Liver Biopsy Update

Yesterday Capper, Isaac, and I drove Daniel and Anellah into the hospital and dropped them off. Daniel and Anellah had the morning to get settled in their hospital room and receive some sort of schedule for the days ahead. Anellah received an IV (a traumatic experience that required an ultrasound to find a vein) and had blood drawn. She ate a super-special dinner of pancakes and fruit, had her medicines, and went to bed. Later she had to have another IV started, the other one must have gone out.

She had to return the favor of many pokes by giving Daddy a shot too!

This morning the doctors did the biopsy which was a short procedure during which Daniel was able to stay by her side. The doctors said there was definite scarring on her liver but didn't comment as to whether it was better or worse than they were expecting. She received platelets because she has low platelets due to her liver disease. Platelets stop bleeding and this procedure in and of itself can cause severe bleeding.

Post Biopsy, totally drugged!

The recovery today was pretty uneventful except that she had to have IVs started TWO MORE times. But she gets over things quickly and Daniel gave her one of her favorite treats- gum!

Tomorrow we think the plan is simply to have blood drawn a few more times, make sure she's not bleeding from the incision, and head home. Simple enough.

My real question is whether or not the doctors feel encouraged or somber about what they found on her liver but we don't really have that information.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

To The Hospital We Go...Again

I guess it's kind of a rare treat, how many people get to pack a hospital bag 3 times in a 7 month period? October was Anellah's cranial surgery, January was Capper's birth, and May is Anellah's liver biopsy. If everything goes smoothly she will be admitted tomorrow and discharged on Wednesday. We're definitely banking on things going smoothly!! It's harder to pack this time because I know I won't be staying too. Daniel will be with Anellah while I stay home with Capper since he can't spend the night. It's definitely a lesson in trust for me since I tend to handle most things in the medical realm for our family but Daniel is 100% competent and will do a great job. He's also amazing at teaching Anellah things and getting her to buy into something really lame being "fun" so it's probably better that he's the one who will be there! For all I know he may teach her to read during those 3 otherwise boring days. Something really neat is that Anellah will be at UCSF Parnassus on the 6th floor which is where she was living prior to her coming home to us. The nurses are going to be THRILLED to see her since she's pretty much a celebrity to them. Please pray that the procedure will be complication free, that Daniel and Anellah will get some rest while in the hospital, and that the doctors will discover her liver is much more healthy than they had originally thought.


Of course this post wouldn't be complete without acknowledging Mothers Day. I feel so blessed to have two joyful kids in my life. Capper is such a sweet baby full of smiles. He has started rolling over once in awhile and is daily learning how to manipulate his environment like grabbing at toys. Anellah is a handful, but a joyful one! Yesterday we spent the day at the park and then having a special Mommy Date with both of Anellah's Mommies. Anellah, Shahada, and I all enjoyed pedicures. Anellah was thrilled to be able to have blue toenails and green fingernails which matched her face which she had painted with facepaint herself earlier in the day.

After a long day I lugged two tired kids to the grocery store and when getting in the car I gave Anellah a piece of gum for being such a good girl and keeping her undies dry. She asked if I wanted some and I said no thank you. But she insisted, she tore her piece in half and gave me half. It made me smile all the way through my body, what a sweet and selfless little kiddo. It melted my heart.

Thank you, Lord, for these littles and please help me to remember when I'm impatient that they won't be this way for long!!

Live Every Moment

With young kids I feel like I spend my time one of three ways; ignoring them so I can get things done, entertaining them to make time pass, or cherishing the time we have together and really trying to make everything into a teaching moment. I suppose parenting is all about finding a balance between these three things but I really want to do more of option number three. Often I find myself just watching the clock half-heartedly playing with Anellah and counting down the minutes until bedtime when I can do what I want to do for an hour before we head to bed ourselves. This next week we're going to be spending a lot more time together since her daycare provider is going on vacation so my prayer is that I will use this time, cherish this time, and enjoy this time in the midst of everything else going on that I call "life."