We would like to thank you for visiting the Help the Little family’s page. We are sharing this story in hopes that it will gain more support for their family while navigating through this very difficult time in their lives.  

Recently our mom, Cinnamon, was diagnosed with an extremely rare disease of the esophagus known as  stage 3 achalasia. This disease causes spasms in the esophagus making it extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to eat... With little to no public outreach for help, they have bravely confronted this devastating news mostly on their own, but our family’s hope is that they will witness the outpouring of support that so many of you have to offer during this time.  We detail their story below...

On September 26th Cinnamon began having severe difficulty with swallowing. Each time she tried to eat, the food would get stuck in her esophagus and cause extreme chest and back pain and make her feel as though she was choking.  After a visit to the ER she was refereed to a gastroenterologist for what they called Dysphagia. Dysphagia is simply the term used when someone is having difficulty swallowing, but there are many reasons why someone can start to experience Dysphagia, so Cinnamon had to go through a lot of testing before she came to a diagnosis. 

During the past 4 months Cinnamon has only been able to eat liquid foods such as bone broth, jello, and very smooth protein shakes, and has even gone several days in between without being able to eat or drink at all because even liquids would not go down properly.

This disease has taken a toll on her body physically as she has lost an unhealthy amount of weight, and has little to no energy just to be able to get through a day. The disease, as well as the medicines she has to take, also makes it very difficult for her to sleep. Lately she has only been able to get 3-4 hours or so. 

This has also taken a huge toll on her emotionally, as you can imagine.

Because of Cinnamon's physical state, she has not been able to work as much as she usually does. Nathan also, had just recently started in a new career soon before this all happened, and has taken time here and there to be there for our mom and get her to doctors appointments, etc. 

With this new diagnosis our parents are finding hope in the fact that there are surgeries to help with this disease. Although it is incurable, some of these surgeries have helped others with this diagnosis live a normal life and be able to eat all their favorite foods once again. We are praying hard that this will be the outcome for our mom as well, but these treatment options means going to New York City to talk with specialists as this is the only place in the state of NY that offers one of the most promising surgeries. This disease is rare so there are also very few doctors that have a lot of experience with performing these surgeries. 

Our parents are still unsure if their insurance will cover all, some, or any of these appointments and treatments. Plus they will be taking time away from home and from work to go to NYC to learn her options and hopefully get the surgery done as well. 

It has been a very hard road for both Cinnamon and Nathan, and we feel that they could really use this extra support, love, and generosity during this time. 

This page is not something that they have asked for, and never would have asked for, but we, as their children, wanted to help them in this way. 

Thank you all so very much, your support means more than words can say. 


- Daniel & Krista Little, Aaron & Sarae Vergason