I really didn’t want to make this. I’ve never been a person to ever ask for help, but I’m beyond stressed trying to financially take care of my baby and our home. 

In the beginning of January my daughter, Eden, developed a small cough. I, at the time, was out sick from work with covid. So, of course, I worried Eden might have it as well. She began complaining of chest pain so I had brought her to the doctor to be tested for covid. Tests came back negative so they gave her a steroid for a week and a topical pain reliever to help with pain in her chest that her pediatrician thought might have been a pulled muscle, and put in an order for a sonogram to rule out any appendicitis, or gallbladder issues. At this point eden began developing fevers so I brought her to the ER at Geisinger CMC. They gave her a chest X-ray and discharged her with an “unknown virus” (writing bronchitis on her discharge paperwork) and prescribed her a ZPack. After another week of antibiotics the fevers never went away so I brought her back to her pediatrician. They believed she had pneumonia so they prescribed amoxicillin for another week and repeat scans. This was when we first heard the word “empyema”. Her pediatrician requested we go back to the hospital for a sonogram of her lung. We went to the hospital and they gave her another X-ray and confirmed she did have pneumonia and to continue the amoxicillin. After she finished the amoxicillin, my daughter was still spiking high fevers, coughing horribly, and in a lot of pain. I returned back to the pediatrician where her doctor told me to take her back to the ER and called ahead to put in a request for a sonogram and CT scan because her doctor believed Eden had an empyema. Once in the ER, again, the ER doctors gave her a chest X-ray and tried to discharge her, again, with pneumonia. Ignoring her pediatricians request for further testing. The doctor looked at us and said she didn’t want to run the scan because she “didn’t think she had empyema”. After threatening not to leave until tests were run, the doctor finally gave Eden a sonogram, where they found a giant mass in her lower right lobe of her lung. After that Eden was sent for a CT scan to get better imagining of the large mass in her lung. It was finally confirmed; Eden had a possibly empyema. She was life flighted to Geisinger Children’s Hospital in Danville. Eden was admitted into the hospital and had to get a tube surgically inserted through her chest into her lung to drain the fluids. During this time, I could no longer keep missing work an had to commute 1 1/2 hours from work to the hospital to be with my daughter every day. She was in Danville over a week before she was discharged with oral antibiotics and follow up appointments scheduled. Within a week Eden’s fevers came back. Her appetite began diminishing again and once again I was driving back and forth to the doctors for blood work, X-rays, and testing to find once again the mass had completely come back. Which brings us to the now. Once again Eden was admitted into the PICU in Danville and had another tube inserted into her lung once again. Thankfully after four days in PICU she was transferred out to the children’s ward and is finally looking better. We aren’t sure when the tube will be removed or when she will get to go home, but she’s being sent home this time with a PICC iv in her arm for IV antibiotics to ensure this doesn’t come back. Her fevers are finally gone and she’s finally starting to eat again. My daughter has lost over 20lbs in the past two months because of this. The scariest part of this all is it has come back once already. Her Pulmonologist informed me, should it return again, they will have to remove the bottom right lobe of her lung. Now any parent that would hear this would be terrified. This is my only baby and it mortifies me that this is even a possibility.

So here I am making this gofund me. I was told to make this because of all the work I’m missing to be with my child. I’m a single parent with a one person income that supports my child alone. I’ve missed a significant amount of work to be here with my baby, though my job does not hold my time missed against me, I have still lost a huge amount of income by missing time and spending money on gas driving back and forth. I’m unable to pay my bills and I once again have to return to work with her still in the hospital so I can afford to support her when she returns back home. I’m asking for help to be able to catch back up. This is taking a lot for me to do, as anyone knows me I never ask for help, nor do I usually accept it when offered. But I need this for my baby so she can come home and not have to worry about whether our heat or electric will end up getting shut off.

thank you for taking the time to even read our story.