Lifting Up Lexi

Hi, my name is Alex and I'm looking for help in raising money to support Lexi Leonard and her amazing family as she faces health issues that no one expected this sweet three-year-old to experience.

Monday, February 28th started with Lexi feeling under the weather. Her mom, Holly, believing that the stomach bug that was circulating had made its way to the Leonard household made arrangements for Lexi to spend the day resting at home with her Grandma. However, as the day progressed, Lexi's tummy troubles became more severe and it became clear that she was in a lot of pain. The family made their way to urgent care and after many hours and numerous tests, urgent care sent Lexi and her mom home to follow up with their primary care doctor, despite abnormal labs, continued pain and inconclusive imagining.

The next day, Lexi's belly pain continued and became even more severe with our active little lady refusing to walk as a result. After consulting with her primary care, Holly decided it was time for a trip to the hospital to continue pushing for answers about what might be causing Lexi's pain. They ran tests, took images and continued to find alarming discrepancies in blood work and a lack of clarity from x-rays and ultrasounds. The doctors knew there was something wrong, but they couldn't quite figure out what. The decision was made to transfer Lexi to a nearby hospital with a pediatric ICU and treat her for suspected appendicitis.

On the evening of Wednesday, March 1st, Lexi was taken into surgery in which doctors intended to perform a laparoscopic appendectomy. However, when the surgeons finally got a look at what they were dealing with, they knew it was definitely not appendicitis. They discovered that Lexi had suffered a perforated ulcer in her stomach, which is exceedingly rare, especially for a child as young as she is. The surgery took three times as long as expected as they had to create a larger incision and work to clear all of the stomach contents that had spread throughout her body. The surgery was considered to be successful and her parents, Holly and Chuck, anxiously waited to hear the plan to get their sweet girl back to her usual, fun-loving, energetic self.

The family was told that Lexi would be in the hospital for at least 10 days while they support her recovery, ensure that she doesn't develop any post-op infections and try to figure out what the root cause of the ulcer might be. They settled in for a long road to recovery and prepared to support Lexi however they could. However, a week later, when we expected Lexi to be on the upward swing, she continues to be in pain and one of her drains continues to leak bile, which prompted another series of tests including a HIDA test, which is a high contrast MRI. The HIDA test showed a continued perforation near Lexi's gallbladder. This series of events is something that the doctors are saying they have never dealt with in a child her age, which makes the course of action a bit of an unknown.

As her doctors work to make a plan to curb her pain and stop the leak, I'm hoping that you all can help me in planning to support her amazing parents so they can reduce their financial worries and focus their energy on helping Lexi get better faster.

The Leonard's are truly some of the kindest, most generous people I know. Always willing to open their door and support those around them. Any funds donated will help to support the family as they navigate many unknowns. At this time, both Holly and Chuck are looking at extended absences from work as we don't know how long Lexi will remain in the hospital, continued childcare bills and what I can only imagine will be mountains of medical debt after an extended stay in the hospital. If you're unable to make a monetary donation, we ask that you keep Lexi and the Leonard's in your thoughts as they continue to fight this uphill battle.