Kali's Journey

My name is JoJo Grant and I am the grandmother of Kali Childs. I am starting this fundraising campaign to raise money for Kali's Journey.

Just at 1 week old is when Kali’s Journey began. The continuous vomiting landed her to have her first surgery at 3 weeks old when she was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis.  As months went by, the vomiting had not stopped.  That’s when her second surgery came, which was again on her pylorus, as this was thought to still be the problem.  But this surgery did not fix the problem.  As time went on, her symptoms got worse, which caused multiple doctor’s appointments, hospital stays, procedures & studies, and other different tests. Kali was then diagnosed with Chronic Pseudo Obstruction, Gastroparesis, Short Gut Syndrome, Esinophilic Esophagitis, Multiple Allergies, and Failure to Thrive.  Finding out all of these diagnoses, I was told that Kali was born with her stomach and intestines not working like they should. She was not able to eat or drink anything by mouth, which lead her to have a GJ tube feeding placement.  This was placed in hopes that she would start thriving with all her nutrition going through the feeding tube.  As time continued to go by, Kali still was not thriving as she should be, so this landed her the next surgery, which was a central line placement in her chest for TPN (Total Parental Nutrition).  As TPN is liquid gold, this hindered some of her other organs, which lead her to have liver disease and chronic pancreatitis. As more time went on, Kali’s life got more complicated which is when we were sent to the Transplant Institute in Washington DC for an evaluation. A Small Bowel Transplant was decided that is what Kali needs, but wanting to rule out all possibilities first, as this is a life changing experience.  We had ruled out everything but one thing, which was an ileostomy. So this is when the last surgery came, Life with an ileostomy. This was in hopes to decompress her stomach and relieve the pain. As this was not very successful, myself and all of the doctors on Kali’s team decided that now is the best time for transplant.  Kali is super excited to get her new purple and pink tummy! (Kali has been saying for a long time that she wants a new tummy and that she wants it to be purple and pink.)

I am pleased to announce that Kali is officially listed on the transplant list!

To every person who can donate, share Kali’s story, help us fundraise and/or pray for our family, we cannot thank you enough for all of your love and support in the upcoming days, months, and years.  Any donation towards this cause will give Kali the opportunity to have a normal, healthy life.  We have a long journey ahead of us and we will feel so honored and blessed that you can give the gift of life to any person young or old in need of transplant.

Thank you for being a part of Kali’s Journey!