SPOKANE, Wash. - All a local mother says she wants for Christmas is to get her health back after a very painful diagnosis earlier this year. She says her life depends on finding a way to get a procedure that she says she can only get out of state.
 
Kaydee Miller says the whole nightmare began with a tooth infection. She was put on antibiotics and thought nothing of it.
 
"When that didn’t work, (Kaydee was prescribed) not one but two more heavy antibiotics to try and get rid of (the infection,)" Kaydee's mother wrote in a fundraising effort. "After about five days into the antibiotic, she started feeling really sick and was having chest pains... stomach pains, a fever, fatigue and nausea, so she went into the emergency room."
 
A place Kaydee says she has returned to several times over the past several months.
 
"It's very painful and mentally draining," Kaydee said. "It's impacted my whole life. It's basically taken away the last 11 months of my life."
 
Kaydee says after weeks of not knowing what was going on with her body, she was finally diagnosed with C. difficile. It's typically the result of antibiotic medication use. She says she's learned it can lead to inflammation in the colon which can be deadly. 
"When that bad bacteria takes over, it turns into an infection in the colon," Kaydee said. "I'm a really high risk for something called Toxic megacolon. It's when there is so much inflammation in your colon for too long. It can cause my colon to rupture ... it could kill me."
 
Kaydee says her medical team has told her she is out of options, except for a fecal transplant.  
 
"Fecal transplants are used for (C. difficile) when antibiotics fail to get rid of it," she said. "Because of COVID, the main stool banks are no longer shipping stool. They have closed down, so there is none here in Spokane even though the procedure could be done here. I have to go to Texas or Minnesota where they have an in-house stool bank at the Mayo Clinic."
 
Kaydee says the cost of the procedure is $9,111. She says it is not something her insurance will cover. She says she just wants to raise awareness about this horrific diagnosis. 
 
"The main thing I would tell people, if they learn anything from this, is if you take an antibiotic, take a good probiotic with it," she said "I think all of this would have been prevented if someone told me (to talk to my doctor) about this. I had never heard of it before I got it."
 
Kaydee and loved ones are hoping to raise enough money to cover the procedure, and soon. 
 
“I’ve seen not one but two of the best infectious disease specialists in Washington .... (this procedure) really is my only option,” Kaydee said.
 
If you're interested in learning more about her journey, visit here or click the link below.
 

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