Janayla's Journey

If you live in Lewiston, Auburn, Fryeburg, Saco, Pittsfield, or anywhere in Maine, there is a good chance you have heard or seen Mr. Drew & His Animals!

Drew Desjardins and his family are pillars of the community and lead by example when it comes to taking care of others. They have an overwhelming amount of love for their animals, their community, and more important than anything: Their Family! If you have been fortunate to see any of their Cargo Van Diary posts, the rest speaks for itself!

As a community, now is our chance to give back when they can use the support!

Please read a recent post from the family regarding an upcoming journey. It's lengthy, but worth the time to understand the journey ahead of them. The next couple of weeks will create a significant unexpected financial burden for the family. Let us come together $5, $10, $50 at a time for this family that has always put others first! They are a very humble family and would be the first to show up and say, "how can we help?" Now we have the opportunity to do the same for them. We are starting at $2500, but would love to far exceed this goal!!

Please consider a small financial donation after reading!

Their Story:

"Next week at this time Drew, myself and Janayla embark on a very important trip.

Janayla has suffered for years with her bowels and clinical constipation. The last attempt to help her was placing a Cecostomy tube to "flush" her intestines daily. That did not end up working due to very serious negative Vagel responses. Spike in temp, sweating, nausea, vomiting, pain and feeling faint. Its horrible! Not to mention

2 days of unpredictable

stooling, making normal everday life uncertain. School and social activities are often interrupted Also, because of these responses, we can only do the flush one a week. Think about that..only stooling once a week. Miserable!

We have tried all sorts of therapies, meds,foods, chiropractic with no luck. So, on the advice of our Pediatric Surgeon we had a failed attempt in Boston. She is too complicated. We then got referred to a Pediatric Neuro Gastro Motility Specialist (Yes! They do exist)

at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio. We have waited a year and a half for this clinic acceptance. Too long, in my opinion. We almost got denied because Janayla's medical record is so complicated, when OH reviewed her diagnosis they "assumed" she was bed ridden, non verbal and not cognitive. Lord have mercy, our amazing Pediatrician got on the hot line and spoke with the Specialist himself. They spoke at length and set the record straight. She told him to stop reading her chart and just listen. He was amazed at her story and how far she had come and accepted the referral. Whew!

So...we leave on Saturday the 26th, stay in Hamburg PA that night then make our way to Cincinnati, OH on Sunday. We will have appts everyday starting Monday. Some are non invasive and others...not so much. But, they need to be done. She will be admitted in-patient on Wednesday for several sedated tests then we wind up the tests with the big one on Thurs & Fri which consists of specialized leads being placed far into the colon that has hundreds of sensors along the way. They are placed on Thursday and on Friday morning, after an xray, to be sure they are properly in place, the leads will be hooked up to the telemetry machine. There are several phases to this test. Fluid test, feeding test etc. and it all measures her motility. The very unfortunate part to this test (its not painful) is she will need to remain in bed the entire 30+ hours. If you know Janayla, 2 minutes is hard. (Deep breath) This isn't going to he easy. We are fortunate that we have a Behavior Specialist, Child Life Coordinator and RN assigned to us for all of this. Maybe the 5 of us can manage this? I am leaving out a great deal of detail but I'm sure you get the drift.

We do have BIG plans after we are discharged. We feel that Janayla will need some special attention after all of this so we will make our way to Columbus OH and head directly to the American Girl Doll Store. There really is no choice in my mind. Stay tuned for pics. We all know how much Drew loves glitter!

I dont ask for much but I am asking for all of your prayers, good vibes, healing thoughts and well wishes. This is going to he stressful for all of us. We will return on Dec 4th to our own beds and a doll or two in tow. I am not looking forward to this yet I can't wait either. I pray that after all the results are in, they can provide solid recommendations on how to help Janayla.

Thank you all! I will update along the way"

(Fundraiser Disclosure: 100% of all funds raised, minus processing fees, will be donated to the Desjardins family to help reimburse for their travel/personal expenses)