six months post transplant

It's been six months since Dahlia received her gift of life, and she is doing wonderful!  Before her transplant, she was a very sick, very fragile baby, clinging to life; now she is a happy, thriving 10 month old, full of life. This week we received word from Dahlia's transplant nurse that they had been contacted on behalf of the donor's family, for an update on how Dahlia is doing. It touched my heart that they were thinking about Dahlia and wanted to know how she was.  I have been working on a thank you letter and it has been so hard to find adequate enough words to express our thanks to a family who has given so much.  Today, I finally finished the letter and will bring it to Texas Children's on Monday, to be passed along to her donor family.  On Monday Dahlia has her first heart catheterization and biopsy to check the over all health of her heart and check for rejection.  Hopefully the results are good!

10 months old

Dahlia turned 10 months old today.  She is starting to sit up on her own really well.  She has also started rolling over.  She may be behind on her motor skills from being in the hospital for so long, but cognitively she is not behind at all.  She loves interacting with her brothers and sisters and gives them the biggest smiles. Dahlia is also babbling a lot.  I love hearing her sweet little voice, and her cute laugh. She also loves playing with toys.  She will intently study them, even every day objects like her diapers, the fringe on her blanket and paper entertain her, it is so cute.  Dahlia will be one before we know it; I am already starting to plan her party and it's going to be a huge celebration!

what a week!

Dahlia was admitted to the hospital on Monday night.  She started throwing up during the day on Monday.  We called her transplant team and they wanted Dahlia to come in to see what was up.  Dahlia had picked up a stomach virus from who knows where.  Originally we thought we would be at Texas Children's for about 48 hours and then discharged.  But, because Dahlia didn't feel good, she didn't want to eat, which caused the level of one of the anti-rejection drugs to go threw the roof, which can be toxic. So long story short, once Dahlia started eating again and the drug level was under control, we were finally able to go on Saturday.  It always amazes me how we leave with a couple of bags and come home with so much stuff!  Once again Dahlia was such a good little baby despite being sick and despite being constantly poked and prodded. 

vacation

We went on a little getaway this past week, and stayed at a lake house not to far away.  The day we were supposed to leave it looked like we were going to have to make a trip to the hospital instead. Dahlia was screaming and crying pretty much nonstop, so we knew something was up.   Luckily, before we took her in, I decided to check her gums, just in case this was a common baby issue like teething, and not a scary heart transplant related issue. Sure enough her gums were extremely swollen from three teeth coming in at the same time!  After some Tylenol, Dahlia was back to her happy self.  Once we got to the lake we were blessed with a crisis free, relaxing time; well as relaxing as you can get with five kids!