Support Ella's Journey Through Open-Heart Surgery

Ok friends and family! The Stack family is entering a season where they will need our prayers and support. Let’s show them that they have a village surrounding them before, during, and after Ella’s upcoming surgery. Here’s a little backstory of Ella’s journey up until this point.

Ella has had many health challenges in her 7.5 years of life. While she has overcome a lot of these challenges, she is currently still navigating 10 diagnoses daily! The Stack family certainly feels strengthened by God’s love, peace, wisdom, and joy a lot of the time. However, all the hours spent going to appointments, calling insurance, and the financial costs have put a huge burden on their family of four over the years!

As a baby, Ella had many food and eating challenges and suffered with food protein enterocolitis syndrome (F.P.I.E.S.) and also had lip tie and tongue tie surgery. Even as a newborn, she cried a lot and never slept.

As a toddler, she was diagnosed with two eye conditions (strabismus and amblyopia). She began wearing eyeglasses and doing patch therapy daily at the age of 20 months. She did not have depth perception until after her eye surgery at the age of 2.5. She continued patch therapy daily for 4 years after that and maintained regular eye appointments with a pediatric ophthalmologist every 2 months. Her eyes have improved, but there is still a lot she needs healed! She currently only sees her ophthalmologist every 6 months but started muscle therapy with another visual provider this past summer. She does vision exercises at home for 30 mins daily and will continue this for at least a year. The Stacks are hoping this improves her visual processing, which is affecting her daily functioning, including emotional well-being, focus and cognition, and learning to read.

Her vision issues have affected so much of her development. Not having depth perception until she was 2.5 years old impacted her fine and gross motor skills. She went to occupational therapy 2-4 times a month from 18 months until she began kindergarten. While she still has some challenges, she has improved a lot!

Ella also had neuropsychological testing done this past spring, and several months later, findings revealed 6 other developmental disorders, including ADHD and sensory processing disorder, which are part of Autism Spectrum Disorder! Ella doesn’t sleep well, and due to these disorders, really struggles daily with her emotional regulation! The Stack family started to research and get Ella the care she needs to navigate some of these newly diagnosed challenges. It’s a start since there is only so much they can do within the confines of finances and time.

Lastly, and most importantly, as a young toddler, Ella was also diagnosed with two heart conditions that have been closely monitored by a pediatric cardiologist several times a year for the last six years. Basically, there is a growth that is partially blocking blood flow into the aorta (subaortic membrane). Her aortic valve is also leaking and causing aortic regurgitation of blood back into her left ventricle. Ella will need open-heart surgery this Fall in Baltimore, MD to improve these serious conditions. The Stack family have been good stewards with their money, living simply, yet generously within their means. Yet, since Ella’s birth, they’ve spent over $40,000 in health costs on Ella alone! This has been a huge burden on a teacher’s salary! They are thankful for some of the parental support they have received. Please pray for their family and Ella’s healing as they continue to navigate these daily challenges. If you feel led to donate, the Stacks are taking donations to cover just a portion of the open-heart surgery costs and aftercare. Let’s help ease some of the weight off of their shoulders during this time, so that they can focus on young Ella. Thank you for your prayers. ❤️

Please share this link with your friends and family!