Hi Everyone,  My name is Debbie and my little girl received the miracle of life on Nov 22, 2012 (Thanksgiving Day).  She is a beautiful amazing 4 yr old girl that had a very rough start to life.  She was born with all of her small bowel outside of her abdomen.  After delivery the bowel quickly died, leaving her with only 9 inches of native small bowel.  She was unable to process and digest any foods.  This led to the use of  TPN and a central line which caused numerous other health issues.  These health issues resulted in the need for a transplant of 3 organs, small bowel, liver and pancreas. 
Our prayers where answered and we received the gift of life from a little girl named Brooke and her parents. 

We now face the unthinkable.  Aleah is and always will be immunosuppressed.  This is done for the health of her transplanted organs.  This keeps her body from seeing the transplanted organs as forgein body, and launching an attack to fight it.  Immunosuppression causes her to be more susceptible to certain viruses.  Unfortunatley there are a few that are organ killers for transplant  bowel recipients.  For us one of the worst is Adenovirus.  This is what my beautiful little girl is facing.

 Above is a photo for what this virus has done to her transplanted bowel (removed due to graphic nature).  Bowel should be pink and covered in Villi (finger like projections)  as you can see hers are red, bleeding, white in areas with ulcer like sores.  She can not digest or absorp anything at this time.  She  is now back on TPN.  Her physicians at Mattel Children's Hospital are fighting this with drugs to stop and reverse the rejection.  It can be done but its lengthly and dangerous. Her immune system is now completly depleted at this time.  We hope this stops her body from attacking her bowels, while the doctors give her medications that will reduce the viral load in her body caused by this caustic virus.  Everyday is  a battery of lab work  and procedures to see where we are and what needs to be done to save her bowels.

We currently live in San Diego and my husband serves his country proudly in the US Navy.  I was a Respriatory Therapist until my husband and I agreed to take custody of Aleah and care for her.  She is our third adopted child  with medical issues. I now stay at home full time and care for Aleah and her older brothers. 

With this recent unexpected health challenge , we are in need of assistance.   We are having to drive from San Diego to Los Angles every week.  Mattel Children's is an amazing hospital but its 120+ miles away from our home.  I stay in the hospital room with my daughter from Sunday afternoon until Thursday evening. Thursday evening my husband drives up to relive me, so I can come home and wash laundry, prep food and spend time with my boys.   We have nicknamed this " The Changing of the Gaurds". 

The hospital is located in  Westwood.  This area is very expensive.  While we face this challenge we are using more than triple our normal gas budget, then there is the cost of food for the one parent who is at the hospital and parking  cost of 10$ a day (that's discounted).We also have respite care cost for the boys after school care Monday through Wednesday until my husband comes home.  We have been in the hospital since the end of March and we have depleted our savings.  Now we ask you to please help us.  We are being told we will be in the hospital through the next two months.  

We hope that the generosity of others will allow us to continue to give Aleah the comfort of having both of her parents involded with her health care and recovery.  While allowing the other parent to be at home with her siblings.  

Please share with your family and friends and Thank You for your support and prayers of our little girl.