It has been a while since I have written about Team Angel. Well I will tell you it has been one heck of a ride lately. The last time I wrote we were just discovering that Angel’s native kidney was infected and the extent of what it really meant. What it meant was several weeks of IV antibiotics, excruciating pain and a 7 hour surgery. It meant missing the Kidney Walk, Being in bed on Halloween( short story insert here) Angel’s Surgery team has known her for a very long time, they are like extended family just like her Nephrology team, so when Angel waited all day for her surgery only to get bumped by an emergency, they decided to hook up her room with all Halloween decorations and loaded her up with pizza, candy, cookies and gatorade. It was pretty awesome of them to make her feel so special, as she is.
Now the Kidney comes out. Her surgeon found so much infection and abscess that when he came out he said it is no wonder the extent of her pain, I can’t even believe she tolerated it that long. Of course he has done many extensive surgeries on her and she never ceases to surprise him with a new complication. That is what Angel does best and as her Mom, caregiver, and best fan and fan club of Team Angel that is what we do best! complication.
So now it has been just over 4 weeks since her surgery. Her new very long scar on her belly crosses over the one she had from her colostomy and its reversal surgeries. It is healing very nicely but still slightly tender. Since the surgery Angel was released from the hospital only to go back a week later after labs with elevated creatinine, and active for The BK virus, EBV and CMV , I believe it was the CMV that admitted her as that is the one that has actual treatment. They can give her an AntiViral called Ganciclovir and it is pretty nephrotoxic so they keep you in the hospital until they feel you can go home on an oral comparison of the medication. Her immune system is so weakened that she has caught a cold and it is still there weeks later, she now has another Urine infection , when I looked up the bacteria the internet says it’s mostly only found in sick people who have poor health so that made me sad, but since her doctors did not say that I am not letting myself got crazy with thought, as I do a lot of the time. It is quite difficult to always see your child suffering. There are days when I can do nothing but fight tears all day because I am just so sad she suffers so much. Of course I put on my big girl face and pretend like I am fine 99% of the time.
So now that she is home from the hospital it has been about 2 weeks. She is being treated outpatient for the urine infection and the cold should have been gone a long time ago but the cough is lingering and I would be concerned about it had she not just a saw all her doctors two days ago and they were not concerned. She is on antibiotics that would traditionally be given for a throat infection or sinus infection so if that were the case it would treat that right along with the urine infection, which here lies in the problems we are facing at the moment. She has the urine infection, she has a cough, she has pain in her kidney and less urine output, she was throwing up every day for weeks many times a day and she lost a lot of medication in this time so anything could be going on but as of Tuesday she her labs looked great and her virus panel came back negative of all three viruses and that BK has been lingering around a very long time. We go in tomorrow morning for labs and I am expecting that they will keep her although I of course hope not.
I have some errands I need to attend to, my driver side window in my car has been stuck up for months. It is driving me crazy as going in and out of the parking garage and opening the door people think I am going to rob them, I can’t go through a drive through anything without the same look and honestly I live in Florida it is the only time a year I can drive with open windows and I look forward to that. So my son who is 17 and knows nothing about cars takes apart the door , halfway through he says we need to go to grandpa’s house I need tools. What he needed was Grandpa to walk him through it. Come to find out the piece that needed replacing was stuck to the glass so they decided can’t fix. All night my kid pondered that window and went back out to try again the next day , after many hours of him having my car apart, Angel called her Uncle and said Jacob has a problem can you come help him. So they decide we will go to the junkyard yesterday and get the new part which we did only for them to shatter the glass while putting it in. Of course the Junkyard was already closing and it is a good 25 minute drive over there. So now I have no window and I need to fix that today so tomorrow if they keep her I will be ok leaving my car , I would hate leaving it wide open in a parking lot or garage.
There is always something going on with us. The good thing is we have gotten a lot of love and support from friends and family. My brother in law had a musical fundraiser for our family which allowed me to pay the remainder of my bills for November and get my Dad and Son a birthday present. It may seem minor to some but it feels terrible to be so broke you can’t even do that. I am quite thankful that we got to be home for my Dad’s 81st birthday, Thanksgiving and my sons birthday. Since we basically spent the past several months in the hospital this is a true blessing to be home. We have decided not to call back her Back doctor until after the holidays as her back surgery was supposed to be done in September and it is a very big surgery so we need her to be at optimal health before she gets that one done and then we will start dealing with Urology.
Angel’s trip is still on hold as she is not ready to be traveling right now. She is not really up for it yet I don’t think and going to New York in the Winter seems like a great idea but she has never experienced that kind of cold and with all her pain that might not make for a great trip. I don’t want her to need pain medicine just to enjoy it. We have told the nice lady who has sponsored Angel for this wish our concerns and that maybe she could change her wish to sometime more local so it will be easier to plan and closer to our hospital if need be. An hour drive is not unreasonable but on the other hand it is her wish and she should get exactly what she wants not what is convenient so it is a tough call. Either way she will get to do something amazing and I will do my best to make it as fun as I possibly can for a Mom anyway…
For current updates on Angel’s story you can always find on her facebook page @TeamAngel
https://www.facebook.com/teamangelraye/?fref=ts
#TeamAngel
to be continued…….
Blog-Mouth with Lisa 