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Izabelle Cary's Fundraising Page
Page Creator: Izabelle Cary
Event: Gift of Life Walk & Family Health Fair
Event Starts: Jun 28, 2009
Team Name: IzzyWalkeez
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Her contagious smile!!!
About my nonprofit:
National Kidney Foundation of Illinois National Kidney Foundation of Illinois
The National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, Inc. (NKFI), a major voluntary health organization, seeks to prevent kidney and urinary tract diseases, improve the health and well-being of individuals and families...
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Fundraising target: $1,000
So far I have raised: $2,260.00
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My personal message:

Thank you for visiting our page. This is our second year joining the walk and we are just as excited as the first year. We raised $3500.00 last year and we had a great turn out for the walk. It was a beautiful day out and nice to have our friends and family there with us. Many of you already know about Izabelle and her condition but for those of you who don’t here’s a little about what has been going on:

When I was 36wks pregnant I had an ultrasound to see how big the baby was getting. During that ultrasound we learned that something was wrong with her kidneys but we didn’t know what. We then saw a specialist who confirmed that something was wrong but wouldn’t be able to identify that exact problem until she was born. Me and Jeremy were worried throughout the rest of the pregnancy but we just tried to relax and focus on meeting our baby girl. Being pregnant was amazing, I loved it! Feeling her kick or have the hiccups was a feeling I never imagined I would experience. On August 5th, 2007 Izabelle Nicole was born weighing in at 7lbs and was a tiny little peanut at 18in long. She was finally here and we were all so excited. Only 3days later we learned that Izabelle was born with only one kidney. Being born with one kidney isn’t that bad but when that kidney was having problems functioning correctly it was putting her life in danger. Izabelle’s blood levels were over double the ranges they should have been. At 5 days old she underwent her first surgery and had a nephrostomy catheter placed in her back. At 6 days old we went home from the hospital feeling confident that over time she will get better. Little did we know at 13 days old Izabelle’s labs would show everything was sky rocketing and now putting her life in extreme danger. She was readmitted to the hospital in the Step Down Unit but shortly moved to the PICU. She then underwent another surgery to have a dialysis catheter placed in her belly. She began receiving 12 hours of dialysis daily. It was manually distributed by the nurses because there is no machine that can administer such a small amount. We had to go from 20cc of dialysis to 60cc in order to use a machine and go home. The doctor had explained that her anatomy was the most confusing he has ever seen. For her fourth surgery they decided to reconstruct her ureter structure. After that surgery and about 2.5 weeks of dialysis Izabelle’s kidney began to miraculously function again. The blood work started falling into normal ranges and she was then taken off of dialysis. This was something we weren't expecting not even the doctors were expecting it. We were told to prepare ourselves for her going home on 12hours of dialysis and beginning to look for a kidney donor when she turned one year of age. We were preparing ourselves for the road ahead when she did a complete turn around. Shortly after being off of dialysis Izabelle was able to go home and having her home was a great feeling. There was never a dull moment though once we got home. She went twice a week for lab work at first, then once a week, moving to once every other week, to once a month and we are now finally at every other month. Quite often we have little set backs when she gets sick or has a fever she needs to be seen right away. She has spent one night in the hospital since her release, 3 ER visits and had one more surgery. There are some things in life Izabelle won’t be able to experience though. She will never be able to play contact sports, go horsing back riding or even hit the slopes for a day of snowboarding with her daddy. We need to raise her to be extremely careful because any kind of injury to her kidney could but her right life right back in danger and after spending a total of 31 days in the hospital overall, 7 surgeries, 2.5 weeks of dialysis, over 30 different x-rays, cat scans and countless amounts of blood draws we never want to be back there. But for now she is doing better than ever. She is only 17lbs and 28in at 20months old but that’s ok, she’s just going to be on the petite side. She is not going to let her size stop her from anything, she is becoming a little monster. She wants to keep up with her cousins. Testing mommy and daddy to see if she can get what she wants is her latest thing. Daddy usually caves in to her adorable puppy face but mommy stands her ground. She is loving the potty and it’s so cute to see this little thing on the toilet. Her smile is the most contagious thing ever no matter how bad your day is she can always cheer you up. Always having to be the center of attention she will dance for you or show you how she can do the itsy bitsy spider. For always being around boys she is finally giving up spiderman and moving on to baby dolls. Experiencing the things we have experienced has been extremely hard but it has made our families come closer and stronger so we can get though it together. We would have never expected to be where we are today and having her as healthy as she is. She is going to be beginning speech therapy so she can express her feeling with words. For now her facial expressions are working just fine. She needs one more surgery but we have postponed it until she is potty trained. We need to wait to make sure her bladder neck wasn’t affected by the ureters and is strong enough to allow her to control her bladder and be potty trained. If she can’t she will need some sort of catheter. We won’t let this new obstacle bring us down we are too strong for that and we will overcome it.
You would never know she has been through the things she has because of how healthy she is. She is full of energy and smiles and that’s what helps make all of this easier.
The National Kidney Foundation is very important to us and always will be. We are asking for you to join us for the walk if you can. Any donations big or small are appreciated but not expected. Without the help from all of you we would not have made it through all of this. Your prayers and strength helped us and we appreciate it more then you will ever know. Thank you!!!!


 

Online Sponsors to date:
Display Name Date Amount  Comment
Ben Bodensteiner 7/7/2009 $50.00  
Aunt Mandi, Uncle Jim and Emily 6/28/2009 $50.00 We love you so much!!!! XOXO 
Jara Spapperi 6/28/2009 $30.00  
Tania Manzanares 6/27/2009 $30.00  
With Love from your T-Mobile Family!! 6/27/2009 $150.00 Julia L., Richard H., Nik G., Adam T., Nem B., and Joel P. 
Kelly Lewis 6/27/2009 $50.00  
Andrew Rotolo & Laci Root 6/25/2009 $50.00  
Dana Morimoto 6/25/2009 $25.00 Good Luck!! :) 
Patty & Mark 6/24/2009 $100.00 With Love Baby Izzy 
Alaine 6/24/2009 $50.00  
Fischmans Fundraiser 6/24/2009 $625.00 We raised $1000.00 Thank you!!!!!!!!! 
Fischmans Fundraiser 6/24/2009 $275.00 Go Izzywalkeez!!!!!!!!!! 
Fischmans Fundraiser 6/24/2009 $100.00  
Denise Saiger 5/27/2009 $50.00 Hope this helps!  
Gina 5/27/2009 $50.00 Kisses!!  
Bobby 5/16/2009 $375.00 Go Cubbies 
Nicole Milano 4/20/2009 $25.00  
Dianna 4/8/2009 $25.00 For the little cutie 
Matt Foley 4/4/2009 $100.00 I hope it helps! 
Matt Foley 4/4/2009 $50.00 I hope it helps! 
* Total raised online: $2,260.00
Amount raised offline: $0.00
Grand Total: $2,260.00
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