Rylee's Medical Journey

On December 28th, 2021, this perfect little girl was born at 6lbs 9oz, with the cutest little face and a full head of hair. On the outside—she is perfect. But what we all were soon to find out less than a week after birth was on the inside; Rylee is fighting her own battle with SCID. Unfortunately, this very rare immunodeficiency does not allow Rylee to fight off even the mildest infections due to her fragile immune system. Our perfect little addition to our family needs a bone marrow transplant to win this unimaginable fight.

Rylee and her mommy Sydney have been in the hospital since January 7th. They began their journey in San Diego at Kaiser, where what felt like endless tests were run, and answers to questions were beyond comprehensible; Rylee was gifted with the best gift of all-- a bone marrow donor to save her life. This donor was found on the registry and is a 9/10 match. This fantastic news led to the decision to move Rylee and mommy up to Los Angeles in early February to prepare for the bone marrow transplant. The quick move was made because her white blood cell count dropped drastically. The transplant was scheduled for early March; however, another setback came because Rylee was battling a rash all over her body, which did not allow her to receive the transplant as scheduled. After being given a port in her chest to administer all of her medications and prep for the transplant, her rash has subsided enough for her to move forward, allowing us to finally announce that her transplant is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5th.

With the transplant comes preparation that no child, let alone a 3-month-old, should have to experience. Rylee will begin chemotherapy on March 27th to deplete all of her existing cells and provide space for the bone marrow transplant to replenish and produce her new, more robust and evolving cells. Once the transplant is complete, baby girl and mommy will spend up to 6 more weeks in the hospital to ensure that the transplant is successful and effective.

Throughout this journey, Rylee could not have been blessed with more substantial, more hands-on, loving, incredible parents than she has by her side. Sydney has been the ultimate warrior-- being so strong enduring this craziness with her baby girl every day. While her daddy, Cory, has been ensuring mommy and baby have clean clothes regularly, food to eat besides hospital food, and showering them with endless amounts of love and support, day in and day out.

My niece is blessed to have all of the love, support, and prayers around her every day. She has the most prominent, most vital and most relentless tribe behind her and will be there every step of the way to show her the most amazing life possible. My family and I set up this GoFundMe account to ask for help for baby Rylee’s medical journey. As we know, times are hard on some right now, and we are more than appreciative of any financial support that any of you can provide. We know our warrior princess will make it through this fight, and we cannot wait for her to be home! Thank you all so much for your unwavering support; we will never begin to explain how much this means to us all!!