Here's the story of how our daughter went from the picture of perfect health to dependant on medical intervention in a matter of weeks.

Earlier this year, our daughter Kaylee proudly signed up to join the Army National Guard. She scanned her job options and quickly chose an IT-style position that she felt would suit her best. Her ship date was set for September 15th, so she had a few months to practice her PT and join a couple of drill weekends before having to leave. With boot camp and job training combined, she wasn't expecting to be home until next spring or summer. This was definitely a huge step in our young woman's life, but Kaylee was ready! When she wasn't working at her Casey's job, she spent most of her time training, studying, and packing her stuff away in anticipation of the big move. She was full of excitement for the opportunity to serve her country and filled with hope about her bright future ahead!

Unfortunately, things took a terrifying turn shortly after she arrived at her new home in Fort Jackson.

She shipped out on a Monday and arrived at her destination by Tuesday to begin the long and otherwise boring process of being onboarded before she could start her training. Thursday was vaccination day, and she met it like every other step in this process: bold, brave, and eager to get on to the next thing. None of us could have predicted what would happen next.

Within only a couple of hours of her vaccinations, Kaylee's left shoulder started to go numb. By the next day, she had lost feeling in her whole arm, which was rapidly followed by numbness in her left hip, which eventually moved down her entire leg. This made it difficult to walk and pretty much impossible to exercise. She spent that Saturday and Sunday in the hospital and was diagnosed with a pinched nerve. They gave her something for the pain and sent her back to base. By the following Tuesday, the pain and intermittent paralysis along the left side of her body had increased exponentially, which was soon followed by debilitating migraines and a very worrying loss of vision in her left eye. The severity of her symptoms increased rapidly, and two days later she was back in the hospital for a new round of tests. Her MRI showed that she had had a stroke; they found a large blood clot in her neck, and her blood sugar was over 450. She now has a diabetes diagnosis and is administering insulin by injection 4 times daily. This was all very sudden. Kaylee had always been in great health. Her being so far from home during all of this has been very difficult on her as well as the rest of us. She has been in and out of a handful of hospitals since that day. She's been scared and feeling very alone. It's been a very, VERY long two and a half weeks!!

The Army has decided that they are going to discharge her and expedite her travel back home. Our hearts leapt when we heard the news! Still, with her rapid return, there are additional complications to consider. Not only is she still experiencing the intermittent numbness and paralysis, but she also has a heart monitor that she'll need to wear for nearly a month alongside dedicating her focus to learning how to manage her diabetes diagnosis from here on. It's very likely that she will be unable to work for an undetermined amount of time. In addition, as we face the uncertainty of what's to come with this government shutdown, it may be a while before she is paid by the Army. Kaylee has monthly bills just like the rest of us and will be navigating a whole new world of medical intervention. We are setting up this GoFundMe in hopes that we all pull together and alleviate some of her stress while she finds her new normal in all of this crazy chaos. The $4,000 goal will allow her to have 3 months of coverage for bills and everything she needs so that she can focus on healing.

If you can help, even a little, please do! She will need financial security as well as warm wishes and kind words of encouragement.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for reading this and thank you for helping our Kaylee!