Hi, this is Allie. This is my first post.
I’d like to start by thanking everyone for their notes, prayers and hospital visits.
And I thought I’d let you all know that I was in the hospital from Oct 1st to Oct 4th. Nothing big, just a fever and U.T.I ( urinary tract infection ). But I had the Disney Channel, family, and nice nurses.
Thanks,
Allie.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the operation that replaced one of Allison’s sad, little kidney’s with one that works much better. Over the past year, her health has improved greatly. We are all very thankful for the prayers of family and friends.
To borrow a line from the Reepicheep character in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – “… Extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people with extraordinary destinies…”. I’m convinced that the Lord has a very special task in Allison’s future; some day this will all make sense.
If you’re in the mood to congratulate her, feel free to send her a short text message or give her a call 9 seven 2-8 zero 0-2 five 4 four [silly spelling of every other digit is an attempt to defeat robots that harvest phone numbers]. Be sure to sign your message, so she’ll know who it’s from.
Ron
Allison just registered for the National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Walk in Dallas. The event is May 7, 2011. Last year, Allison and I went. It was lots of fun – HERE is a link to the blog entry.
This year, you can help.
- You can walk with Allison and I
Go to This link and click on the Join a Team button. Allison’s team is “The Allison Archives” - Sponsor Allison
Go to This link and click on the Support The Allison Archives button.
No pressure… okay… maybe a little….
If Allie can get at least $100 in sponsorships/donations, she’ll get a T-shirt.
I believe I left-off on a Wednesday morning with Allison and Tracey in a hospital room at Medical City Childrens Hospital.
I took Wednesday off from work, because Austin had to go to school and work. We needed an adult to watch Ashley, but I was the only person available. Ashley and I worked around the house, then we went to see Tracey and Allison and take them some food around 6pm.
The hospital would’t let Allie go home until she was fever-free for 24 hours in a row. Allison was pretty-much fever-free all day Wednesday, but spiked a fever at about 4am on Thursday. The fever dropped quickly, but the 24-hr timer had to start over … drat… .
Austin only had one class on Thursday morning, so I stayed home until he got out of class. I went to work after noon and managed to get about four hours of work done. After work, I picked-up food for the ladies in the hospital. Allison was feeling great, but Tracey said her tummy was a bit upset. I went home to hang-out with Ashley and Austin.
At 10:35, as I was getting ready for bed, I got a call from Allison. She told me that Tracey was feeling really bad. She had called her Dr to get a prescription. She wanted me to come all the way down there to get her meds, then take them to her. For the 2nd time that day, I drove into town; I got the meds, and took them to the hospital room. It is then I learned that Tracey had been trying to avoid throwing-up for quite some time. I waited for a bit, then went home.
At about 3:45 am Friday, Allison called me, again. She said that her mother was sitting in the bathroom, getting sick, over and over. Of course, I put my clothes on and drove down to Medical City… for the 3rd time in under 24 hrs. It appeard that Tracey had caught Allison’s germ.
I held Tracey’s hand and forehead. I put Tracey back to bed and watched her and Allison sleep while I sat in a rather uncomfortable chair.
Allison’s doctor arrived about 8:30am and told us that we could leave if Allison had no fever, and she ate a good breakfast and lunch. Allison grabbed the phone and ordered enough breakfast for thee people. She watched some TV and Tracey rested; I sat in my nasty chair. Later, Allison ordered a rather large lunch and ate it all.
Tracey was feeling good enough to drive home, so I wouldn’t have to come back and get her van. We all got home and Tracey and the girls got settled-in at home. At 6:30 or so, Austin and I packed-up the truck and drove-off to our church’s Men’s Retreat.
Allison seemed to come thru the germ with flying colors. Austin and I spent Monday evening and all day Tuesday in the bathrooms. Ashley somehow dodged this bullet.
I know I haven’t posted in a while, but “no news is good news” usually.
Well, last night the good news ran out. <drat>
When Allison was going to bed, she said that she had a mild tummy-ache. She has had heartburn before, so we gave her a Zantac and sent her off to bed.
At midnight, Tracey woke me up to inform me that I needed to take Allison to the hospital. Tracey, Allie, and Austin had been up for over an hour… puking and sitting on the toilet. Allison didn’t have a fever, so we were pretty sure it wasn’t serious. We just needed to get her to the ER, so they could make sure she didn’t dehydrate – that’s a really bad thing for a kidney [and the owner of the kidney].
I left the house at 1:04. I pulled-in to Medical City Dallas ER driveway at 1:45 – a trip that at any other time would be an hour or so.
Allison was received right away. By then she had a 101.5 fever <drat> They stuck her in a room and tried to get her to take some Tylenol. It came right back up.
They put an IV in her left arm. Allie was very brave. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine and saline solution. The IV juice was cold; that wasn’t received well by the person that was already freezing-code. The nurses wouldn’t bundle-up Allie, because that can make a fever worse.
Tracey arrived a bit after that, so I could go home and sleep. I cleaned-up my car and some messy clothes and climbed into bed at 5am.
At 7am, Tracey said that Allison’s fever wouldn’t drop with Tylenol, so they admitted her to the hospital and Dr Quan told them to give her Motrin. That dropped the fever a bit, but she can’t come home until he fever is lower, and she can hold-down at least water.
