Support Ellie on her Road to Recovery

Hi everyone! I'm Rachel, Carissa's friend here in Midland, TX . At the request of so many, I've started this gofundme as a way to contribute to the ongoing expenses with Ellie's diagnosis.

Many of you already know the story, but in case you're getting caught up, on December 26th, Ellie was diagnosed with Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. It all started on December 15th, in Minnesota while visiting family, with some very odd non-Ellie-like behavior and culminated in a seizure in the local ER. Over the next 11 days, and 2 more hospitals later, Ellie was poked and prodded and hooked up for numerous MRIs, EEGs, and bloodwork, a spinal tap, steroids, antibiotics, anti seizure meds, and more, all while her health rapidly declined.

At Minnesota Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, where Ellie is currently receiving treatment, early on the pediatric neurologist suspected meningitis and encephalitis, but hers was a tricky diagnosis to pin down. During those days, Ellie slipped further away and lost most of her motor control, even being unable to eat or swallow, and had a feeding tube put in.

Currently, Ellie is receiving IVIG (immunoglobulin) treatments, steroids, doxycycline, and today (12/28) started the first of 5 rounds of plasmapheresis (essentially dialysis to clean out the localized antibodies) and will be in the hospital for at least 2 more weeks.

What comes next involves a lot of OT, PT, and speech therapy to help Ellie relearn skills like eating, sitting up, etc. It's a long journey ahead and this is a small way to support the Ryan and Carissa, and their three lovely daughters, Keela, Carena, and Ellie during this unimaginably difficult time.

Please lift up the Viktoras in prayer every chance you get, and donate if you feel so inclined! Thank you so much!

**You can read more about this rare disease via wikipedia (here) or read the book "Brain on Fire" by Susannah Cahalan, a women who experience the same disease in her early 20's. Please note that Ellie's case was NOT caused by a tumor, as mentioned in the wiki article.