Erin's Medical Fund

In 2015, the day before the first day of school actually, Erins left foot turned completly inward toe to heel. After alot of doctor and emergency room visits and still no answers Erins parents made an appointment with Childrens hospital in Pitsburgh. So at their first appointment a rountine MRI was done to schedule surgery to fix what was thought to be cartliage damage. No big deal they thought just a normal thing. This MRI wasnt a typical one after a few hours they learned that it wasnt cartliage damage at all it was actually a mass on the side of Erins knee and turning her foot inward relieved pressure on her knee. She was admitted to Childrens of Pittsburgh to undergo a biopsy of this mass the next morning. Erin recieved several different medicines while there waiting on results from this biopsy. The results came and in and in fact there was no infection or cancer. Thats a good thing right? This is where the journey began.
After coming home while doctors met and talked she was referred to Rhuematology. Once again Erin had to recieve more tests because nobody was real sure why or what was happening. So this time was a Bone Scan of her whole body. Erin finally had some answers, the scan itself showed lesions the same as was on her knee throughout her body. So from August to January there was multiple rounds of bloodwork and several other MRI and scans done. But Erin finally had a diagonsis of CRMO.
CRMO is Chronic Recurrent Multifocial Osteomyelitis, which is a rare autoimmune disorder, 1 in a million children and adults ar affected by this disorder. CRMO affects a persons immune system the wrong way it attacks healthy bone. It causes pain, swelling, can make for easy breaks and fractures, and also can affect ones everyday activites. Up to today there is still research being done on this rare disorder and there are no current medications labled just for CRMO so medicines used for other disorders and diesases are being tried to help treat CRMO. There is currently no known cure or cause of CRMO but research is being done daily.
But back to Erins story, Since she had the diagnosis now to figure out which medicine to use to help treat. Along with daily anti-inflammatory medicines she also started a medicine called Methotrexate which was going good for awhile until she developed a crazy cough. Little did anyone know this cough was a start to a crazy lung infection. So back to the hospital she went to underago a lung biopsy which at the age of 8 was very scary, but she was such a tropper. Now that Erin has nodules in her lung and a lung infection the medicine which was helping with the lesions had to be stopped. So now what to do? Back to the drawing board. While off the medicines she developed 6 new lesions in her foot and once again we tried a new type of treatment, this time was a infusion. unfourntley Erins body didnt do very well with the infusion and once again it didnt work. Meanwhile she goes back to the hospital for a biopsy on her foot. This was a differnt type they actually removed 2 pieces of bone from her foot to test. But once again just CRMO. While all this is happening to her bones her body is attacking itself and causing some belly issues, which eventually went away after she had scopes to make sure the intestines and stuff was okay. So the doctors decided to try injections to help with Erins condition and once again it had failed new lesions have developed in her clavicle. Back to the drawing board and back to the GI becasue her belly isnt doing so well.
We could go on for days with everything Erin has had done but, to date several medicines and treatments have been tried with the latest injections failing Erins is going back for a different type of infusion. Her current diagnosis include: CRMO, Lung nodules in both lungs, hearing loss, Ileitis, Ulcerative Colitis, and most recent Crohn's Disease. So since we have been friends for 6 years now, we want to help this family because both of their children are like my own. So any amount would be greatly appericated but most importantly keep this family in your prayers.