By: Michaella my sugeries

Ever since I was born I have suffered from reactive airway disease and sever reflux. During my fifth year of life I was on eleven different medications. By february1999 my body was not responding to the medications as it use to. I became terribly sick. Doctors and family became extremely worried.

The morning of February 12 th my mom woke me up. She knew that something was unusually wrong with me. I was dehydrated, I couldn’t walk, my eyes were swollen shut and I had respiratory distress. My pulmonologist admitted me to the hospital right away. I was so drastically sick, when they gave me my I.V. I didn’t cry and wasn’t scared.

I had no idea what was in store for me. The first four long days I continued on the eleven different medications. However, it was through an I.V. and was suppose to work better than taking it through my mouth. Everybody thought I would go home in two to three days, but my body didn’t respond to the medications. BUT NOPE!

My pulmonologist and gastroenterologist met to discuss about how to help me. They decided to call and ask Dr. Moss, from Stanford Hospital, to come and review my case. Dr. Moss took a whole day to review my history. He came to our room at 6pm and said I needed to have two surgeries.

The two surgeries I needed were a fundoplication and a phyloroplasti. The reason that Dr. Moss took a whole day to review my history was because what he discovered was unusual for a typically developing child. Most children who need these surgeries have a genetic chromosomal defect.

My family waited in the family waiting room and prayed. The surgeries were planned for the next day. All pediatric surgery units were being used, so this meant they had to operate on me in an adult surgery room.

The first surgery they did was the fundiplication. They took ¾ of my stomach and wrapped it around my esophagus, so that I couldn’ t throw up. This stopped me from aspirating fluid into my lungs .

The second surgery I had was a phyloroplasti . This surgery helped my stomach empty its contents out faster. Before my surgery my stomach only emptied out 5% of its contents. After the surgery my stomach was suppose to be 95% empty of its contents.

On the day I was expected to go home my gastroenterologist was very upset because of my condition. I had a fever, couldn’t walk and couldn‘t urinate. I wouldn’t let anyone touch me and had dark purple patches on my lower back.

The doctor quickly called an infectious disease doctor. This doctor came in 20 minutes and immediately ordered blood work and an M.R.I. he told my parents that the worst case scenario was that I could expire within twenty four to forty eight hours. The doctor thought it was one of three life threatening problems.

After several hours of my family and doctors being extremely worried, they discovered from the M.R.I. that I had been suffering from third degree burns. They were caused by too much betadine that was left on my skin during surgery. This caused me to get chemical burns. I also suffered thermal burns from the bear hugger being to hot. A bear hugger is a raft with holes in it that warm air comes out of to keep your body warm during surgery. I had suffered from chemical and thermal burns. The burns were quite serious and hurt very badly. My mom took me to twenty seven Doctor appointments in nine days because several different doctors were checking the wounds and changing the bandages on my burn wounds.

The surgeries helped my disease. The recovery was very long and caused some obstacles. I couldn’t eat normal foods for many months. I couldn’t walk upstairs and I was very weak. My family was extremely happy to know I was safe. They were also so grateful that the surgeries were successful and I didn’t get any of the bad side effects from the surgeries. My family was so supportive, helpful and did everything they could to help me. I was very grateful that all the doctors did what they could and discovered my disease. Everyone was especially delighted and so very grateful that I didn’t have one of the three problems that would cause me to die .since I have been through many serious illnesses and surgeries I have a genuine compassion towards the ill, suffering and medically fragile people.