Out of the ICU

Olivia is finally out of the ICU down to the 7th floor ( pediatric nephrology).This afternoon has been pretty comfortable for her. The 3:00 o clock dose of morphine really helped her & she looks the most comfortable she has been yet. She also drank about 4oz of water & ate 5 french fries :)... One step at a time. Very hopeful for tomorrow to be a better day.

Eating & meds...

The goal for Olivia at this point is to be off IV fluids & start eating a normal diet which will help her lungs getting a break too ( since they're just getting cleared from the extra fluids). The struggle for her now is combatting nausea even more than before. Due to rejection she is in a lot of extra meds & two of them are chemo ones which are making her very sick. So far they've added two extra anti-nausea meds but with no success. So even tho she is feeling good from the kidney stand point she is not able to eat or have any energy at all to even sit up. So please pray that the doctors find a solution to treat her nausea so she can fully enjoy the benefits of her new kidney.

Great progress

Olivia had a better night than yesterday. She was able to drink about 4 oz of water by mouth & as 4:00 am she has been breathing on her own... Praise The Lord. She has been stable enough all morning that they're thinking to move her to a reg floor(kidney floor) this afternoon. Feeling so blessed right now :).

Sunday ( a.m)

Overnight wasn't very eventful. She was able to fall asleep comfortably around 11:30 last night so the nurses told us that we could go & get some rest too.Apparently all night she has been asking for strawberry shake haha. This morning the doctors are very pleased with the way she looks. Her body has washed out most of the toxins with the creatinine @ 1.23 from 2.60 ( normal range 0.3-0.6). We're very happy right now to see Olivia more alert & able to talk even tho she says she has a " frog" voice. Thank you again for all the love, support & prayers that everyone has been sending our way.

She's awake

They finally took Olivia off the ventilator. She is doing much better right now & she's only on a small dose of oxygen. Praise the LORD

The past two days

Saturday.

Things have been up & down these past couple of days. They have kept Olivia pretty sedated & paralyzed so her lungs could get a break. The talk right now is to lower her sedation & hopefully to have her start breathing on her own. She has been waking up here & there trying to talk & move which is not fun to watch cuz you feel like you're not doing what a parent is suppose to, which is comforting your baby and right now we feel like there is nothing we can do to help. On the positive note she has been able to take from 14-20 breaths per minute for the past hour. Please continue to pray for her recovery. We are so thankful & overwhelmed by the love & support that everyone has shown us. Very blessed to have you all as part of our life.

Post op. ( 03/27/2014. PM)

As I mentioned early it was quite a delay on " getting the room ready" & the real reason was Olivia had stopped breathing for a minute after the surgery due to the high sedation :( From that point on things worsen for her. At first she started to froth blood out of her nose to what we were told it can happen sometimes. This went on for an hr, than the frothy blood started coming out of her mouth. We were really getting concerned at this point as we saw our daughter fighting the oxygen mask off of her face. It was hard to watch & to find out that what was actually going on was her gasping for air. Due to the high IV fluid intake for the surgery & the kidney not working at 100% at this point ( since frozen for transportation sometimes it can take up to 48 hrs to gain full function) Olivia's extra fluid that her body couldn't output had all gone into her lungs. At that point chaos started. They did a chest X-ray and it didn't look good. Her lungs were filled with blood ( pulmonary edema) & it was so bad that had they to come up with an emergency plan or she was gonna go in to cardiac arrest if this continued. The panic, the fear, the tears, the anger was overwhelming us as we had gone 36 hrs with no sleep at this point . All I could do is pray and ask our family & friends to do a chain of prayers so GOD can help our little girl which was struggling for her life. Thankfully GOD has chosen great doctors for Olivia ( especially her nephrologist. She is The BEST). The respiratory therapy team & all her staff rushed into the room & their goal was to put the breathing tube ASAP back on to open up her lungs and treat the situation before it became life threatening. It was soooo horrible. They tried to intubate her for quite a while with no success bc her trachea was so full of fluids so they couldn't see very well & she kept dropping on her sets & kept stop breathing ( they had to beg her once). Finally after what felt like 30 min ( didn't time it) they were able to put the ventilator tube in, sedated her & with an every 30 min plan/med change they were successful at stabilizing her ( around 11:00 pm that night). GOD thank you for everything you have done for us. & thank you for choosing amazing doctors & medical staff that want the best for our little girl.

