Collection: Aubree's Army
60% of each item sold will be donated directly back to
Aubree and her family!
On September 19, 2020 Alysha Archer and Jake Nadeau welcomed their second child, a beautiful baby girl, into this world. Big brother Jace along with many family and friends were overjoyed to meet Aubree Rose. Aubree was progressing well with each month until she experienced a seizure on January 2, 2021. The team of doctors at Sault Area Hospital consulted with paediatricians, geneticists and neurologists at The Hospital for Sick Kids as the seizures progressed in length and number and were not responding to medication. At the preliminary stages there was nothing to indicate why the seizures were occurring. Alysha and Jake certainly were not expecting what was to come.
After much testing and observation it was confirmed that Aubree Rose has Infantile Alexander's Disease and on January 6, 2021 was sent to Toronto to the Hospital for Sick Kids via Air Ambulance where Alysha and her mother Jessica alternate to be at her bedside doing 12 hour shifts. Aubree remains in an observation room under the close and watchful eye of the wonderful and caring nurses and specialists. Aubree is currently receiving daily maintenance doses to help manage the seizures and hopefully keep them at bay. If need be she is administered a nasal spray if the seizure is progressing and length and if required, is then given what they refer to as a "load" when her seizure exceeds 8 minutes or a cluster of seizures lasting longer than 30 minutes. On January 29 she was given a g tube. Aubree is now on a very strict and precise Keto formula/diet which has proven to control drug-resistant seizures and suppress epileptic activity in the brain. This formula and her daily medications are given through the g-tube.
Alexander's Disease Alexander disease is one of a group of neurological conditions known as the leukodystrophies. Leukodystrophies are disorders that result from abnormalities in myelin, the “white matter” that protects nerve fibers in the brain. In Alexander disease, the destruction of white matter is accompanied by the formation of Rosenthal fibers--abnormal clumps of protein that accumulate in non-nerve cells (astrocytes) in the brain. The most common type of Alexander disease is the infantile form that usually begins during the first two years of life. Symptoms include mental and physical developmental delays, followed by the loss of developmental milestones, an abnormal increase in head size, and seizures. This is an extremely rare disease worldwide and a cure is still in it's infantile stage.
