On memorial day Lisa Kae (aunt Lydia's friend) came over and took beautiful pictures of our family. It was so nice of her to do that for us in her day off.We finally have family pictures and I can't wait to print them all and fill-up our walls with our little angel's pictures.
Here are the links:
slide-show:
http://lisakaephotography.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=8378770&AlbumKey=tivhD
gallery: http://lisakaephotography.smugmug.com/gallery/8378770_tivhD/1/549781177_PLCvD
Thanks Lisa. You're a great person and above all an awesome photographer :-)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Smiling makes everything better !!!
One thing that we can always describe Olivia is "smiley" and "happy" no matter what she is going through. Yesterday we had the cardiology appointment and once again Olivia had the biggest smile and the loudest "gu-gu's" as soon as Dr. Lee entered the room. After they got her vidals, EKG and ultrasound Dr. Lee sat-down and told us that there was something different about Olivia this time. First of all he said she looks so happy and content, her blood oxygen had gone up from high 80's to high 90's, her blood flow from her lungs to her heart had slowed down compare to a couple of weeks ago and she no longer has the extra open valve that was dripping fluids from her lungs into her heart(which she developed after she got that bad "pneumonia" 3-4 weeks ago).He couldn't explain it why but he said it was nice to see things not get any worse after what she went through this passed month. Considering all of these Dr. Lee told us that it's time to consider the surgery now in a couple of months and he strongly recommended U of M due to her weight (still at 10lb & 2oz) and the size of her large whole. Hoping and praying that there is no more set-backs like that last one :-( she'll be climbing the 'big mountain' that we have been waiting for so long (it seems) at only six months old. Dr. Lee thinks that she'll handle the surgery well but we still don't know the recovery since she'll be in dialysis due to her kidney failure...
Please pray for our Livi to continue to be strong and grow bigger so her little body can handle this "huge" surgery .
For all of you that haven't met Olivia yet:
She likes to sleep at night time and take naps during the day (just like dadda);during the day every time we turn the mobile on she moves her feet so fast you think she is running; After she discovered her hands a couple of weeks ago Livi thinks that her left thumb is the most delicious thing in the whole world; her hair... well lets just say it's not going down anytime soon... I guess it makes her look taller(she is now almost 23 inch. long). She loves her swing that grandpa and grandma bought her and when she sleeps at night likes to scoot down in her bed and put her feet up (maybe better back support or holding herself down from always wanting to move and run). Olivia likes to be changed (especially her diaper) and stay just in her diaper with nothing on her no matter how cold or warm is in the house. She has been out two times each in both grandparent houses and uncle Steve & aunt Vera house too, one time at the church and one time at the mall with mommy, aunt Tina, her little cousin Briana(that loves to hold her hand) and aunt Vera( I guess six is our lucky number so far :-P ). Livi is always happy and looking at her bright smiley face every morning gives Peter and I strength no matter how rough our days can be...
Please pray for our Livi to continue to be strong and grow bigger so her little body can handle this "huge" surgery .
