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This is a copy of a letter my niece is sending to family & friends this holiday season. As you know my family has had a rough year, but I believe we now know the true meaning of Christmas. My sister and I have always been the best of friends, and I love her dearly...
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, without them this real life miracle would never have happened... Sci
MERRY CHRISTMAS
This Christmas our family received the greatest gift we could ever ask for, the life of my mother. Many of you that will receive this letter already know portions of this story and some of you lived through it with us. We thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and undying support. I feel like the best gift that I can give anyone this Christmas is this story......
My mom was diagnosed with chronic cirrhosis of the liver around seven years ago, although she led a normal life with the exception of a few extra episodes of what seemed like the flu each year, we were unaware of what was about to hit us this August. On August 9th of this year I received a phone call that my mom had been rushed to the emergency room and that I was to come to the hospital as soon as possible. Frantically our family that lived nearby gathered at the hospital. We were told that my moms' liver was unable to filter out the ammonia that her body was producing as a normal person would. This caused severe confusion, she didn't know who we were, what had happened, or where she was. She was overcome with fear. All of the doctors and nurses were trying to calm her, but were only frightening her. We stayed in the hospital for a week and were sent home with loads of medication. There was nothing that they could do except treat her with medication until she could get a new liver. She would have to have a transplant and very soon, there was no choice. My mom was not on a transplant list due to the fear of all of the painful testing and the severity of the surgery. She wanted to try all others methods first (vitamins, special diet, etc.), which seemed to be working just fine. We didn't known what lay ahead of us and if we had I'm not sure we would have made it. We were back in the hospital within days; my mom had slipped into a coma. This was the beginning of a stay that would last for over two months.
Over the next couple of months family, friends, and members of our church came to the hospital, called, and sent us cards and flowers to help encourage us. Each day ran into the next, we often did not leave the hospital for hours upon hours and sometimes for days at a time. We stayed with my mom twenty-four hours a day, each taking turns, never leaving her side for the first month. She had to have testing done on her brain to see if it had been damaged by the ammonia levels in her body, there was a chance it had caused severe brain damage and she would have no brain activity. This would leave her unable to function in any way and on a ventilator for the rest of her life. The test came back that there was brain activity and in a few days she came out of the coma. Her brain had not been damaged, but she had to be tied down to her bed so she would not get up and get hurt. She cried and pleaded with us to help her, but we could do nothing because the restraints were for her own good due to the confusion. We couldn't make her understand why we wouldn't help her. It's an understatement to say that this was heartbreaking! She began to have seizures and vomit bedpans full of blood, each episode becoming worse. On the Thursday before Labor Day we were told that my mom would have to be moved to The University of Kansas Medical Center so that she could have an immediate surgery to bypass her liver, which was not functioning at all at this point. This hospital had special liver surgeons and performed liver transplants. This would already be the third or fourth surgery since we began our stay.
That night at 10:00 my mom was transported to KU Medical Center by ambulance after numerous consults between the doctors and the insurance company. The insurance company did not cover KU Medical Center and wanted her sent to another transplant hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. However, the doctors concluded that there was no way she would survive the trip so an exception was made by the insurance company to send her to KU. This may seem like no big deal but in reality it was! If they had not made an exception, my mom would have had to be taken to a hospital hundreds of miles away from all of her family and friends for a stay that would be indefinite. The hospital in St. Louis received around the same number of livers as KU, but had many more people waiting to receive them. The chances of us getting a liver would greatly decrease. This was a huge exception considering the fact that a liver transplant costs around $347,000 not adding in the other surgeries and her extended hospital stay. Within hours of her arrival at KU, she was in surgery. Over the next few days the most devastating news of my life would come.
Within the next forty-eight hours my moms liver was bypassed, her kidneys failed and her lungs became in such bad shape that the doctors told us they could not get any worse. It was a domino effect; each body part was causing another to fail. The doctors came with worse news, each time we saw them. The prognosis was that she had a twenty-five percent chance to live if she got a new liver within the next few days. Her body was now filled with fluid that her kidneys could not pass; they had to fully sedate her because the pain was too great. Each minute drug by like it was twenty. Each time a doctor would speak with us the news was worse than the time before. They made it clear to us that there was little chance of life and we needed to prepare ourselves.
The doctors informed our family that if they had ten people in my moms' condition that three might make it, and the other seven would die. We waited and waited for any crumb of good news only to receive more bad. As a team of doctors once again approached, I thought Oh Lord please let them be going to talk with another family, but they came straight to us. We were told to gather all of our family that they were going to put her on a ventilator to keep her alive. They would reduce the medication long enough for her to her wake up and see us before they put her on the ventilator. They said we should all see her because they would keep her put out until there was a liver, and if no liver came this would be it. I couldn't face that. When my mom talked with me before they put the ventilator in she told me to call everyone and tell them to pray, just tell everyone to pray. I thought of one of my trips to the hospital when she first went in, as I was driving I was praying and on a semi truck next to me there was a saying painted on the side "JESUS IS THE ANSWER". When I got to the hospital that day I had told my mom about the sign and we had prayed that it was right. As I stood in her room, I thought, she is trusting that message was for us and I was going to also.
