Franki's Fight

I am Franki's Aunt and I have started this page to help Franki and her parents as they continue through Franki's fight. 

Franki was born with a rare condition called Lymphatic Malformation. In Franki's case these vascular anomalies are under her tongue and down her throat (sublingual).  A few times over her life these cysts have become infected or bleed into themselves and cause massive swelling and pain, after a couple days in hospital they get discharged. She has also received numerous risky procedures and been treated with steroids and antibiotics to shrink the cysts.  Overall, Franki has led a very normal childhood leaving most people unaware of her condition.

Friday, March 17th Franki went off to school like a normal little 1st grader.  She had a sudden painful flare up and was taken by her parents to the ER where she was immediately given antibiotics and steroids intravenously. Unlike other times there was minimal improvement, And the ER doctors quickly grew concerned for her airway.  She was transferred to Radys Children's Hospital by ambulance where they intubated her in the OR and transferred her to critical care under paralytics and sedatives.

 After an MRI it was clear the malformations were hemorrhaging and causing all the swelling. 5 days in she underwent a procedure to drain the sclerotherapy as many as what was possible. The results did not produce the outcome all had hoped for and a few complications began to occur. This time things were very different.
Thank the Lord the complications have since rectified but now 10 days into this she is still dealing with the cyst swelling obstructing her airway and causing trauma to the tongue leaving it to complete protrude from her mouth.   Franki has a long road ahead with this as the placement of her cysts can be life threatening.    Without the swelling going down she will have to have a tracheotomy to allow her to breath and a feeding tube to allow her to eat.    We continue to pray for swelling to disappear and avoid all this however she will still need multiple procedures to make sure this does not continue to happen as well as rehabilitation and possible speech therapy.

While my brother and sister-in law have paid for all treatment and hospital and specialist doctors themselves this is now on a different level.   My brother will kill me for posting a Go Fund Me Account for him but I am looking for any way to help them during this difficult time where their income is going to have to suffer and the massive medical bills.

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.  XOXO