives for pain.

I’m skipping a lot of details, but the short story is we don’t know exactly what’s going on. The leading thought is encephalitis caused by infection or autoimmune diseases. Today, he had another MRI on his brain and spine, and we’re awaiting the results of that now.

Please pray for Oliver as we navigate through this trial. It’s been pretty rough on him, and we have to keep him sedated, or the pain is too much to handle. He is exhausted. Pray that the steroid he is on will work to reduce his inflammation and thereby reduce the pain, and we can figure out the cause and get it treated.

Here are some ways you can join us in praying for him specifically;

1. That he can continue to swallow his antibiotics so we can let his veins rest a bit

2. The exact cause of the encephalitis. It seems to be an autoimmune response, and they are checking many antibodies.

3. Some panels take a week or more to get back, so be patient with the process.

3. That we continue to see a reduction in the frequency and severity of the encephalitic episodes

4. We can manage pain while the treatments do their work over the next few weeks.

We are so grateful for the support from all of you, from friends and family to those we’ve never met. The Lord has blessed us incredibly.”

Your support in raising money will help cover medical expenses such as medical bills, treatments, medications, and care.