I can tell you everything about the day Sierra was born. It was more than NINE years ago and I still remember what I was wearing, what I did that morning, and the look on the face of the dr. that I had met with and told me I was giving birth...THAT DAY!
It was two months BEFORE Sierra was due and even though I wasn't ready...she needed to be born. I could barely move. My blood pressure was way high and I had Toxemia and preeclampsia. I got in the car with Angel who had gone to my appointment with me and called Paul to tell them that I was going straight to the hospital to be induced.
There was ONE fear....that her lungs wouldn't be fully developed.
The NIGHT Sierra was born, we were grateful that she was fine and that her lungs were fully developed. There were fireworks in the sky because it was the 4th of July. I was holding her and she was awake looking up at me. Even though I knew she probably couldn't see me clearly I honestly felt as if she was scoping me out.
That same night we saw that she was a little yellow. The nurses took her from me to check her out. They put her under the lights because they said she was jaundice. When she was in the bili machine her biliruben levels would go down. When they took her out they would change and go way up high.
She stayed in the hospital for problem for two weeks. The day before she went home a new dr. came in and asked me if anyone in my family had blood issues. I immediately thought of my family and said no. Then DUH...my dh helped make her...I told the dr. that he had a condition called
Hereditary Spherocytosis. I remember her saying, "that's exactly what I thought you would say".
Through out her life she's been in and out of dr. visits over this very condition. One thing we knew would probably happen one day was that they would need to take out her spleen.
well...we think the time has come to consider taking it out.
We know that our blood dies every 120 days. For people with HS it's different. Their blood dies faster...they say about every 50-90 days (everyone is different). The HS specialists today said they think that Sierra's blood is dying about every 15 days!! She does make new blood very quickly but what they have also found is that her body is working to fix things about 15% MORE the normal rate it should be working. She should be exhausted!
They also worry about her getting
gallstones. People with HS get this.
If we take out the spleen it will help her a lot. It will probably take away the jaundice. (She may still have some symptoms because she also has
Gilberts disease)
her red blood cells won't be killed off so fast like they do now.
She won't have to worry about anemia, gallstones, and other symptoms.
They say that it may even give her more energy and she'll feel a lot better.
The dr. has NOT decided what to do yet. He wants to think about it because even though she has these issues...she's actually quite healthy. Even though she is jaundice she's full of energy. She has not had to get a blood trasfusion yet.
So he says we have time to think about it and he wants to talk to us as a family. We are meeting back with him next month.
Sierra was a little scared but he made her feel a lot better and she told me that she thinks it might help her.
She was so cute. She took on the challenge I gave out today to smile more. I looked at her from the rear view mirror and saw that she looked a little sad. When she looked at me she flashed me a HUGE smile. She then said..."you remember the challenge". It made me smile.
We joked around and sang the rest of the way home.
We are going to pray about what decision we should make.
If you read this whole thing..thanks for "listening".
Hugs,
Suzy West
Sunday our family decided to get together and go to Fleet Week in San Francisco. 
Posts