Please pray for a quick recovery for Allison. Pray for an extra dose of stamina for Tracey, because she is just getting over a case of strep throat.
Thanks,
Ron
Ship’s log – Kidney-date: 136 – chief engineer Dad reporting
Captain Allison and medical officer Mom beamed-down to Medical City Children’s for a CT scan of Allison’s chest this morning. First Officer, Ashley, stayed with Captain Lisa of the USS Scholz to help operate their ship.
Since the last update, I bought a little O2 saturation meter to watch Allison’s O2 saturation. You didn’t have to ask twice; I jump at the thought of buying a new electronic gizmo 
.
Allison’s O2 saturation has been around 90-91 for the past few weeks. Dr. Quan told us to take Allison to a Pulmonologist [lung doctor - nothing to do with pullman cars on a train - go figure] to see if there is some sort of lung infection effecting Allison’s O2 levels.
The Pulmonologist told Dr. Quan to have Allison get a CT scan and have it sent to his office. He didn’t think it would do much good to see Allison without more data. Smart guy… and saved us the expense of an office visit.
Tracey knew, but she “forgot” to tell Allison… they needed to pump some radioactive juice into Allison for the CT scan. That meant Allie would need an IV. She was not happy.
As Tracey expected, Allison came un-glued. It took both of the super-caring radiologists forever to get Allison back down to the planet’s surface. They suggested that if this ever has to happen again, things would go much smoother if Allison was [heavily] medicated, first.
We’ll know more later…
keep prayin’
Ship’s log – Kidney-date: 115 – chief engineer Dad reporting
Captain Allison, medical officer Mom, and I beamed-down to Medical City Children’s for a day-surgery to remove the drain hose from the captain’s tummy. First Officer, Ashley, stayed at home with Lauren to run the day-to-day activities of the ship.
We were ordered to be at the hospital @ 8am for an ultrasound to get a final go/no-go ruling on removing the drain tube. The pictures looked good, so they decided to continue with the removal procedure that was scheduled for 11:30am.
They hooked Allison to all the typical hospital equipment and discovered that her O2 saturation was low. She is normally at 99-100 percent O2 saturation. Yesterday morning those numbers were 89-93… odd. They strapped a mask on the captain to give her oxygen. Her numbers instantly jumped to 95-96 percent. They called Dr Quan, and he told ‘em to remove the tube.
Medical officer Mom had a medical appointment, too, so she left Captain Al and I in the sickbay; we were on-schedule at about 10:45. At 12:45, we sitll hadn’t gone into the procedure room that was scheduled at 11:30. The young boy that was in line before us had a minor issue that caused his procedure to run late. Because of that, the captain that was already saying, “everyone has four eyes and two noses” got a 2nd, smaller dose of “goofy juice” to help her relax. She doesn’t remember that, but – trust me – is really helped
After the procedure, Captain Allie slept until about 5pm. Dr Quan came to visit. He listened to Allison’s lungs. They sounded clear, but he ordered a couple chest x-rays… just to see what’s going on in her lungs.
Our minor day-surgery ended just before 7:30 when we finally made it home. Dr Quan said that the low O2 saturation may be due to the combination of medication, a minor infection of the drain tube, or a minor lung issue [fall alergies, mabye] that is causing her lungs some distress. As usual, we’ll learn more in the next couple days.
NOTE:
No red-shirt-wearing crew members that you’ve never seen before were harmed in this episode.
Allison was released from the hospital today. This visit was 18 days, when the first one was only 9.
Allison was too weak to go Trick or Treating, so she decided to stay home with me, give-out candy, and watch the Rangers in the World Series
It’s really good to have everyone home.
BIG thanks go out to Tracey’s parents for coming down to help out and visit.
The blood and bone marrow tests are back. Allison’s blood is fine. The poor test results are due to the new anti-rejection meds.
Doctors decided to go back to her old anti-rejection meds and deal with any blood-sugar levels.
This will cause allison to stay in the hospital a few more days… bummer
NOTE:
I know this note is a bit later that most would have liked. Several folks have expressed their displeasure because I left you hanging for a few weeks
Sorry ’bout that
I’m not going to bore everyone with every minute of this week’s adventure, but I am going to make you a bit tired with my brief summary.
Sunday, after church, Ashley and I went to visit Allison. We were pretty sure Allison was going to be released on Monday… but she spiked a fever late that evening… drat!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent waiting for the fever to break, giving blood, getting sonograms, and watching TV. Tracey’s mom and dad came down from Missouri.
Thursday, the experts decided to go in and drain the lymphocele and insert a larger-diameter tube.
Friday, the experts decided that they needed to do some more work on Allison. Her creatinine levels were stepping up. They needed to get a kidney biopsy to see whats going on. Her blood’s white and red counts were low, too. The experts ordered a bone marrow biopsy to determine if they need to start treat Allison for leukemia.
Saturday morning, Allison had a “procedure” at 8am. They did a kidney biopsy, a bone marow biopsy in her left pelvic bone, and they squirted some stuff into the lymphocele to make it shrink.
The rest of our day was spent in Allison’s room – watching TV, eating snacks, and helping her get better. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.