Note: The blog site has been down for 2 days for a maintenance issue. Technology lets you down at times, but when it's up and running again...you go forward! I was surprised that my readership did not dip down much. You worry you are losing your readers, but they kept coming to read.
I need people to become "followers" to help increase awareness for organ donation. All you have to do is sign in with your email and this number will increase. One can attract more attention if they have a base of followers. Thank you for your support of my daughter, Kayla, as she waits for a heart. Thanks also for all your prayers - Stephanie
I need people to become "followers" to help increase awareness for organ donation. All you have to do is sign in with your email and this number will increase. One can attract more attention if they have a base of followers. Thank you for your support of my daughter, Kayla, as she waits for a heart. Thanks also for all your prayers - Stephanie
5/11 5:16 a.m.
Hello Tarrytown Family:
Kayla needs surgery today on damaged artery in her left leg. It's scheduled for 11:20 a.m. She is very scared. Lots going on with her - good stuff.
Mom - when are they netting mama hawk to fix her leg?
All this leg stuff?
Stephanie
Written in a note on way out to the hospital for the day
Short Synopsis: Kayla was called early for the surgery. The first case went quickly. The surgical team came to get her at 9:20, two hours earlier than expected. This scared her. Kayla spent time sending texts to family and friends, telling them she loved them. It's a beautiful thing how Kayla reaches out to people. I helped her with her slow relaxing breathing as she was finishing up her messages.
We rode down on the patient elevator together - Kayla, me and about 4-5 hospital workers. It's an amazing thing to watch how they work together to bring her to the operating room. It's not easy moving that huge, bulky VAD machine with its cables that run from it to Kayla's body.
We rode down on the patient elevator together - Kayla, me and about 4-5 hospital workers. It's an amazing thing to watch how they work together to bring her to the operating room. It's not easy moving that huge, bulky VAD machine with its cables that run from it to Kayla's body.
I asked Kayla why she was scared. She felt she might die, especially after the April 1 heart collapse. I held her hand and stroked her face. Everyone let her know in the gentlest way that this was a very straightforward procedure and she would do just fine. Anxiety is a terrible enemy, but after all Kayla has been through, I am proud of her every day. No one can imagine how hard her life is, how much pain she has to go through, how fearful she is of leaving even a painful life behind. Every single day I feel blessed because I have good health and incredibly sad at my daughter's plight.
The surgery was super successful! After a few hours, I am allowed to go into her hospital room. She is under a warming blanket, lying on her back, fully asleep. She looks like an angel. I touch her warm hand. She will have no physical therapy today and no trach therapy either. Today is a day of rest from everything. She has to lay on her back for a full 6 hours and just relax and recuperate. You lie on your back to prevent a bleeding problem from the groin. This gives the body time to form a good clot.
The answer to fixing Kayla's artery was the easiest solution - the angioplasty. They inserted a balloon and blew it up. Kayla's artery opened up smoothly and that was that! She can look forward to no more numbness and no more coolness. The blood would flow again!
Long Story: The poor mama red-tailed hawk! There is a lot of hub-bub surrounding her. All the experts are gathered now discussing her plight. Her right leg is swollen to twice its size. The wildlife band is stuck up high and causing all kinds of trouble. No wildlife organization will admit to putting it on wrong. Her life is imperiled. She cannot stand on her leg and holds it up to favor it.
Experts have decided to capture her and treat the leg. The Bronx Zoo is at the helm. All other organizations are deferring to the zoo. This hawk is in their back yard. They have decided to net her by setting a live bait trap on the ground. There is a lot of risk of her getting hurt - her wings could be damaged when she resists. The baby will be taken out of the nest and raised by the zoo. He/she will never be able to be released to the wild as it will not be able to learn how to live in the wild. It needs its parents to learn all kind of hawky type things! And what about Bobby? What will become of him, once his mate and offspring are taken away?
This is depressing. Human involvement has gone sour with these birds. Enough already! Once they take the birds off the nest, the story is over. Between 3,500 and 5,000 are watching the hawks each day. The baby is getting stronger and past that frail phase. It reaches up with its scrawny neck to get more food from its mother's beak. It pecks at the branches. It tucks down deep for naps, its fluffy white tufts sticking up. Its black eyes and black beak contrast with the white.
