Cheer Together for Kaleigh

If you’ve had the privilege of knowing Kaleigh then you know how much she loves kids, cheer, and supporting all her high school & Gamecock sports! Back on February 25th Kaleigh went to the Dr for what she thought was a routine cold/sinus infection she had for a couple weeks; at her appt they noticed a swollen lymph node under her right arm. She was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and given an antibiotic to treat the infection and the swollen lymph node. Two days later we were awoken around 3 am to the sound of Kaleigh screaming and crying in excruciating pain, complaining that her back & legs were aching and hurting “in her bones” and her feet and hands were burning & itching. We assumed this might be an allergic reaction to the antibiotic and she was taken back to the dr where she was given antihistamines & Motrin. That night Kaleigh broke out in a rash all over her body & started losing her ability to urinate and was taken off the antihistamines as a precaution and given a strong steroid instead to which her body never reacted to. Fast forward 3 weeks, her symptoms never improved, in fact they only worsened with numbness and tingling on the skin in her hands, feet, face & legs, but still excruciating pain in her nerve endings in her hands, feet, legs, & back. Then on March 11th she started to lose ability in her fine motor skills. Her PCP & Drs in the children’s ER here in Columbia (after multiple visits) couldn’t seem to pinpoint a cause and seemed to think it was just viral arthritis, so finally out of desperation to find answers & relief for our daughter we decided to make the drive to MUSC in Charleston. The medical team and specialists here have been amazing and have left no stone unturned and it wasn’t long before an MRI showed severe inflammation in all of her nerve endings from her neck all the way down her spine & a 2nd MRI scan of her brain showed severe nerve damage in the nerve endings in the neck & brain that control the optic nerves and face which could potentially affect her hearing, vision, speech & swallowing/chewing ability before all is said and done, and a spinal tap confirmed that our sweet girl had Guillain-Barre Syndrome. It has been heart wrenching to watch our strong, active, & athletic girl struggle so hard with such a demyelinating disease and with the simple every day tasks some of us take for granted, but we are strong in our faith that there is a reason and purpose for this trial in her life and that she will persevere and use this to come back even stronger than before!!!!

The Drs have been working diligently to run tests to find the cause and provide the best possible treatment, but it has been a long road this past month with numerous drs visits, multiple tests, scans, hospital stays, and time missed without pay from work for both parents under FMLA and it doesn’t look like she will be getting released any time soon, though drs hope to have her back home within 1-2 weeks at most. And though we do have insurance, her post care will require EXTENSIVE Physical & Occupational Therapies, & Insurances sadly only pays for a small amount of visits so the rest will have to be covered completely out of pocket. Any donation no matter how small would be greatly appreciated and would definitely help to take one less stress and worry off the family and allow us to just focus on being able to be here with Kaleigh as she fights to get back to her “normal” and overcome the beast known as GBS. 
Thank you!