Kendall Speaks

Kendall shares how she has overcomed her health problems since she was a little baby. She has anaphylaxis, which means she is allergic to many types of foods. With her faith in God and the support of her family and friends, she has reached one of her dreams - skating - eventhough with this health problem.

Anything that you dream,
just don't give up on it.

Never give up on it,
because it can happen.

I never would've thought
that when I was six,

and stepped onto the ice,
that it would turn into this dream,

and like this, this thing that
I love so much.

(Music)

When I was two days old
I stopped breathing

and my mom and dad were panicked.

The doctors didn't know why,
but it was actually

that I had really really
bad acid reflux.

And I was allergic to my mom's breastmilk,

but we didnt' know at the time
because the doctors didn't know

I was anaphylactic to anything,
because I was only 2 days old.

And I continued and continued to have
really bad food allergy reactions.

and eventually, when I was
probably two years old

they finally did blood testing
and skin testing

and found out I was anaphylactic
to 95% of all food.

(Music)

When I started skating when I was six,

I went to an iceskating class
just because I had convinced my mom

to take me, and my dad...

my dad was kind of, like, skeptical.

He was kind of like:
"Well I think you should try it,

but let's not get crazy,
let's just be careful."

because he was really worried that
I was going to fall on my stomach

and hurt my tube or something.

Growing up, I can't really imagine
a time when I wasn't allergic.

It's just been a part of my life.

And then when I was 3 1/2,
I got my feeding tube placed,

because I was failure to thrive,

and I was, I think 22-27 pounds
when I was like three years old.

And they were really worried.

(Music)

Well, I can eat some things now,

and that's why I got the feeding tube,

so they put formulas into that
which helped me grow so much

and kept me alive.

And then as I got older, it became harder
because when I wanted to skate,

I didn't want to have a pump on my back
and have a backpack on.

So, they told me....
I started doing gravity feeds,

which is where I hook my tube up
and I pour formula down into my stomach.

so I did that about four times a day,

and so throughout the day, like breakfast,
lunch, dinner and then if I needed extra

I'll normally need an extra
before school time

because I'm so exhausted from skating.

But after two feeds,

I definitely have more energy,

it's just like after eating a big meal.

And I can eat like the 5% of foods
I'm not allergic to,

so I can eat chicken, rice,
potatoes, turkey, beef.

So I can have like
a good amount of things, but

my favorite thing is potatoes.

I eat potatoes in everything,
and I also...

the only allergen I outgrew
was milk and dairy.

So I can have chocolate,
and that's my favorite.

It's my little treat.

(Music)

A day in the life of Kendall would be:

getting up, taking my formula
and my medicines,

for having my medical situation
to right key to

and then going to the rink.

And skating for a few hours.

And then I might have
a vocal lesson after that,

so, I have to go to my church
and have a vocal lesson.

And then, normally I have school.

'cause I have school
in the afternoons because

I am home-hospital schooled
through my school district.

So I'll have school, do lots of homework,
and that's pretty much it.

And the same thing over again.

(Music)

I basically...
they've done a lot of studies and

they're still researching food allergies,

because it's growing,
like an epidemic.

I think it's 15 million Americans with
food allergies at the moment,

but it's sort of funny because
the things that I eat a lot,

I tend to not have allergies to,

but then one day, you can just wake up
and eat it, and have an allergy.

I used to have tomato all the time.

I would eat tomato sauces
on spaghetti noodles

or ketchup on french fries,
that type of thing,

and then one day I had..
I think I was eating like a cheese pizza

my mom cooked for me,
and there was sauce on it,

and I just got a really bad reaction,

and then ever since then,
when I eat tomato, my lips swell up.

It's not anaphylactic,
but its a really bad allergy.

(Music)

The reactions are normally the same.

There's different types of reactions
to different things,

like if I am deathly allergic
to peanuts, tree nuts,

really any kind of nut or seed,
eggs and soy and pork,

and things like that.

So, if I were to ingest that,
or when it comes to nuts,

even breathing it or touching it,
my lips swell up, my face swells up,

and the worst part is my throat
swells up. So then I stop breathing,

and that's what happens many times

I've almost lost my life eight times.

And it's definitely what
drives me to keep going,

because it was terrifying.

Every time it happens,
it's a different reaction.

Mainly it's from just breathing
or touching something I'm allergic to.

(Music)

What keeps me going
is definitely my faith.

On a daily basis, I don't know

what I would do without my faith
in God and my family.

And the support of my friends.

(Music)