Lani’s Hospital Stay

As friends of The Coleman’s, we are setting up this site in hopes to help Brianna and Stephanie with their growing medical bills.

Lani’s story as told by Brianna and Stephanie:

Around the beginning of August, Lani started having frequent high fevers requiring clinic and ER visits. As the month progresses, Lani developed a large abscess on her wrist that required a 4 day hospital stay and surgical drainage. When we left the hospital they informed us that we might get a call about lab results but everything seemed to look normal and surgery went smoothly.

We celebrated Lani’s first birthday with all of our friends and family and thought the worst of it was over.

3 days after we got home we received a call from Children’s infectious disease clinic saying they wanted to see us in clinic ASAP. On September 12th, we met with the infectious disease doctor who informed us that a rare, drug resistant, rapid growing bacteria had grown on the culture they took. They determined this bacteria to be something called Atypical Mycobacterium Abcessus. That same day, Lani had started the beginning of a long course of medical tests, imaging, labs and doctors visits.

Infectious disease has been consulting with Mayo Clinic and other national experts to gather information about the best course of treatment. At this point we were told that this bacteria has the potential of spreading throughout her body and could require a 12 week antibiotic course through IV. Over the next 6 weeks we had been in an out of appointments, home with Lani who continued to have almost daily fevers and daily communication with her primary care doctor, children’s hospital and the infectious disease team.

As her fevers continued, it was determined that Lani would need a second surgery on her wrist to clear out any damaged tissue and remaining infection. On October 7th, Lani spiked a very high fever and we brought her into the ER for more testing. The next day the infectious disease doctor determined we needed to expedite treatment and have her admitted. On October 10th, Lani had the second surgery where they took samples from her wrist, shoulder and ears. Due to the complex nature of this infection and it’s presentation, doctors are still working hard to try to determine what is all going on inside Lani’s little body.

Lani had a procedure on October 13th where they placed a central line. They also did a MRI of her brain and a spinal tap. We are now in the hospital and preparing for an extensive journey that will begin today. Lani will be on an intense 3 antibiotic IV regimen for a minimum of 12 weeks requiring home care, nursing services and moms to administer these antibiotics several times a day through her central line.

We have no idea what to expect through the next few months but know that this will, and already has, impact our ability to work consistently. Balancing work responsibilities and being present for our brave little munchkin while also trying to take care of ourselves has proven to be an extreme challenge but we continue to be grateful for all of the love and support we’ve been able to get.

Brianna started a new job in July and has used all of her PTO and doesn’t yet qualify for FMLA. She is having to take a minimum of 3 weeks unpaid leave.

If you aren’t able to contribute financially please consider keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you to everyone who has been thinking of us and offering to help, we could not do it without the village of people in our lives!