For all of you that haven't met Olivia yet:
She likes to sleep at night time and take naps during the day (just like dadda);during the day every time we turn the mobile on she moves her feet so fast you think she is running; After she discovered her hands a couple of weeks ago Livi thinks that her left thumb is the most delicious thing in the whole world; her hair... well lets just say it's not going down anytime soon... I guess it makes her look taller(she is now almost 23 inch. long). She loves her swing that grandpa and grandma bought her and when she sleeps at night likes to scoot down in her bed and put her feet up (maybe better back support or holding herself down from always wanting to move and run). Olivia likes to be changed (especially her diaper) and stay just in her diaper with nothing on her no matter how cold or warm is in the house. She has been out two times each in both grandparent houses and uncle Steve & aunt Vera house too, one time at the church and one time at the mall with mommy, aunt Tina, her little cousin Briana(that loves to hold her hand) and aunt Vera( I guess six is our lucky number so far :-P ). Livi is always happy and looking at her bright smiley face every morning gives Peter and I strength no matter how rough our days can be...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Livi is a fighter
On April 24 Olivia had her first surgery, Nissen G/Tube,rotation of her intestine and an appendectomy. The surgery went very well but as they were bringing her to us she decided to stop breathing for an instant which gave all the nurses and docs a big scare because of her heart condition. When they brought her upstairs to the PICU she was on oxygen, pale as a ghost and had a big rolled sheet under her shoulders to open her airway (made her look very uncomfortable) and was very hard to see. Being a strong baby as she is Livi got herself back off the oxygen in a couple of days. For the rest of the recovery she was put on level 7 which is the nephrology floor so they could get her electrolytes back to normal before she got home. During her stay there things got worse. The nephro team, being so big on her nutrition forgot about her health conditions and filled her up with IV fluids so much to the point of having the chest x-ray look like two big clouds instead of lungs in her little body. I was at home that night since Peter did the night shift so at first I didn't know what was going on until I called to check up on both of them and I got the answer that no mother wants to hear;" Dajana, I think we're loosing her. She can hardly breathe and she looks blue... " We both thought we were living a nightmare. Peter was there next to her crib, by himself, trying to comfort her. The Kidney doctor, Dr. Bunchman enters the room and as he was looking at him said: "I'm worried about her Peter. I think what I'm seeing here is heart failure..." Can you imagine what was going through Peter's head at that instance... screaming probably wouldn't have done justice to what he was feeling right there an then. Not even minutes later, Olivia's cardiologist, Dr. Lee entered the room and said "I don't believe what we're seeing here is heart failure. What I see is that Olivia has been overloaded with fluids. What a relief that was. It seemed like 20 doctors swarmed to her rescue by putting her in PI CU (again) and giving her some Lasics to get some of her extra fluids out. I got there right before they transferred her upstairs and seeing her in agony and breathing for her life was one of the hardest moments we've experienced so far. I don't know how Peter did it all night long. As we waited for them to take her to PI CU, Peter and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes, listening to the monitors loudly beeping and Peter's dad gently holding Olivia's hand, promising her that if she got better, Grandpa would take her for a ride in his big green truck.
This experience has cost us more heartache and ups and downs that her NI CU stay. She was there until May 5-Th, Tuesday and rushed back to ER on Monday and admitted again on May 13-Th for another week. We can definitely say that she has spend more time in the hospital that at home since she was born. Scary but it's always rewarding bringing her home and getting to cuddle with her again, giving her baths that she loves so much and cover her with kisses without having to worry about all the wires that she was connected to and the loud monitors that beep continuously. Livi has been home for almost a week now and she is doing much better. She is on continues feeding(non-stop drip feeding through a pomp in her G/Tube all day)and seem to tolerate that fine. I don't think we can do it without all the prayers that are said for us everyday. Olivia is God's miracle and she shows that to us everyday through her precious life.
Livi got her labs drown again today and they are finally normal (as normal as they can be) thanks to Dr. Steinke which is working very hard for her. If you ask us how we're feeling right now despite all the different meds and feeding receipes that change every week to keep her stable,we would say:"Life is good... our little miracle is finally home, again, and we're trying to take one day at a time." Thanks for all your prayers.
This experience has cost us more heartache and ups and downs that her NI CU stay. She was there until May 5-Th, Tuesday and rushed back to ER on Monday and admitted again on May 13-Th for another week. We can definitely say that she has spend more time in the hospital that at home since she was born. Scary but it's always rewarding bringing her home and getting to cuddle with her again, giving her baths that she loves so much and cover her with kisses without having to worry about all the wires that she was connected to and the loud monitors that beep continuously. Livi has been home for almost a week now and she is doing much better. She is on continues feeding(non-stop drip feeding through a pomp in her G/Tube all day)and seem to tolerate that fine. I don't think we can do it without all the prayers that are said for us everyday. Olivia is God's miracle and she shows that to us everyday through her precious life.
Livi got her labs drown again today and they are finally normal (as normal as they can be) thanks to Dr. Steinke which is working very hard for her. If you ask us how we're feeling right now despite all the different meds and feeding receipes that change every week to keep her stable,we would say:"Life is good... our little miracle is finally home, again, and we're trying to take one day at a time." Thanks for all your prayers.
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