In My Shoes: Fiona's Special Someone

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Fiona's Special Someone

Don has been such a great support to Fiona through all of this. He sits with her in the hospital, he sits with her at home watching TV when she doesn't feel well enough to do anything. He plays video games with her and lets her win when she is getting frustrated or stressed out. He calls her all the time to be sure she is OK and brings her flowers when she has been more sick than usual. He doesn't get enough credit for all he does.

MyHotComments

AND to all our family and friends who are always there for us. They hold our hands, help wipe away our tears, are down on their knees praying with us and kicking our butts when we need them kicked. THANK YOU, you really do make a difference in our lives. It helps to share this journey with others, making the trip a little easier to travel. This has been a journey we never imagined.
Peggy

MyHotComments

1 comment:

Laurie Johansen said...: Peggy, sorry about the day, we had power outage here. We lost power for a few hours.

Don sounds like a great guy. Sounds like Fiona has a Knight in Shinning Armor.

Laurie; August 10, 2008 at 6:26 PM

Post a Comment

Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a condition in which the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine are not normal. These ducts can be injured, blocked, or missing. When the ducts that carry bile out of the liver are closed, bile backs up and damages liver tissue. In time the liver can develop scarring or cirrhosis. The gallbladder may also be abnormal or missing. The cause of Biliary Atresia is unknown. It occurs in one infant in every 15,000 live births. It is a serious disease which requires immediate surgical and medical treatment.

Arteriovenous Malformations AVMS

I have been diagnosed with AVMS in my lungs do to my liver disease. These have caused me to have 2 lung bleeds which were very scary. I still have more AVMS and they are causing me breathing problems. Below is an explanation of what the AVMs are and a picture of what is happening in my lungs.

Arteries and veins are part of the human cardiovascular system. Normally, the arteries in the vascular system carry oxygen-rich blood at a relatively high pressure. Structurally, arteries divide and sub-divide repeatedly, eventually forming a sponge-like capillary bed. Blood moves through the capillaries, giving up oxygen and taking up waste products from the surrounding cells. Capillaries successively join together, one upon the other, to form the veins that carry blood away at a relatively low pressure. The heart acts to pump blood from the low pressure veins to the high pressure arteries.
If the capillary bed is thought of as a sponge, then an AVM is the rough equivalent of jamming a tangle of flexible soda straws from artery to vein through that sponge. On arteriogram films AVM formation often resemble a tangle of spaghetti noodles. This tangle of blood vessels forms a relatively direct connection between high pressure arteries and low pressure veins.
The result is a collection of blood vessels with abnormal connections and no capillaries. This collection, often called a nidus, can be extremely fragile and prone to bleeding.