One year ago today my baby was admitted to Johns Hopkins. I will never forget that day. We were at clicnic having a regular check up with Xander’s GI, Dr. Scheimann. She noticed he was laboring to breathe. She didn’t think that was a good sign and had him admitted.
I was pretty numb because I wasn’t sure how serious it was. Xander had been doing ok up until that point. What is weird is that I remember having this feeling of ‘This is it.’ ‘We are not leaving the hospital without a new liver.’ I think I was in denial over how sick he really was but my subconscious wasn’t.
As soon as I left clinic, I called Ron and told him it was time. The docs didn’t give me any reason to think it was but as I said, I just had a feeling. Ron didn’t hesitate and flew out from Tampa that night.
As it turns out, Xander was very sick. His liver was in total failure which started to create many other health problems for him, including labored breathing. Once he was admitted and had the x-rays, he was diagnosed with a pleural effusion. He had fluid build up over his right lung and it was putting pressure on the lung causing him to work hard to breathe. He was so exhausted. He literally had to work for each breath.
After the diagnosis, he was sent to the PICU. The docs put Xander to sleep and inserted a long needle into his chest to drain the fluid. They did great. Xander felt much better afterwards. He was able to breathe easier.
This was the beginning of our transplant journey.
1 comment:
congratulations!!
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