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Welcome to Brianna's Page

Thursday, March 11, 2010

March 08 2008 First Surgery

March 08 2008, Brianna wasnt feeling good at all. She was throwing up non stop all day... no fever, but very lathargic and didnt keep anything down at all. She got to the point of throwing up bile (stomach acid). I recall being at KFC having lunch with my husband Angel, our older daughter Hailey, and baby Brianna and as we ate she was laying in her carseat on the floor next to us. When I looked down I was horrified by what I saw... there was a puddle of greenish brownish throw up all around her carseat on the floor and she was soken wet in her own throw up... I was horrified and scared. My apologies to the KFC personnel that were working that night because I grabbed my children and got in our car and drove to her pediatricians office (the one at the time Dr Garcia not her current one thank God)he took a look at her and said she was having a stomach virus to discontinue her formula and give her pedialyte only for 24 hours (she was still bottle fed at this moment). He said that if she wasnt improving within the next 12-18 hours to take her to the hospital, that she may have a bowl obstruction (worst case he said). We left the doctors office stopped by for some pedialyte bottles and went home. At home she wouldnt stop throwing up the throw up literally was splashed 2-3 feet away from her little body with force. She did not look good at ALL she looked very very sick something was horribly wrong... I called my oldest sister Mayra that afternoon and asked her if she could pick Hailey up and watch her for a bit so we could take Brianna to the ER to get checked out. I got both girls ready, Hailey to go with my sister for the evening and Brianna to be taken to the ER. My sister came by and picked up Hailey and wished us luck. The minute my sister drove off my husband began to yell out that Brianna was not breathing, I ran back into the house to see Brianna purple in the face not breathing I tried to grab her but the moment I grabbed her she fainted in my arms, I could not hold my baby in my arms fainted and not breathing again so I gave her to my husband and freaked out called 911... I yelled at the lady now petrified as heck that my then 5 1/2 month old baby was not breathing and that she was not responsive that she fainted and that I needed help I kept yelling please hurry please hurry my baby isnt breathing I was crying histerically (imagine that this now being the second time in my babys short life that I feared I was going to lose her I thought she was going to die) I was in the front lawn crying and screaming the lady continued to ask me to stay on the phone with her I just kept yelling "shes not breathing hurry, shes going to die, hurry, please hurry" she asked me to calm down several times I remember yelling at her "I cant I cant thats my baby please hurry, my baby, my baby, shes not breathing"... finally I heard her crying in the background (my poor husband was so strong during this time he stayed there trying and trying to get her to start breathing again, with her limb body, he never gave up... I on the other hand was not strong enough to watch this, not to watch my poor little baby go through this I could not bare for the life of me I couldnt watch I am surprised I was strong enough to call 911 and stay on the line with her until the ambulance arrived)... anyhow when I heard Brianna crying I started crying more and more I didnt run back inside to see my baby I couldnt but I had a big big feeling of relieve... I then told the lady on the phone that my baby was crying, she said that that was a very good sign to try to keep her crying as long as shes crying shes breathing she told me. I heard the sirens of the ambulance in the distance. I just kept yelling hurry hurry... the ambulance and firefighters finally arrived and they ran in for my baby, they put her on oxygen made me sit in the bed with her and put us in the ambulance and rushed us to the hospital. My husband drove and I rode in the ambulance.

Once at Anaheim Memorial, many many doctors came in and out in and out trying to figure out what was wrong with her... Brianna continued to have these "episodes" she had 3-4 just at Anaheim Memorial in a matter of 2 hours... They didnt know what to do in the ER she scared them. I head them calling CHOC the Childrens Hospital of Orange County and asking them to come pick her up that they couldnt deal with her and had no idea what to do. CHOC requested that they did a CAT Scan of her head before they picked her up and that they put in an IV line while we waited for CHOC to send an ambulance transporter to pick her up. They wheeled her in to have a CT Scan of her head, I was in a daze in a blur I had no idea what was going on, I wanted this to be a night-mare I wanted to wake up. It was real, I wasnt going to wake up... ever. They took her back to the ER and told us that they would send the results to CHOC the childrens hospital that was on their way to pick her up.

By that time two nice ladies from CHOC ambulance transportaion was there to pick her up, they had not had time to put in an IV so the CHOC lady went ahead and attempted to put an IV as regulations they are not allowed to transport a patient without an IV line. They poked and poked her with no luck. They said her skin was too tick ((baby fat)) they told me that they had to try her forehead or her neck... I was HISTERICAL crying crying I said no no no you cant... I had never head of suck a thing... I couldnt watch, again my husband was strong and stayed holding down his baby girl as I was on the floor outside the curtains crying out for my baby. When the IV was in the sight of my baby girl with an IV on her forehead almost made me faint... the blood all over the sheets almost made me faint... she was ready to be transported.

