Hello, we are the Schroeders and the girl pictured is my daughter Maddison.  She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease 6 years ago at age 11.  One day two years ago she was doubled over in pain and couldn't stand up straight. We took her to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee (1.5 hours away) to find out that she had a hole in intestine,  sepsis and a c.diff infection.  Emergency surgery saved her life, but it has not been the same since.  The last 2 years has been a constant struggle with her health, both physical and emotional.

2016 was a very challenging year for our family.  Maddison had 3 surgeries last year.  The first to remove part of her colon with a recurring abcess. The second to remove part of her parathyroid gland, which had been counteracting with her Crohn's disease to create constant kidney stones. And finally to remove the rest of her colon.  I was curious about the number of days she spent in the hospital last year so I logged in to our account last week and looked at her admission history.  I counted 77 days!  In disbelief I recounted. Still 77 days. December had not even been updated yet and I know she was admitted 3 times for varying lengths of time.  That 77 days doesn't include all of her appointments to see the GI team, the endocrine team, or the pain team. It also doesn't inlcude her local hospital visits in our hometown of Manitowoc, WI.  That adds up to a lot of missed work and a lot of driving back and forth.  We fell behind in bills and took on additional debt in hopes that things would turn around soon.  They have not.

I'm not the type of person to ask for help. In fact I set up a photo print and calendar sale to help get us caught back up because I feel awkward asking for help.  Several friends and family members have been trying to convince me to set up this GoFundMe account.  If I thought things were going to get better soon I would just be happy with my print sale and keep on fighting.  However, in reality I don't see 2017 being a huge improvement and the hole we are in is too big to be solved by a photo print sale.. So, I decided to set this up in hopes of getting caught up on our medical bills and debt we took on due to the medical issues, and to make up for lost wages.   Being caught up on our bills would give us the much needed time to just focus on Maddi's health and finally get her feeling better.

(and no, the couch was not actually on fire while she sat on it.. 2 picutres combined.)

Thank you for taking the time to read our story,

Jason, Amy, Gabrielle, Maddison, and Evan Schroeder