Hey friends, family, and generous donors. As some of you know, my (now) 3-year old daughter, Lenna, spent 11 days in the hospital back in March of this year (she wasn't quite 3 at the time). It was the second time she's been diagnosed with C Diff, which is a a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon, called toxic megacolon. She had it once before, when she was 16 months, but the first round didn't affect her greatly. She was happy, she was eating, she seemed healthy aside from the constant loose stools she was having at the time. She was diagnosed, treated with antibiotics, and life went back to normal. This time was significantly more severe. After being sick for a week (without loose stools) and going to the pediatrician twice, she was sent to the hospital for dehydration. We were expecting some fluids and to then go home and wait out what we thought was a viral infection. When we got to the hospital, she had ketones in her urine and low sodium levels, so she was admitted. The ketones turned out to be a stress response to the catheterization, but the low sodium had to be treated slowly to prevent seizures. The night before we went to the hospital she started having loose stools, and frequently, as she had during the first round of C Diff a year and a half prior. She tested positive for C Diff in the hospital. It was much more aggressive this time. The antibiotic that was used the first time was ineffective after several days, so they tried another antibiotic, which was also ineffective. She ended up needed two different antibiotics simultaneously, one 4 times a day orally and one 4 times a day via IV. While her sodium levels were being raised, her potassium, platelets, and hemoglobin dropped. She was given several human albumin transfusions over the course of several days. During all of this she also developed gastritis, which caused so much pain she was unable to eat or drink for days. She had multiple x-rays over several days to monitor for toxic megacolon. It took a team of infectious disease doctors, pediatric gastroenterologists, and primary physicians to find a treatment plan that was effective and would prevent an immediate reoccurrence once she was home. After discharge she remained on antibiotics for over a month. In the midst of all of this, apparently doctors outside of Lenna's health insurance network were consulted, so we now owe more than our annual out of pocket. I was sent initial medical bills in early June because the health insurance payments weren't received until mid May. I applied for financial assistance within the first month after receiving the bills. Less than a month after applying for financial assistance the hospital sold the bills to a collections agency and still have not contacted me about the financial assistance I applied for. I'm hoping that with your help I'll be able to pay off, or at least pay down a chunk, of Lenna's medical debt.