Help support Lily and our family of 8 ❤️

UPDATE:

Giving an update on Lily. Things have not been going well. Although we have had good news and are very happy for that, we are getting bad news as well. She did pass her MRI meaning that the battery did not burn its way through to her heart. However we failed our swallow test as it is so thin between her esophagus and trachea that if she ate anything it would perforate and end up in her lungs. What this means is that there is no discharge date seen in our near future. Doctors aren’t sure if she will be there for weeks, or a month, or possibly longer.

the added aspect is that she is disabled and can’t comprehend what is going on. Due to having meningitis at 2 months old she is mentally about a 2-3year old. So she wants to put the tubes out and when people walk in she is trying to talk to them. She also asks multiple times an hour for food or drink even though she is on a constant infusion of nutrition.

Her sleeping is not going well as she is up for at least 30 minutes every time someone comes in the room, which is hourly. Do you can just imagine how Ben is doing.

With us not knowing how long this could be we could use help. I’m unable to work as I’m at home with the other 5 children aged 5-14years old. I’m also a part time worker so I do not have vacation or sick days. Since I’m not the one in hospital with her I cannot apply for the caregiver leave to supplement our loss in income. Ben is barely working and trying to remotely but he can only do so much.

We are forever thankful for any help being given. ♥️

Hello.

My name is Kate and I am a mother of 6 beautiful children. These children age from 5 years old to almost 15. A few friends told me that making this page could be helpful in our current situation. This past week it was discovered that our child Lily had a foreign body lodged in her throat. At the time we did not know what it was as she was not with us when it happened but it was assumed to be a large coin.

Once this object was removed it was confirmed to be a button battery with a diameter of 2.1cms which may not seem large, but in our severely undeveloped special needs daughter, it is. With it being a battery this caused many more issues both ongoing and extremely possible moving forward.

To give a slight back story on our family, we are a blended family of a yours, mine, and ours situation. I come to the family with the oldest 2, Sam (14) and Parker (10). My husband Ben comes with Anabelle (8), and twins Lily and Violet (6). Together we have Eddy (5). With us having the youngest 4 full time and the older 2, 50/50. Yes I know, it’s a lot and I’m sure you can assume it hasn’t been easy.

Our hardest mountain was when our youngest Eddy was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer just after his 1st birthday in 2019. But we had SickKids by our side the entire time.

SickKids have been with us along our entire journey as a family.

To give a backstory on Lily specifically it starts with her being born premature at 33weeks and 3days. Right from the beginning she was underdeveloped and stayed in our local NICU at LHO for 3 weeks. After being out of hospital for only 5 weeks she was brought back urgently as she was consistently vomiting and was under her discharge weight of only 5 pounds. It was discovered she had Bacterial Meningitis and was taken to SickKids for 2 weeks.

Since then Lily has not had an easy road. She is petit, developmentally delayed and at the mentality of approx 2-3yr old. She has seen ophthalmology, audiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, genetics as well as being diagnosed ADHD and being seen for ASD. She has also spent most of her life actively working with Grandview for speech and OT/PT. She spent the first 2 years of her life deaf. She has had 4 surgeries. Been kicked out of a special needs school due to being too high of needs, and the list goes on.

This kid does not have it easy.

We are reaching out for help during this current crisis. Dad Ben is in hospital with her while I am home with the other 5. Due to their ages this means I need to be present and unable to work while also continuing to attend school fulltime for my BSN.

We are looking for help to ease the financial stress and make sure Ben is fed and parking is covered while Lily is in hospital is we currently are unsure of when she could be discharged.

If you are in a position to help we are forever grateful, and if you are not we hope you can share our story.

Thanks you for taking time to help us. This means so much.