Fayth's Story

Fayth has never had an easy medical journey since the day she was born. Fayth at 7 weeks old had to undergo a surgery called a Nissen Fundoplication and a feeding tube placement to help her thrive with her battling severe acid reflux and aspiration problems.  Fayth started thriving and at 15 months old, she was able to get the feeding tube removed!  Fayth was always such a happy little girl and bouncing off the walls!  At 4 years old, she was hospitalized for 6 days for unknown breathing problems. As you can imagine not having answers was hard, but what was most important was that she was doing better! At 7 years old, Fayth started experiencing severe migraines that were interfering with her daily life.  We put her on medications to help ease these headaches but they only got worse and then we (and her teachers) started noticing what we thought were narcolepsy symptoms at the age of 9. We found an amazing Neurologist Sleep doctor and they did a sleep study! When Fayth’s sleep study results came back inclusive, her doctor gave us 2 options. Option 1 - Take her off her migraine medication and re-run the sleep study. Option 2 - Get an MRI of her brain to make sure nothing is going on.  Fayth checked out neurology when they did their office visits, so her doctor wasn’t concerned that they would find anything on her MRI, but that is the option we chose as it was a safer option then taking her of her current medications.

This is where our lives changed forever.  On March 6th, 2020, Fayth went in for her MRI at 11:00am. Her MRI went very smooth and she did amazing. Fayth and I left the hospital, went for some ice cream and then went home.  As we were preparing to walk out the door to go get Kealen from school, I got a phone call that no mother ever wants to get. “Hello Melissa. This is (Fayth’s doctor). We just got Fayth’s MRI results back and I want to make sure you are in a place to talk.  Can you please sit down? Fayth’s MRI doesn’t look good.  We found over 50 lesions on her brain and we believe Fayth has something called Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis.  One of the lesions is active, and we need to admit Fayth to the hospital right away” As a mother, I didn’t even know how to feel myself, let alone explain to Fayth (a child that doesn’t feel sick) what was going on.

We packed our bags, and off to the hospital we went. Fayth was admitted that night and had to undergo so many tests and steroids to help with the active lesion that was on her brain.  She was a trooper though it all, and showed what true strength really is! 

 

When Fayth was discharged from the hospital, our journey for answers was still not over.  Fayth underwent 3 more months of extensive testing. On June 2nd 2020, Fayth had another MRI of her brain, and when they discovered more lesions, we got the final diagnosis of Pediatric MS. Fayth started DMT’s (medication to help with the progression of MS), and became our little hero. 

In September 2022, Fayth became super ill. We thought she was having a relapse, but little did we know Fayth had meningitis.  Fayth was once again admitted to the hospital,  had to undergo treatment and was taken off her DMT, placed on new medications and IVIG.  Over the course of the next year Fayth was in the hospital every month doing IVIG treatments and when we found out her B-Cells were not regenerating, we decided to go to at home sub-q IG infusions as this could be a long term/lifelong infusion she will need now.  With more testing from her doctors, on December 1st, 2023 Fayth was diagnosed with Pediatric SLE (Lupus). 

Through it all, Fayth has made it a mission to make sure she helps put smiles on other kids' faces.  Operation Fayth was born in November 2020 when Fayth wanted to buy a Scentsy buddy to give back to a child in the hospital.  She wants to make sure that no matter what a child is going through in life, they are not alone.  Fayth is a true fighter! She is a true Hero! She is the face of strength, resilience, and courage! Fayth will not let these diagnosis's take her down. She will fight these awful disease's all while her and us as a family raise awareness for Pediatric MS, Pediatric Lupus and give back to the children in our communities.  With that being said, we are excited to announce that on August 25th, 2025 Operation Fayth became a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization!