Avery UPDATES

 

Most of Avery's updates and entries are written by her mother, Marissa.

Avery's Transplant Info. October 11, 2006
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Raul and Avery will be admitted at UTMB on Thursday for preparations for the transplant. Raul will be on the 6th floor of the John Sealy Building and Avery will be on the 6th floor of UTMB Children's Hospital.

 On Friday morning both Daddy and Daughter will have the transplant on the 2nd floor of the main hospital. Once you walk out of the elevators there is a big waiting room where we'll be. The transplant will begin at 7:00 AM and will last at least 4 hours.

 After the transplant Raul will be back in his room on the 6th floor and is expected to stay for 3-4 days. The main desk will have his room number.

 Avery will be in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) on the 4th floor of the Children's Hospital for several days. Avery is allowed to have visitors so you are more than welcome to visit her. When arriving to the PICU there will be a phone that calls into the unit, please let them know you are there to see Avery. I will be there with her so I will come out to greet you and show you in. Due to doctor's policies and health reasons, Avery is not allowed to have any flowers or plants in her room. After Avery is stable enough, she'll be back in her own room on the 6th floor for hopefully no more than 2 weeks.

 Please continue to check Avery's website for updates!

 I will have my cell phone on me and you are more than welcome to call or text me, 713-444-4768. I also receive email to my cell phone so you can email me as well. It may take a little long to respond but I will respond to everyone (I promise). Please keep Avery and Raul in your prayers for a successful surgery and speedy recovery. There will be so many doctors, surgeons, nurses, techs, lab workers, aids, etc. who are involved with the transplant and care for them so I'd love for you to include them in your prayers. This is also a difficult time for Alexa so a prayer for her is greatly appreciated as well.
Hospital Bound
Avery kept waking up with pains when she was draining from her dialysis treatments.  I wasn't really scared that she had peritonitous.  She didn't act like she did.  It was more of uncomfortableness.  She'd drain out just fine and then all of a sudden at the very end is when it would all start.  We called the on call dialysis nurse and she said to bring her in.  We can't take any chances of anything happening right before her transplant.  So we packed our bags, took Lexi to her Grandma's and drove an hour to UTMB.  The entire trip Avery was wide awake and she'd sing, laugh, fake sneeze and cough, etc.  We got there at 3:30 am.  She was wild and crazy.  The nurses kept saying, this baby is not sick, we know how Miss Avery is when she's sick.  She is just be a drama queen.  LOL!!!  Avery would not go to sleep.  She wanted to play and laugh.  Anytime a doctor or nurse walked in, she just was so lovable and smiling.  They got some blood from her to run tests.  I think we finally went to lay down at 6:45 am.
TRANSPLANT Date.........

We have wonderful news!!! 

Raul will donate one of his kidneys to our sweet baby.  Avery is scheduled to have her

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

on October 13, 2006 at UTMB in Galveston!!!!

After several tests and evaluations Raul has been approved by the Transplant Committee at UTMB to donate a kidney to Avery.  What a blessing from God!!

Please keep EVERYONE including the doctors, surgeons, nurses, Raul, Avery, Alexa, etc. in your PRAYERS!!

Love you all!!!

xoxo

Update September 08, 2006

Again, I'm so sorry that I have not updated this every week as promised.  I know you are all concerned about Avery and we really appreciate the love and support from you all. 

As I know that many of you are, I'm a very busy mom of 2 girls (and a puppy), wife, friend and full time employee I don't always have the time to update this website as much as I'd like.  Please accept my sincere apologies.

On Friday August 18th Avery went for her normal hemodialysis session only to find out the catheter was not working again.  She was admitted into the hospital and back in the operating room that night to remove that catheter in her neck.  We all decided that with all of the issues we've had with the hemodialysis that it would be best for Avery to have a new peritoneal catheter in her belly.

The surgery went well but in recovery she would get so upset that she
couldn't catch her breath when she was crying.  She turned blue and passed out a few times in front of me, it was awful.  Well later that evening we fount out that the new catheter did not work.  The doctors thought it could have been pushed up against something.

They let Avery go home over the weekend and she returned to the hospital on Monday and Tuesday to have another surgery (9th surgery in two months). This time the new catheter worked.  

Avery is home now and recovering.

Raul August 11, 2006

Raul came in on Wednesday and he had blood drawn, an xray, EKG and he met with several doctors.  We will not know any of his results until next Wednesday.

Avery is doing good!  She is so sweet and full of happiness and love.  She is such a busy body and gets into everything.  She knows where the button is on our TV and turns it on and out.  Then she'll turn around and laugh to see if anyone is watching her.