Through all of this we prayed along with our church, family and friends. They also asked their churches to pray for a miracle. The more we prayed, the more the devil attacked us. By morning the doctors were back with more bad news. They said she had pneumonia, they could give her medication, but it would take seven to ten days to begin working if it would work at all. She would not make it more than a few days without a new liver. The worst part was to come; they could not give her a transplant while she had pneumonia because she would die. She could not withstand the surgery. Just writing this down makes me want to start sobbing, but I'm sure it is just not imaginable to anyone else. I am twenty-six years old and expecting my moms second grandchild. As I looked at my mom this is what I saw: She was holding sixty pounds of extra fluid because her kidneys could not pass it, she looked like she would explode. Her fingers could not be moved at all because her skin was pulled so tight, and if you touched her anywhere your fingerprints would stay for minutes and would be indented in her skin, her skin was like dough. Pressure on her eyes filled them with blood, both eyes turned black, and the inside of her eyelids swelled out so that she could barley see. She had tubes coming out of her chest, stomach, and arms. four tubes in each side of her neck, tubes in her juggler vain, two tubes down her throat, and one up her nose. It was horrifying! Looking at my mom lying there like that, I thought why God, why is this happening, help us. I started to try to except the fate the doctors had delivered, that they could not do the surgery now and there was not time to wait, she would die. Never in my life have I felt such pain, this was not how it was suppose to happen, she was only forty-four years old.
That night I called my husband Shawn, the next day was Sunday and he would be going to church. By the time my husband reached the hospital after church, the doctors were headed toward us. I thought, Oh Lord let it be good news this time. The news was unbelievable, for some reason the doctors could no longer get the pneumonia culture to grow; they did not know what had happened. They said they would put her on the Transplant List, but she couldn't get any worse or she would be back off. Within a matter of minutes after prayer God had given us a miracle. Now we prayed give us a liver. They told us that she would be put first on the list in our area because she was so ill, but there was no guarantee of when a liver would come. We waited through a long night that seemed to last ten by the next day. I decided to go home for a few hours and see my son. I knew if I left something would happen, although I didn't know if it would be good or bad. When I got home I never moved my bag from by the door, I knew I wouldn't be unpacking it. I didn't make it out of the living room before the phone rang; my grandma was at the other end sobbing. She informed me that they had a liver and I was out the door. Once again we called everyone to pray, she was so sick that the chances of her making it through the surgery were only fifty percent. On the way to the hospital I prayed, once again I saw a semi truck that caught my eye because it was bright purple, it was a sewer truck which made the saying on the back seem even more amazing, "IN GOD WE TRUST". I thought, this is no coincidence, I get your message God, take care of her. After six hours of surgery the doctors came out and told us that she had made it, also explaining that this was the beginning of a very long road to recovery. The next few weeks would tell if she would live.
More prayer was needed, all of her other functions were still not working. Her lungs were in terrible shape and she still was on a ventilator working at one hundred percent, breathing completely for her. Her kidneys had still not started to work after a few days. The chances of survival were still slim. Her whole body had shut down, the doctors told us that they would have to insert more tubes in her to start kidney dialysis and a chest tube due to a puncture to the lung during surgery. The tests they had run on her kidneys led them to believe that they would not start working on their own. She may have to only be on temporary dialysis or it could possibly be for the rest of her life, either way they would start it in the morning. That night I prayed God don't let them start that tomorrow, please heal her kidneys, I just need one more miracle. By morning the doctors came and said that her kidneys had started on their own. Another miracle had arrived just in time again. At this time I knew she would make it. We spent over another month in the hospital with every set back and infection that is imaginable, but today my mom is a walking miracle. She received a liver within days of being put on a list that usually requires years. She is better than ever she is still trying to gain back the forty pounds she lost from all of the infections, but other than being a little skinny she is doing great. All that I can say is Thank God!!!!
This Christmas I don't care if I get a single gift, or if we eat on time, and if someone can't come to Christmas dinner or has to leave early, I will just be thankful to God that I have that someone in my life and that they are alive. When my son Carter pulls ornaments off the Christmas tree I just thank the Lord that he has little arms to pull them off with, and little legs to run from me with. I am also thankful for the legs I have to chase him with and the arms that I have to put him in time out with (HA, HA). I won't complain about shopping or crowds because this year and for every year after this one, for the rest of my life Christmas will have a different meaning. Sometime ago it may have been hard for me to sit down and write a list of what I am thankful for, it's easy to forget all of the little things. I probably could have come up with the obvious (family, friends, our home, etc.). Now I can honestly say if I sat down to make a list I wouldn't run out for days! I am thankful just to have the fingers I needed to write this to all of you. I'll never know why this happened, but there are some things that we will never understand. My best friend Stacy gave me an excellent example: Her three year old daughter cries when her little brother has to take a nap, she doesn't understand why something that makes him cry is good for him. She cries mommy why are you making Josh take a nap, yet her mother is unable to make her understand that it is for his own good and he needs the nap. We can't understand why God lets things happen the way that they do, but we don't know the master plan. He only works for good even when it may not seem like it to us.
Thank God for Christmas, for the day Jesus was born and that he died for our sins. It is so important to remember the true meaning of Christmas and to pass it to our children. When our children learn that Santa is not real, I hope that they are more excited that Jesus is, and that he is always there to listen to us any time we need him. This year as you celebrate I hope the true meaning of Christmas is with you. I hope everyone is inspired not only to remember the true meaning of Christmas, but also to share it with their children.
Merry Christmas, I hope sharing our experience has given Christmas a new meaning for each of you also. God gives us miracles not just for ourselves, but to touch the lives of others as well. May this story bring into your minds everything and everyone that you are thankful for.
All our love and prayers,
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