❤Help for Mikahla❤awaiting 2nd❤Heart transplant

5/11/2023: As I sit here tonight by Mikahla’s bedside in room 1176, I’m finding it difficult to write this message. Where do I even start? I’ll start with a quote shared with me by my fiancé David. Somehow, he always finds just the right words to say at the right time. “HOPE is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you'll never make it through the night.“-Princess Leia

Our beautiful, bright green-eyed daughter, Mikahla, a.k.a. “Mikki” has lived the past 25 years of life only one way…filled with HOPE and COURAGE; starting from the second she took her first breath. You see, already a heart transplant recipient, Mikki, received her first donor heart at age 9. But now that heart is failing, and she is in desperate need of a 2nd heart transplant. These past weeks have been very difficult as she has had to endure countless tests and multiple procedures to stabilize her heart, and while Mikki was able to go home briefly, (2 days) her condition rapidly worsened. Mikki is now in the ICU where she will stay until she can receive a new heart.

Mikki was placed on the UNOS transplant list this past week, as a status 4 initially, but has now been moved up to status 2, meaning she is critical. This also means she will have an aortic balloon pump installed in the coming days (possibly tomorrow) into her aorta to help relieve some of her symptoms; shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, and fatigue. The transplant team explained to us that her antibodies are extremely high, which is very concerning and will undoubtedly make it much more difficult to find a 2nd heart. “We’ll be looking for a needle in a haystack”, the transplant director said.

As Mikki starts into this next chapter of life, she’d like to share her journey in hopes it will inspire others going through rough times to never give up HOPE and to forever be COURAGEOUS.

As a parent, it's devastating to watch our children struggle, especially when they are in physical pain. As Mikki's mom, I can't help her much with her pain, but if I can help to lessen her financial burdens, bringing her less emotional stress, I'll be doing all I can. So with this, I’m asking everyone reading this to help our sweet Mikahla and her family, in any way you can. The financial burdens are quickly surmounting. Mikahla and her long-time partner in crime, Billy have a large family of 7. Believe me, no donation amount is too small or large. Please know every dollar counts and is forever appreciated. Equally as important as a donation, is to SHARE her story and this fundraiser with the world.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE!

This family will continue to incur huge expenses while she waits in the hospital, which could be many weeks or months, but also far beyond that. For at least one full year following her transplant, she will be unable to work and will need to travel back and forth to the hospital for weekly biopsies, testing, and continued care. The hospital and follow-up care will be in downtown Chicago, 3.5 hours away from home. Nothing is affordable in downtown Chicago. Gas is insane as you know. Every donation will help Mikki and her family. They have no paid time off of work, meaning lost wages, hotels, gas, food, and countless other expenses, and so many bills piling up. These are just some of the expenses they have already incurred. We’ve found out very quickly that simple things, like parking at the hospital, can add up fast at $27.00 a day. A hotel anywhere near the hospital is ridiculously priced, being it’s in the city’s center.

Let's come together to help Mikki keep up the HOPE, that all things will work out and can be overcome. She has already jumped through some huge obstacles in her first 25 years of life. More than most of us will endure in a lifetime.

Below, I’d like to now share a few words directly from Mikki.

"I want to just thank every person, friend, and family member in my life, that has been there for me in any way. From saying a prayer for me, helping me with my animals, looking out for my Billy and the kids, wiping away my mom’s tears, and helping me deal with the loss of my daddy, to lifting up all my family and keeping them strong while I fight. For calling and texting me to lift my spirits. For sending me silly TikTok videos. I want you all to know, “To the World, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the World”, Love Mikki."

And finally, a bit more of what the past 25 years of life have looked like for Mikki.

Born in 1997 with a crippling congenital heart defect, (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) her first weeks on Earth were spent in the PICU as she struggled to breathe. It was determined then she’d need a heart transplant one day.

From birth until age 3, her heart muscle, although seriously defective, were somehow keeping up. The doctors were perplexed, to say the least. However, it seems overnight her heart began to fail. She was rushed to Peoria Children’s Hospital and was in complete heart failure, fluid was collecting around the heart and lungs. Her cardiologist said an emergency procedure was needed to drain the fluid off her lungs and to check all the pressures of the heart. They took her into surgery immediately but during the procedure, Mikki’s exhausted heart gave out and stopped. Doctors worked frantically to get it started again. (As you can see, my girl is a fighter!)

From age 3-9, she lived off a twice-daily cocktail of heart failure medications aimed at buying more time, until a transplant was ultimately needed. During these elementary school years, Mikki encountered a lot of emotional and physical stress. Although she took her heart failure meds each day, she was still very debilitated. Because of the heart's poor function, she was unable to experience a childhood like most…Mikki was unable to play in recess, and never learned to ride a bike or how to swim. Her classmates pushed her around the school in a jogging stroller because she couldn’t walk from class to class. A cot was always located just feet away from her desk, where she would routinely take a nap during Math class, each day. LOL. (No wonder she sucks at math). At nine years old she weighed just 32 pounds, lived on a sodium restricted diet, and couldn’t gain weight having zero appetite. (Except for those dang Burger King Fries, no salt added of course).

Around age 9, Mikki’s heart was failing fast. So, in December of 2006, she was evaluated and placed on the transplant list as a status 2b. Her lips and toes stayed a dusky purple, she couldn’t stay warm, and had a constant low-grade fever. The team started her on a 24-hour IV drip of Milrinone and fitted her with a defibrillator life vest as her heart started having dangerous arrhythmias. She was terrified to wear it.

April 5th, 2007, was such a bittersweet day for our family. This was the day we received the call, the day she received the GIFT OF LIFE, from the heart of a little 7-year-old boy. We will forever be indebted to his family for their unselfish decision to donate his heart that gave our Mikki the chance to continue on; To live a life she had been HOPING for so desperately.

Fast forward 16 years from that day in April of 2007 to today, 5/11/2023. As Mikki prepares herself for round 2, this time it’s different, more complex, and no doubt comes with more challenges. Mikki’s father is not here this time to cheer her on. She lost him this past July, at age 45, to the same heart condition Mikki had as a child. His heart became too thick to pump, and it suddenly stopped while he was out doing what he loved most, golfing with his family. Sadly, he was suffering from cardiomyopathy too but had no idea. The loss of her daddy was crippling for Mikahla, and something she struggles with every day. She carries his picture everywhere she goes.

Mikki has an amazing stepmom Katie and a little brother and sister (Alexa and Knox) in Florida, with whom she cherishes spending time. She had just returned from seeing them, just 1 day before being admitted at Chicago Northwestern. It was after that trip, that she came home feeling exhausted, breathless, and having a tingling sensation in her arm, and chest pains. So we called her transplant team, which lead her to Chicago to be evaluated. The evaluation turned into being listed for a 2nd heart transplant.

With a strong family and friends beside her, and with the help of a loving, sharing, caring community of soldiers surrounding her, this too, she shall overcome.

REMEMBER, it takes a VILLAGE. Please donate, no amount is too small. If just 1,250 people donated $20.00 each, she would hit her goal. Please donate and continue to share her story each day with the community.