Surgery day ( 03/27/2014)

Surgery day (03/27/2014) At 5:00am thursday morning after a restless night we started the most anticipated day for us, since 2009... The kidney transplant surgery for Olivia. The night before around 8:00-8:30 dr. Steinke came & gave us the amazing news that Olivia not only was getting one of those kidneys but once they compared the ages she was the youngest in their region which bumped her to 1st place on the list ( meaning that our dr. had also THE 1-st. choice on the best out of the two kidneys) Once they rolled her down to the pre-op room things moved very quick. Olivia was really scared, anxious & upset and that made the process more painful. All that lasted for another half an hr and the déjà-vu moment that always tears our heart out was here... Kissed her beautiful face, smelled her hair, squeezed her tight into our chests and let her go... Again... Beside the screaming voice inside of me I could hear Peter, trying to talk chocking between his tears:" -How many times do I have to hand my little girl away... Inside of you,you can feel & hear your heart exploding to pieces, splashing all over your brain,numbing it as you struggle to breath while you're drowning from the wells of tears accumulated from this pain... As you sit in the waiting room you stare at the TV & no matter what's on,all you can decipher is 2135 ( her surgery procedure update number)... You stand there in a room full of supporting people but you feel so weak that even looking around seems like a chore because your tears & heartache has taken every strength away from you & you're covered in fear... Fear that stinks of weakness, little faith and purely just being a human. Than I remember my GOD. I didn't have to speak to HIM, didn't have to beg, I didn't even have to look up...all I did was, I thought of my GOD & a big smile came on my face, a fresh breath of relief & I could feel the army of his angels surrounding all of us. I felt GOD's comfort reminding me that HE is right there with me ALWAYS & I had to fear not cuz HIS love was bigger than my fear, Bigger than my human nature, HE is THE GOD that gave me the gift of motherhood, the gift of life & my trust was all I need to feel his protection over my little girl that was laying on that surgery table in the other room. The actual surgery started at 7:00 am & was supposed to last until around 11:00 am. GOD had picked out the perfect team to work on Olivia. We felt blessed seeing all of them take such good care of her. Overall everything went smoothly until they had to close her up & they hit a bit of a challenge due to the big kidney size not fitting in her belly. They tried for over an hr and finally had to call the head surgeon which thankfully was able to move all her organs up & around & finally making enough space for them to close her up... Finally after 7 hrs Olivia was all done with a new kidney thanks to the GIFT of LIFE that decided to donate al the organs to save lives, just like it did our little girl's. My heart goes out to the family of this deceased donor & I pray that GOD can bring them peace & strength during this difficult time. Thing had gone pretty smoothly until now. They told us to go up to the peds ICU to see Liv. For some reason they were having a hard time to "get everything ready" which took another 2-3 hrs. Around 4:00 pm we were able to finally see our baby... Laying there... in discomfort trying to take the oxygen mask off, fighting with the nurses :). -Livi, sweetheart mama & daddy is here. Oh I am so proud of you honey. You are so strong. Mama loves you so much -maaaaaaaaaa -oh baby don't try to talk cuz your voice is so raspy & I know you're tired. Please don't fight the mask off your face. -maaa. I. Just. - What baby. - the mask. Just. Doesn't look ... Good on meeee -oh honey, haha. You're beautiful Only Olivia can still find a way to turn every situation into a funny & happy one haha. I love that little girl with every once of my body. Thank you Olivia for teaching me everyday how beautiful life is & how not to take anything for granted.

The transplant time has arrived.

March 26, 2014 11:11 am. Incoming call... -Hello, Mrs Harrison? -Yes, this is.. -Hi, this is Eric from nephrology. We got a kidney for Olivia... Hello, are you there? - What? Are you serious? She is getting a kidney? You're sure? How many are ahead of her... Are you sure? - Yes Mrs. Harrison. She is number 2 on the list but there are 2 kidneys & both kids are getting one. You need to bring Olivia to the hospital now, and admit her to Helen Devos.  -Oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you...  (Tears roll down. Body shakes. Legs give out. Can't talk. Can't breathe; but I have to...I have to talk...have to call Peter... Oh my gosh Peter. How do I say it so it doesn't hit him the same way it hit me. I Dial his number with my shaking fingers...) From that point on all I remember is running thru traffic lights to get Olivia as soon as we could to the hospital... She was not happy. She wasn't prepared; nobody was. She kept crying hard & repeating..."but mama, you told me no Dr. appointments today...but you promised me". Heartbreak ...but in the midst of all this, one thing is sure; God had the perfect time and a perfect plan for Livi. We just had to stop, accept our pain, shut the scary thoughts out, and listen to His voice, for His call, His work, and His Love.  When we got to the hospital, we were told that Olivia would be 2nd on the list. There was a chance that the child who was 1st could use both (in case their body rejected one of them)...we were told 7:00 p.m was when everything would be finalized. They got Olivia's IV started so they could start the lab work for the final match around 2:00 pm.  Waiting for seven a clock was even harder than getting the phone call; is was hard to imagine this ending this with..."Well....maybe we'll get it next time". At this point, we're numb. Face. Body. Frozen.  4:00...5:00...6:00...7:00... Nothing...  Here I sit, in the middle of a room full of encouraging family & friends; I write.