Kaizley Kim

So this is probably going to be one of my biggest posts. This little girl has been through alot in her 6 months since birth. She was born February 23, 2010. She weighed 7lb. 12 oz. 4 weeks after Kaizley was born, she got to take a ride in this.

That was one of the worst days of my life. She started having this horrible cough on Wednesday March 17th. That night I took her to the emergency room because it just kept getting worse. The ER doc there told me that "babies this age can not get sick" and that it was probably reflux. Well, I decided to go home and I would call the doc the next day. So the next day she hadn't gotten any worse so I decided to hold off on calling the doc. The next night she started getting a little worse so I took her back to the ER this time Weston came with me. The doc tried to again tell us that nothing was wrong with her. Weston wasn't going to take that as an answer and told him that something is wrong and to check her out more. So they did an xray, said couldn't see anything and sent us home. The next morning I was done with the docs here and called the on call pediatrician because it was saturday and all the offices were closed. It just so happened that the oncall pediatrician had seen her xrays from the night before and told us to get to her office as soon as we could because she was concerned. So we showed up to her office and she immediately admitted us to the hospital saying that she had pneumonia. We stayed that night in the hospital and that next morning she was getting worse so they decided that they needed to send her to Primary Childrens Medical Center. I was a complete and utter mess by this time and all I could do was cry. I couldn't believe that this was happening especially since I am one of those people that don't leave the house til the baby is at least 6 weeks old and here she was with pneumonia! After they lifeflighted her to PCMC, we rushed down there and were greeted with this:

Once they got her to the hospital she quit breathing. She was intibated (on a ventilator for breathing) for 3 horrible days. They concluded that she had RSV not pneumonia.

This is the other breathing device that she was on after they took her off the ventilator. It is called a CPAP. She was on this for a couple days and then she went on to a regular nasal canula which she was on for a few more days. I didn't cry the whole time (11 days) that we were at PCMC and if you know me, you know how that is not me at all. I cry about everything. I guess I was in survival mommy mode or something. I did cry once we got home though. I cried for days. I cried everytime I told the story to someone. I cried everytime I thought about it! I could probably cry about it now if I thought too much about it. I have never been so helpless in my life. The worst part of it was when she would cry and we couldn't do anything but stand next to her bed and touch her. We couldn't hold her for a week because of all the tubes and stuff that were in her.

When we first got to PCMC, the doc asked if we knew that she had a heart murmur. We didn't. Nobody had ever mentioned it to us. They called in a cardiologist and he concluded that she had a PDA or patent ductus arteriosus(SP?) It is were a vein doesn't close that should have after birth. It wasn't that big of a worry so they said that we should make an appointment for a month after we got out of the hospital and they would run an echo on her to see if it had closed because sometimes it takes a couple weeks for some babies. Well, they did the echo and decided that something else was going on because it hadn't closed yet so we scheduled an MRI. After the MRI, they found her Aortic Coarctation. It is where there is a narrowing of the aorta. The PDA didn't close because of this and so she was getting deoxygenated blood cycled through her body and eventually she could have some major problems and die from this. Not at all what I had originally been thinking when they found it in the hospital. So we scheduled her for heart surgery. If I was to look back on the whole RSV experience I guess there is one postive thing because if she hadn't gotten lifeflighted, who knows what would have happened to her. It's kind of a blessing in disguise, just wish it was a little less dramatic and traumatizing! Anyways, I feel like I have blabbed on and on but not making any sense!

Friday, August 6th Kaizley had her heart surgery. Another one of those horrible days for me. We were not really prepared for what was going to happen and I think I down played it in my head to try to make it less severe but after the doc, anesthesiologist, and everyone else tells you the risks and how it is one of the most painful incisions that you can make on a human, and more, you kinda lose your mind. She went into surgery at 1 and we finally got to see her at 5:30. Longest four and a half hours of my life, but she did awesome. She was in ICU until Monday evening and then they moved her to a patient room. The next morning, all the docs were doing rounds and when they came to our room, Kaiz was smiling and kicking around. One of the docs actually said that she is the first kid he has ever had that has been happy and smiling when they come around. They asked me if we were ready to go home. I was a little worried because we hadn't even been out of the ICU for 24 hours but they said she was ready to leave. So we did. She will have to go back every 3 months for a while and will eventually get to where she only has to have an echo every year to make sure that the narrowing doesn't occur again because it can come back.

Here is a picture of her scar. It is on the side underneath the arm pit and goes back by her shoulder blade. This is the day we came home. Now it just looks like she has a scratch. It is healing wonderfully!

I guess after all is said and done, she is now a healthy, very happy 6 month old baby girl. We refer to her as our little miracle because she has been through so much and she is such a fighter.I know that she wouldn't be here without modern technology and the million and one prayers that were said for her.

I had to throw this picture in because last Saturday the 4th, me and my mom were shopping and we got Kaizley's ears pierced. If you ask my mother, she will say that it was a very horrible exprience but in all reality, she was done crying by the time we left the store and hasn't had a problem since. Isn't she adorable?!

Here is a pic of her cute little teeth. She got these a couple weeks back. She is pretty proud of them!