Hello, my name is Arista and I am a mother to 4 kiddos. I just finished my medical assisting degree right before our lives changed. I thought I would have been back to work by now, but unfortunately life had other plans. I hate that I am at the desperate point to even be asking for this kind of help. Here’s my story…
August came and I was in and out of the hospital 8 times with my health declining and having a very high risk pregnancy. On September 4th I was admitted and they decided they needed to take my son early because our health wasn’t doing good. On September 5th he was born 5 weeks early. I was in and out and barely conscious for his birth and had him alone. He was born with no heartbeat and had to be resuscitated and luckily they saved him as he was already blue and purple in color. Less than 24 hours later they had to take him over to the NICU. While he sat in the NICU in Vancouver I had learned that he was in kidney failure. He was born with only one kidney that didn’t want to work to the full capacity. He had two small holes in his heart. Got MRSA. He also had to have a NG tube put in his nose to give him his food since he couldn’t eat out of a bottle or keep food down. Many projectile throw ups and not the right weight gain they decided he needed a G-tube. Now we are talking about dialysis for his kidney until 12-18 months for a transplant and surgery for the g-tube. He gets transported from Vancouver to Portland children’s hospital. As they do routine scans for the g-tube they find that his body has multiple aneurysms on his stomach, his aortic valve and some of his artery. He also needed a Lads surgery on his intestinal track. Now he goes through an eight hour surgery and has a g-tube put in, a grapht has to be put into his artery to remove one of the aneurysms that was about to burst and a lad’s surgery on his intestinal track making it even harder to keep down formula, this is why I am looking for breastmilk to buy as he can actually hold that down unlike formula. He also is required to be on special formulas if he is going to be on formula due to the fact that he only has one kidney he cannot handle normal formulas. His kidney starts doing a little better, but I was told last week to start thinking if I wanted a living donor or a deceased donor when he turns a year old as his kidney is only working at 27%. After 96 days in the hospital he came home for 5 days and ended up back in the hospital with influenza A and a UTI. Gets out and 3 weeks later goes back with high blood pressure. He is currently in the hospital awaiting to come home. While all of this is happening, my car broke down when the flooding was really bad in Washington. I am raising three other kids. I also finished my school for medical assisting and was looking to move forward in my career. I have not been able to return to work at this moment due to all of my hospital stays and trying to support my other kids. I’m looking for any help that can be given or even just to share. Anything and everything is appreciated and helps.
Anything raised will go to medical costs, fixing my car for the kids appointments, bills for me to stay home a little longer to take care of my baby boy, and breast milk for his sensitive stomach. He is my strong 4 month old baby boy who still has a long road ahead of him.
August came and I was in and out of the hospital 8 times with my health declining and having a very high risk pregnancy. On September 4th I was admitted and they decided they needed to take my son early because our health wasn’t doing good. On September 5th he was born 5 weeks early. I was in and out and barely conscious for his birth and had him alone. He was born with no heartbeat and had to be resuscitated and luckily they saved him as he was already blue and purple in color. Less than 24 hours later they had to take him over to the NICU. While he sat in the NICU in Vancouver I had learned that he was in kidney failure. He was born with only one kidney that didn’t want to work to the full capacity. He had two small holes in his heart. Got MRSA. He also had to have a NG tube put in his nose to give him his food since he couldn’t eat out of a bottle or keep food down. Many projectile throw ups and not the right weight gain they decided he needed a G-tube. Now we are talking about dialysis for his kidney until 12-18 months for a transplant and surgery for the g-tube. He gets transported from Vancouver to Portland children’s hospital. As they do routine scans for the g-tube they find that his body has multiple aneurysms on his stomach, his aortic valve and some of his artery. He also needed a Lads surgery on his intestinal track. Now he goes through an eight hour surgery and has a g-tube put in, a grapht has to be put into his artery to remove one of the aneurysms that was about to burst and a lad’s surgery on his intestinal track making it even harder to keep down formula, this is why I am looking for breastmilk to buy as he can actually hold that down unlike formula. He also is required to be on special formulas if he is going to be on formula due to the fact that he only has one kidney he cannot handle normal formulas. His kidney starts doing a little better, but I was told last week to start thinking if I wanted a living donor or a deceased donor when he turns a year old as his kidney is only working at 27%. After 96 days in the hospital he came home for 5 days and ended up back in the hospital with influenza A and a UTI. Gets out and 3 weeks later goes back with high blood pressure. He is currently in the hospital awaiting to come home. While all of this is happening, my car broke down when the flooding was really bad in Washington. I am raising three other kids. I also finished my school for medical assisting and was looking to move forward in my career. I have not been able to return to work at this moment due to all of my hospital stays and trying to support my other kids. I’m looking for any help that can be given or even just to share. Anything and everything is appreciated and helps.
Anything raised will go to medical costs, fixing my car for the kids appointments, bills for me to stay home a little longer to take care of my baby boy, and breast milk for his sensitive stomach. He is my strong 4 month old baby boy who still has a long road ahead of him.
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