I sign up with the comments section of the New York Times. I want to submit my name choice - TALON (my nephew's name - ha!). As far as I am concerned, there is no better name choice. If it is not a boy bird, it can be called Talonette. There are 62 comments for the day and many are extremely mad at those who want to capture the mama. There is a community watching now.
Some are so angry that their comment is taken offline and deemed inappropriate. One can just imagine the language that is being used. No one wants to see this bird family split up for good. If they take the baby, it will never be with its mother again.
I can't stop thinking about this...I am despondent.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David is incredibly excited about the kosher kitchen in the Children's Hospital. He tells us about the wonderful cakes and foods over there. I am bored and ask if he wants company as he goes over to see what he can eat and he agrees.
We walk through a myriad of hallways to get there. Left here, right there, around a corner. He is embarrassed when he hits a dead end and cannot quite remember how to go. It doesn't matter.
I begin to recognize all these corridors. Kayla has lived in every part of this hospital over the last 12 years. Some of the departments have changed, moving to new quarters. It's wonderful to see all the familiar parts of Children's Hospital.
We finally get to the room when David puts in the special code to open the door. Inside is a dour looking woman with a dumpy figure, wearing a wig and plain black shoes. This woman probably never smiled in her life.
She flashes a disapproving look. With my waspy clothes and exposed hair, I most certainly had the look of a pure Christian woman, or even an atheist, dear God! She wasn't going to intimidate me!
David opened the refrigerator door, took out a carton of freshly cut up fruit and inspected it closely by spinning it around in his hand. He said it looked good and took two out.
"Is this the place where you prayed with the men today?" I asked.
He said yes. I don't think he wanted to talk in there. It would have been different if the dour one was not sitting and watching. There would be no foods for me to take.
I left and went to the ground floor where there was a Jou Jou restaurant in the reception area. I got a big container of soup and walked outside instead of back through the corridors. Fresh air was better than hallways. Down one block and up the other and in the front door of the Milstein Building again. To the cozy corner after a short elevator ride.
As I opened the elevator, a large Hispanic family crowd, all with tears in their eyes, streamed by. Small children and teens were in the group, grandparents too.
I sit down and David notices a small Hispanic child, a girl all by herself, maybe she is 5. She has on a fancy navy and white crinoline type party dress, small white socks and patent leather sandals. Her hair is all in sassy curls and there is a matching headband. She is definitely ready to enter a child's beauty pageant. I am struck by her confidence as she prances around the entire room. She owns herself and everything around her.
David is annoyed as she takes his bible and other books off the half wall and flips through them. He tells her not to touch what is not hers. He looks around and wonders where her parents are. She appears to be all alone, but isn't. There is grandfather type in the corner and he has his watchful eye on her.
"I think that's her grandfather over there in the corner. See how she is right up close to him. She would not be close to a man she does not know." Then the girl floats off again. There are many members to this clan and they have spread out all over the room, inhabiting every little cubby. There are two in one area, three in another, one over here, two over there. They keep moving around, not staying put in any one spot.
"Look how they are spread out over the entire room. Can you believe that?" I say to David. I continue, "They have the biggest families. Just as large as the Catholics and Orthodox Jews," I laugh.
David is in no mood for fun. He is leaving tomorrow and is not happy about his mother...
The answer to fixing Kayla's artery was the easiest solution - the angioplasty. They inserted a balloon and blew it up. Kayla's artery opened up smoothly and that was that! She can look forward to no more numbness and no more coolness. The blood would flow again!
Long Story: The poor mama red-tailed hawk! There is a lot of hub-bub surrounding her. All the experts are gathered now discussing her plight. Her right leg is swollen to twice its size. The wildlife band is stuck up high and causing all kinds of trouble. No wildlife organization will admit to putting it on wrong. Her life is imperiled. She cannot stand on her leg and holds it up to favor it.