My husband rode with her in the ambulance, I drove the car to the hospital...

When I got to the hospital they took me into the PICU (pediatrics intensive care unit)my husband sat alone crying... no baby... my heart sunk... where is she I asked. They took her down for some testing... what testing... they are doing a film study of her stomach and intestines. I tried to sit in the empty room with my husband patiently but I couldnt. I kept asking about her... when finally two nurses came into the room and asked us to go with them... oh no no no was my first thought, why whats wrong. "Follow us downstairs please"....

When we arrived I saw my chubby little baby in a metal crib sucking on the tip of a bottle because they lost her pacifier. I ran to her and hugged and kissed her, scared to take her out of the crib.

"We called the surgeon he is on his way" WHAT!!!!! Surgeon?!?!?!? Why? He will explain everything when he gets here, they told me. It was around 2 am.

The surgeon got there, and he was so sweet... and comforting. He told me that the film study they did showed that her intestines where twisted and had an obstruction they call this intestinal mal-rotation and that they had to do surgery right away to correct... that they would remove her apendix since they would be in there to prevent future problems. I was crying, I couldnt put it together I asked him why they were going to operate on a baby that was havign these spells of not breathing and fainting. He exlained to me that they would put her in a ventilator to breathe for her, he was so reassuring and confident. He said that he felt comfortable that the surgery would be ok. I remeber his exact words "If I dont do the surgery in teh next couple of hour she will not live". His assistant told me that he is the best surgeon they have that if her child had to have surgery that she would chose him. I cried and trusted my baby to them. I prayed by her side for a few minutes they wisked her away from me, the nurses made me sign a bunch of papers I didnt bother reading (liability stuff I am sure)... They put my husband and I in a waiting room infront of a Jesus statue (This is a catholic hospital) and I prayed and cryied so hard and loud the security guy had to come check on me. They called a priest to come talk to me, asked me if I wanted them to baptize Brianan before her surgery, I said yes.

Brianna received her christening alone... in a surgery room... under anestetics... while being prepared for a life saving surgery. After that they gave me the rosary they baptized her with, and I prayed and walked around and cried histerically, my husband cried and got down on his knees with me and prayed and held me.

About 4-5 hours later, the doctor came out and told me that the surgery was a success and that in a few minutes they would take us upstairs to see her once they transfered her into a PICU room. I hugged the doctor, I thanked God... and cried some more.

More to come...

Araceli

First sign something was wrong...

The first few months, where great... simply the best. The thought that something was wrong never crossed my mind. We took her in for her well baby visit, everything was good she was gaining weight. Now that I really think about it the only "off" things with her other than her supposed feeding discoordination was that when she fed through a bottle she would spill a lot and choke often, but she was gaining good weight she was chubby chubby I will post a picture of her as a baby before we knew anything was wrong with her she was such a good eater she loved eating!!! So we were the perfect little family of four. We were adapting to her and her to us... I went back to work had to go through the hard part of leaving my babies to my sister in law so both my husband and I could work. (Brianna was only 5 weeks old when I went back to work geez)... Time went by and she would choke less, she would still spill a lot on the sides of the nipples of her bottles but like I said her weight was good ((chunky I might add))... so it wasnt a concern. Another thing that I didnt notice then but do now that I look back, she was constantly congested and with a runny nose. I thought it was because she was born right before winter so cold season and didnt think much more, of course I would take her to the doctor and he would say just a little congestion nothing to worry about and he would yell at us that she didnt get better because we didnt suction her enough with the blue nose bulbs... and blamed that that was the reason why she was always congested... any how.



On February 27th 2008 (I still remember like it was yesterday)... I was sitting in my room on the bed carrying Brianna watching TV when all of a sudden out of no where she stopped breathing, in my arms... she tried to grasp for air and she just couldnt... she turned purple in her face her lips turned black her entire body stiffened, she closed her eyes and passed out/fainted I was histerical shaking like crazy screaming trying to get her to start breathing again trying to stimulate her I didnt know what was happening to my perfect baby... she was lifeless in my arms purple in the face... my husband ran in and I practically tossed her in his arms yelling help me shes not breathing... he freaked out by the time he grabbed her she started breathing again and was crying I was histerical (something was wrong, terribly wrong)... I HONESTLY TRULY BELIEVED MY BABY WAS GOING TO DIE IN MY ARMS RIGHT THEN AND THERE... I was crying like I dont think I had ever cried in my life I dont think I knew I could cry such rivers and for so long. I held my baby now crying and breathing again and I cried and cried and cried and cried and cried... I honestly cannot tell you if we called an ambulance this time or if we drove to the hospital... I dont know if we took her to the closest hospital and then they transfered her to the childrens hospital it was all a huge blurr... I think we did call ambulance and I think we did end up in the Anaheim Memorial Medical Center ER and they ended up sending us to CHOC Childrens Hospital of Orange County...



