#CarterStrong & the Harris fams healing journey

Cashâ Foy organisiert diese Spendenaktion.

Spende geschützt

Carter is 10 years old, loves Lego, Monster Trucks and doing front flips on his trampoline at home with his 7 year old brother Asher. He wants to be a pilot one day and has the mind of a dreamer and an engineer. Carter is also a medical enigma and this has been the case in the 9 short years he's had on planet earth. Unfortunately the Harris Family experienced another hardship when Carter developed a Central Line infection on April 26th 2021 (his 14th Central Line) as well as hip complications due to the harsh side effects of steroids and other medications he takes to keep him alive and ease his symptoms of FPIES, Gut failure, Crohns, Kidney issues and other problems as a kid. Long and short, Carter cannot eat food like you and me. Like any food.

He was admitted to BVDH in Smithers after spiking a bad fever and not being able to keep and food down or have Home TPN (Total Parental Nutrition through a CVC) because of the line infection. Also having problems walking the few months prior to admission due to a slipped epiphysis on his left side as well as starting on his right. After blood cultures were drawn the next day they came back with our worst fear. Carter had a line infection and developed sepsis. With Coordination with our Doctor team at BC Children's Hospital Carter and his Dad were Medevacked by Air Ambulance 12 hours away immediately to Vancouver. After being admitted to BCCH the teams of Doctors and nurses administered harsh antibiotics to combat the dangerous fever of 41.6C to stabilize him. After a week things normalized, his infected CVC Hickman Line was removed and A new one called a PICC was inserted to give his central veins a chance to heal and to help prevent dangerous clotting. During his 4 hour plus surgery he had his hips pinned with metal screws, and exploratory surgery etc. He is stable and requires bed rest the next 6 weeks. He will be seeing other teams trying to get his caloric intake figured out, kidneys, infusions and dental all before they can return home.

HISTORY:

Carter was diagnosed with Crohns, FPIES, IBD, UC, Hydro Nephrosis at 9 weeks old. This is suspected to have happened after catching the Rota virus at said BCCH. Since then Carter has never been able to eat normal food like other people, submerge himself in a bath or pool to go swimming due to his life saving lines that keep him alive at home. He is connected to a portal IV pump for 12-16 hours a day for much needed calories and fats. He also is connected to a food pump connected to his tummy via Gtube that gives him some nutritional support as well. He does manage to eat traditional chicken bone broth his daddy makes him and freezes every month. He drinks Water, apple juice, cranberry Juice and has a favorite blue Gatorade. Other than that Carter is unable to eat anything without his body going into a rejection state, vomit and dry heaving for 4 hours and effecting his organs after harsher reactions. Carter has had over 15 central lines, over 150 IV's, been poked over 1000 times all over his body. He doesn't have a lot of sites left if his Central Line fails but he is strong. # CarterStrong

Carter was at one time on a med called humira which was $1700 a dose every 2 weeks for a 4ml vile. we had to throw away 2.5ml every time as it was a one time dose. we called it liquid gold and costs added up. Carter has been on multiple biologics and after switching to a new med and daily oral Vancomycin we came home only to throw away 4 doses as it wasn't any good to us and had to be thrown away as it couldn't be returned either. Meds are again costly and so are our monthly trips to Vancouver from Smithers which is 12 hours away. Covid has made everything harder.

Carter is your typical 9 year old minus the medical journey. He misses his mom and brother, Aunts and Uncles, and Grammy's and Poppa, School and friends every time his dad and him have to travel or are admitted to BC Childrens Hospital.school. Over all Carter and daddy have spent over 4 years of the last 9 admitted to BCCH and Ronald Macdonald House as outpatients. This is time away from his mom and brother which has been very trying on our family. Carter really wants to play soccer one day and loves riding his bicycle and scooter or his electric jeep around the yard or jumping on the trampoline with his brother.

Carters Mom, Kimberley, was diagnosed with Epilepsy in 2005. Kim wanted to be a stay at home mom her whole life but unfortunately her disease has made her a trapped stay at home mom without the ability to drive and her independence taken from her. She has multiple seizures a month, sometimes a few in a day, forgets things and all because of this terrible disease. She would travel with Carter if she could but being on multiple medications herself unfortunately doesn't control all her seizures and its safer for her and Carter is she remains home. Kim takes vast amounts of meds which numbs her a bit and to keep most seizures at bay and gets IVIG infusions every month to help as well. Meds are expensive and we have to pay the first $1500 before any of it gets covered each year.

Asher is Carters little 7 year old brother. He is amazing, gentle, tall, and loves life and is such a goof! He enjoys making pictures and playing with his Mario Lego or Nintendo switch games. Asher is very compassionate to his brother and mom and helps anyway he can. Unfortunately him and Carter have had to grow up quickly due to circumstance of mommy having seizures and not remembering us and Carters medical stuffs. He misses his brother and daddy during long admissions and isn't fair they are apart.

Cashâ is Cree/Métis & TwoSpirit, Parent and the caregiver of the family. They were a firefighter for almost 8 years which allowed them to learn multiple medical skills to help their family. Cashâ , again due to circumstance, had to quit a fulltime 17 year IT job to become a full time caregiver as juggling both was just too much. This has also taken its tole on daddy who was also diagnosed with CPTSD in Jan of 2019. This has been a hard burden to bare but they keep going and try to get a day of work or a few hours just to make ends meet but this is difficult to do for 2 people let alone on the shoulders of one person. Kim helps where she can but the brunt falls on Cashâ s shoulders and she/they can only carry so much. Being burnt out but keeps on going.

The how and the why you can help.

We are asking for financial aid at this time. Travel, food, paying for 2 places at once, meds, etc. have all taken its financial tole on our family. We are lucky to have a mortgage, equity, and a line of credit but the last nine years have been hard and maxed alot out and are still battling to keep going with no end insight hence being re admitted now. It sucks being in a catch 22 as we have to show the bank we are working to renegotiate our mortgage and assume the 80K we used the last 9 years to stay afloat, but cant work always being in hospital and full time caregiver. It has not been easy nor is it easy asking for help. Dont get us wrong we have had amazing support in the past with 7K here and 8K there etc. and am so ever thankful but we just need more than just getting by. We need help. We need your help. Help to take stress off of our main job of caregiving which is the best job in the world and pays in other ways but me need financial assistance to keep going or our last resort is too sell our house and start over.

This has been very difficult to write and humbling to ask but we dont really have any other option at this time. If you would like to follow some of the story on social media, check out @twosp1rit on IG and youtube, Tiktok, or facebook. I will also try to update here.

Thank you for reading this far if you made it.