Funding For Shennade

Shennade is the strongest woman I've ever known, and I'm lucky to have such a best friend and partner in this life. We are forever grateful for the incredible support system from family and friends, along with many people whom we've never even had the pleasure of meeting during this obstacle in our lives. As difficult as it is to endure, it's even harder asking for this additional support, and I thank you sincerely for taking the time to read our story.

Shennade has been diagnosed with a rare disease known as atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, or aHUS. Fresh frozen plasma, blood transfusions, dialysis, and eculizumab treatments have been the beginning of what appears to be our new jouney in life. Each day of improvement brings our family closer to uniting again as a whole.

Here's a breakdown in detail of the events that occurred prior to being hospitalized, up until the present moment:

At exactly 40 weeks pregnant, to the day, with twins, Shennade awoke to her water breaking shortly after midnight on 10/22/22. We decided at the beginning of this pregnancy to keep it on the down low and planned for a natural water birth at home. After doing some research, we discovered that, aside from the routine checkups with her primary OBGYN, we were unable to hire a midwife or a doula in the state of California because birthing twins are considered high risk, and the only option was support over the phone, for a hefty fee of course. Determined to go through with it, she gathered as much information as possible and shared with me a list of items to purchase, as well as compiling an informative step by step plan for a successful, unassisted home water birth. Needless to say, I was terrified.

After her water broke, I began setting up the birthing pool and getting everything situated for a comfortable labor while she bounced around on her yoga ball to ensure proper positioning for delivery. We pinned a series of positive affirmation cards on the wall for her and I to read as encouraging reminders during the process of labor. Our 5 year old daughter Abigail woke up about an hour into it all and held her mommy's hand during contractions. At 4:43am, Suzanna Eloise was born unassisted weighing 6lbs 3oz and 47cm long. 30 minutes later, our oldest son Malakai woke up, shortly followed by his younger brothers Jonah and Elijah who are 3 and 1. All 4 of them were beyond excited to meet their new baby sister, and give their mother emotional support and words of encouragement while getting prepared for baby#2. At 5:40am, Hannah Marie was born breached, legs first, unassisted weighing 6lbs 5oz and 46cm long. Everything went beautifully.

We knew we were having twins, but we wanted to be surprised in finding out the sex until their moment of arrival, so it was incredible to experience such excitement, for all of us. We called our parents and siblings to reveal the good news and also to have my folks pick up the older 4 kids and 2 dogs so Shennade could accomplish some much needed rest with our new baby girls in the comfort of our bed. During this time I cleaned everything up and put everything away to join in on the relaxation.

After about 5 hours, Shennade began feeling extremely dehydrated, and quickly lost the color in her face, becoming pale and lethargic. My mom arrived to take her to the ER at around 1pm while I stayed at home with the twins. After receiving an update that she was being admitted into Hazel Hawkins for high blood pressure and potassium levels, I loaded up the girls and met up with her mother, my mother, and Shennade in the ER.

Attempts of regulating her blood pressure and potassium wasn't working, nor was she producing any urine, even with a catheter that was reset multiple times to make sure it was properly placed. Her kidneys and liver were failing rather quickly before a recommendation of transfer to Lucile Packard in Palo Alto was decided after hours of no improvement. She was airlifted at around 3am on 10/23, followed by the twins and I who made our way on the hour and a half journey.

She was admitted to the maternity ward of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, a fantastic place that we already shared a prior experience back in 2018 when our oldest son had emergency surgery for meckles diverticulum. We knew she was in the best hands. I arrived with the twins at around 4:30am, and we joined up with a large team of experts who were quite intrigued with Shennade's particular case. She was being treated for a rare form of pre-eclampsia called Hellp Syndrome, but her kidneys weren't recovering as they should have, so she was transferred to ICU for further care.

Since newborns aren't allowed in ICU, I decided to admit them into the nursery ward of the Children's Hospital so I could bounce back and forth between departments without worry. Experts from multiple teams were monitoring the kidneys in particular because of rising creatinine levels. They began blood transfusions and fresh frozen plasma replacement with limited success. Good news was she began producing urine early Monday morning on 10/24, as well as liver enzymes heading in the right direction, but they were still discussing possible dialysis treatments to flush all the toxins from her kidneys.

Same morning, the nursery ward couldn't find an excuse to keep the twins any longer because they were so healthy. They were discharged and allowed to see their mom for the first time since the transfer to ICU. Took them home for the night and met up with Shennade's older sister to send the older 4 to stay at their house in Plumas Lake, North of Sacramento.

The next morning, 10/25, Shennade was still showing no signs of progression, and did not want to be alone. Gathered everything the twins would need and left them under the care of my parents, who are both elderly and disabled, luckily recieving additional help from my older brother Christian (Monkey). Put together a bag and headed back to Palo Alto.

After getting to the room, I was brought up to speed with the development so far, anxious to find out why the doctors are all stumped. Being proactive they began Eculizumab treatments for possible aHUS. We're still awaiting genetic test results to determine if she carries the specific genes, but even if she doesn't carry said genes, she could still have aHUS. The test results for her kidneys aren't improving due to the creatinine levels being high, and with how difficult aHUS is to test for, they decided to run this treatment in hopes of improvement. First 5 treatments are weekly, then will continue every two weeks for a year, and possibly for the rest of her life.

We were transferred Wednesday afternoon, 10/26 to a regular hospital room, entering into the monitoring stage with glucose checks every 30 minutes and more blood draws than I can remember. Imagine being a human pin cushion, that's the best way to describe it, followed by more transfusions. Still no improvement throughout the night and during the entire day on Thursday, so they scheduled Dialysis for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, to flush the kidneys and redistribute electrolytes, followed by a kidney biopsy for Monday.

On Friday, 10/28, she had the first Dialysis treatment for 2 hours, and the next day was for 2.5 hours. The experts wanted to guage how her kidneys were functioning so they canceled the treatment for Sunday and Monday, along with the biopsy. We're still waiting on when we can be discharged, but we're optimistic and hopeful for some time this week.

Shennade and I give a special shout out to those who are helping in more ways than we can ever repay. To my Mom, Dad, and brother Christian for taking care of the twins and dogs, to Aunty Monica and Uncle Jose for taking in the older kids, and to Shennade's folks for offering their home for recovery so we're not using too many stairs or commuting farther than necessary for upcoming treatments. We would also like to thank Jeanette for contributing such generosity helping with food for the family. We love you all with all of our being.

I don't typically reach out in this way on the internet, but our family is in need of as much of your positive thoughts, prayers, energies, and healing frequencies for my best friend, my rock, and co-creator of life. Any additional support to help with a variety of costs until I'm able to return to work would mean more than you know. Being the only source of income in a family of 8 with 2 dogs without government assistance, is something I'm proud of. It has allowed Shennade to stay home full time as a mother to our kids, without a babysitter, ever. Not to mention being a homeschool teacher to our older 2, and recently accomplishing the remaining hours necessary to become a Certified Massage Therapist! She definitely holds the title of being my biggest hero. Let's get her home to these new baby girls along with the rest of our seeds. Thank you all for everything, we love you beyond words!