Brianna was admitted into the hospital. I do remember how terrified I was for the first time in the Childrens Hospital being admitted into a room, the doctors comming in and out for the first 3 hours, telling us to describe what happened to 10 different people. They put in her IV, I cried. They ran some blood work... I cried. They ran some RSV and Influenza cultures, and said we would stay in the hospital until they had these results back and so they could keep an eye on her. Well we stayed 3 days. During these 3 days, blood work came back normal, Influenza negative, RSV negative... which was good... then they did a CT Scan of her head and ran some xrays of her chest to check for pneumonia. THIS REALLY NOW THAT I THINK OF IT... MAKES ME VERY VERY MAD.... so for the second time around second set of CT Scan on her head... "results... NORMAL" would you freaking believe that????? Pneumonia was negative, So her diagnose was brochiolitis... they said that she was so congested and her airways so clogged that she couldnt catch her breath and thats why she stopped breathing and fainted. They put her on the 5 day steroids (to be continued at home) to open up her airways they gave her some breathing treatments and by the time she was discharged they said her lungs sounded much better. They put in the request for a breathing treatment machine to take home wich we have had since. Since she didnt have another episode in the hospital and she seemed to be doing fine and all testing was normal except for the bronchiolitis which was improving she was discharged, and we felt comfortable taking her home. Oh yeah they sent us home with an apnea monitor... just in case, so we felt more comfortable taking her home.



We got teased a lot with these "normal" scans of her brain.... but still we had no diagnose out of the normal and so we went on with our happy little lives....



More to come on "First (( EMERGENCY)) Life Threatning Surgery"



Araceli

Birth and first days

My beautiful baby girl was born... she was here... she was real... and she was crying... oh my eyes couldnt believe what a beautiful baby girl I was seeing.


They took her away for a few seconds, as my husband snapped pictures in her face, and wipped her clean and shoved a bottle in her mouth ((to get the early sucking reflex in her asap they said)). Then they brought her to me and layed her on me (while they took out the placenta and stiched me outch).


My husband and I were in a daze.


We took some pictures, and adored our little girl. A few minutes later they had to take her to get an evaluation done. They brought me dinner (I was starved) and a few minutes later they brough her in the room my husband and mother in law couldnt keep their hands off of her. I wont lie I was eating and eating lol...


So they moved us to a different floor out of the labor/delivery room and put us in a family friendly room where our family could come visit.


I started doing the diaper changes, the feeds etc I noticed she would choke a lot but thought she needs to just take it slow shes only a few hours old. I talked to a nutritionist who agreed and said keep trying (my milk supply wasnt in yet). A few hours later that same day some family was over, our older daughter Hailey came over also. It was feeding time so I started bottle feeding her and she turned purple almost stopped breathing... I yelled to call the nurse a doctor someone... freaked out... a nurse came running in she took her from me and turned her on her side and banged on her back until she started breathing again. I asked what was the matter she said she was still considered a preemie due to being born at 36 weeks and low birth weight so she may be having difficulties with feeding.


A few minutes later the nurse and doctors came in and said they would take her to an incubator NICU to keep an eye on her and teach her how to coordinate her suck swallow breathe in feeds. I wasnt too scared just yet.


I had to spend the night without my baby in the room, she was in NICU and they wouldnt let me see her until the next day. When they finally let me go see her the nurses in the NICU told me that they keep trying to feed her and that she kept turning blue (cyanotic) and that they would run some blood work and CATScan etc to rule anything else out. They put an NG tube to feed her through in her nose.


They ran blood work, "normal" (little did they know later she would get diagnosed with so much stuff) they did a CT scan of her head, "normal (little did they know later she would get diagnosed with missing a part of her brain), ran a few other tests normal, normal, normal... we had no reason to believe other wise so we believed them. Her cyanotic episodes of turning blue was diagnosed with a simple feeding discordination that would subside and clear up in a few weeks as she learned to eat. (little did they know she would end up gtube dependant).


She ended up staying in the NICU for a week. I would visit her at all hours of the night...every day any time... I received some breastfeeding training and had the chance to stop in any time of the day or night for feeds. Thank God, I had the chance to experiance this at least for 2 weeks...