Experts have decided to capture her and treat the leg. The Bronx Zoo is at the helm. All other organizations are deferring to the zoo. This hawk is in their back yard. They have decided to net her by setting a live bait trap on the ground. There is a lot of risk of her getting hurt - her wings could be damaged when she resists. The baby will be taken out of the nest and raised by the zoo. He/she will never be able to be released to the wild as it will not be able to learn how to live in the wild. It needs its parents to learn all kind of hawky type things! And what about Bobby? What will become of him, once his mate and offspring are taken away?
This is depressing. Human involvement has gone sour with these birds. Enough already! Once they take the birds off the nest, the story is over. Between 3,500 and 5,000 are watching the hawks each day. The baby is getting stronger and past that frail phase. It reaches up with its scrawny neck to get more food from its mother's beak. It pecks at the branches. It tucks down deep for naps, its fluffy white tufts sticking up. Its black eyes and black beak contrast with the white.
I sign up with the comments section of the New York Times. I want to submit my name choice - TALON (my nephew's name - ha!). As far as I am concerned, there is no better name choice. If it is not a boy bird, it can be called Talonette. There are 62 comments for the day and many are extremely mad at those who want to capture the mama. There is a community watching now.
Some are so angry that their comment is taken offline and deemed inappropriate. One can just imagine the language that is being used. No one wants to see this bird family split up for good. If they take the baby, it will never be with its mother again.
I can't stop thinking about this...I am despondent.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David is incredibly excited about the kosher kitchen in the Children's Hospital. He tells us about the wonderful cakes and foods over there. I am bored and ask if he wants company as he goes over to see what he can eat and he agrees.
We walk through a myriad of hallways to get there. Left here, right there, around a corner. He is embarrassed when he hits a dead end and cannot quite remember how to go. It doesn't matter.
I begin to recognize all these corridors. Kayla has lived in every part of this hospital over the last 12 years. Some of the departments have changed, moving to new quarters. It's wonderful to see all the familiar parts of Children's Hospital.
We finally get to the room when David puts in the special code to open the door. Inside is a dour looking woman with a dumpy figure, wearing a wig and plain black shoes. This woman probably never smiled in her life.
She flashes a disapproving look. With my waspy clothes and exposed hair, I most certainly had the look of a pure Christian woman, or even an atheist, dear God! She wasn't going to intimidate me!
David opened the refrigerator door, took out a carton of freshly cut up fruit and inspected it closely by spinning it around in his hand. He said it looked good and took two out.
"Is this the place where you prayed with the men today?" I asked.
He said yes. I don't think he wanted to talk in there. It would have been different if the dour one was not sitting and watching. There would be no foods for me to take.
I left and went to the ground floor where there was a Jou Jou restaurant in the reception area. I got a big container of soup and walked outside instead of back through the corridors. Fresh air was better than hallways. Down one block and up the other and in the front door of the Milstein Building again. To the cozy corner after a short elevator ride.
As I opened the elevator, a large Hispanic family crowd, all with tears in their eyes, streamed by. Small children and teens were in the group, grandparents too.
I sit down and David notices a small Hispanic child, a girl all by herself, maybe she is 5. She has on a fancy navy and white crinoline type party dress, small white socks and patent leather sandals. Her hair is all in sassy curls and there is a matching headband. She is definitely ready to enter a child's beauty pageant. I am struck by her confidence as she prances around the entire room. She owns herself and everything around her.
David is annoyed as she takes his bible and other books off the half wall and flips through them. He tells her not to touch what is not hers. He looks around and wonders where her parents are. She appears to be all alone, but isn't. There is grandfather type in the corner and he has his watchful eye on her.
"I think that's her grandfather over there in the corner. See how she is right up close to him. She would not be close to a man she does not know." Then the girl floats off again. There are many members to this clan and they have spread out all over the room, inhabiting every little cubby. There are two in one area, three in another, one over here, two over there. They keep moving around, not staying put in any one spot.
"Look how they are spread out over the entire room. Can you believe that?" I say to David. I continue, "They have the biggest families. Just as large as the Catholics and Orthodox Jews," I laugh.
David is in no mood for fun. He is leaving tomorrow and is not happy about his mother...
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