We ended up taking her home a week old... at 4.13lbs (she lost a few ounces they said it was normal) she passed the newborn car seat test and we were 100% convinced that in fact all she had was a feeding discordination and that it would clear up in a few days to weeks... though it was scary and it hurt to see her spill so much milk while eating, turn blue and choke so much I didnt think much of it...


We took our baby home, and loved her.


Hailey was so excited she didnt know what to do with her. lol We showed off our perfect little girls to the world, and nothing was stopping us from being the perfect happy little family... (yet).


(More to come in post entry "First episode")


Araceli

Pregnancy

I am going to break down Brianna's story because it is way too long for one entry

I am thinking maybe 1Pregnancy, 2Before we knew, 3First diagnose/surgery, etc ... so here is pregnancy.



I was 18 years old when I found out that I was pregnant with my second child. My oldest, Hailey being two at the time. This pregnancy did not come to us as a surprise as we had been trying for a few months to conceive we thought it was the right time to get Hailey a baby sister... or brother as we wanted to have them close in age so they could grow up together. We said that if our second was a girl we would try once more for a boy and if the second was a boy we would stay with just two. Well we had a second girl, and we are done... as you can pretty much guess why lol.



Sooo.... I went behind my husbands back (hehe sneaky me) and bough some home pregnancy tests at ride aid. I sneaked into the restroom to take the test ( I felt it in my heart that I was indeed pregnant ) and sure enough two little lines showed up and confirmed, "I WAS PREGNANT" wow was I happy.



I waited for my husbands friend to leave before I said anything to my husband. As soon as that boy walked out the door lol I ran into the room ( This was like a week before Valentines day ) and said, "can I give you an early Valentines day present" (wow how things change we do not even celebrate Valentines anymore) and he had a big smile on his face and of course said yes. So I showed him the test, and he hugged me and said I had just made him the happiest man on Earth.



Well we went on we had our first visit to a gynocologist and they confirmed I was 5 weeks pregnant. Our next visit a few weeks later we had the chance to listen to the babys heart beat... my husband cried ( I should mention Brianna is his first biological daughter ) Hailey is just my biological daughter but he is the best dad to Hailey that I could ask for.



Time went by and my tummy got bigger...

I change gyno's due to insurance purposes.

The new gyno was Dr. Hernandez in the Anaheim Memorial Medical Clinics. We eventually found out it was a girl, yay. Everything was fine at this point except for the morning or should I say all day sickness.



We started thinking of girl names. Hannah, Destiny, Hope, Riley, Angelie, Angelina, Angela, Maryah, Joselyn, we couldnt agree on anything...



Until one day, I said I'm tired of this we need a name for our baby... my husband said what about Brianna Angelenne... I said I dont care lets do it... so we stuck with that (or so I thought).



At 29 weeks I started having contractions (lower back ones at that) and went into preterm labor. At the hospital they gave me a round of steroids for the babys lungs if she were to be born that premature and some shots to stop my labor. They stopped it successfully Thank God.



At 32 weeks I started having contractions again and went into preterm labor again, at this point I was given another round of shots to stop my labor taken out of work and put on bed rest in the hospital for 4 weeks (this was horrible)... I couldnt get out of bed not even to pee, they had my legs up and doctors were constantly coming in and checking to see how dialated I was (ew considering I couldnt get up to bathe other than the sponge baths my husband gave me. I missed my baby shower the last week I was in the hospital which to this day I recent my family for not holding it off until later or changing it to a welcome baby. (I must add I had a baby shower at work I was able to attend, and I thank them all for it) I was spotting these last few weeks threatning to deliver early. (I missed Hailey so much, my husband was working two jobs so wasnt able to bring her by every day).



At week 34 1/2 I was able to go home, on bed rest.



9/10/2007 At my 36 week check up my doctor said he was ready to take me off the pills and let me deliver my baby... he said do you want to come back tomorrow (being September 11) or the next day September 12 and we will enduce. I didnt want her born on September 11 being a day remembered as sorrow and memorial for many. So I said September 12th.



We dropped off my poor baby girl Hailey at my parents house that chilly September 12th day at 4:30 am and headed to the hospital (Hailey cried for mommy, it broke my heart). We got in to the hospital around 5:30a.m (nervous as heck) and we were put in a room were I would deliver, I got my IV and meds to enduce labor and we waited and waited. At around 11 am Oh DEAR were my conractions horrible horrible (way way way worse than I experianced with Hailey, they didnt even compare to say the least) at around one ish (yep Im a bad mommy I think 1:21) Brianna was born... Brianna Aileen to be exact not Angelenne lol. Weighing 5.1lbs and 16" tall.(tiny) I should say.



Oh joy!



The rest to come in topic (Birth and first days)



Araceli