Life after Transplant

3 years!

It’s difficult to believe that 3 years has come and gone since we welcomed our little girl into the world. Laura was born in the wee hours of the morning on September 11th, 2016 in Saskatoon. IMG_4630

When Laura came into our lives we were forever changed. We were changed by her arrival, by the trauma we went through with her, and we by the amazing strength that we were able to see in her right from the beginning.

Laura is the funniest kid. She says the most ridiculous things and is always telling jokes at every turn. She is a happy girl, smiling and laughing the majority of the time. She knows how to count to 10, knows her alphabet (and can consistently identify A, B and C), knows all her colours and shapes, knows the days of the week and the seasons and is learning so many new things every day.

She has a frighteningly sharp memory which has seemingly no limit. She is stubborn and wants things done a very specific way all the time – this has been a pretty consistent personality trait right from the beginning (when she was in the ICU, she used to desat when they turned her bear hugger off and wouldn’t stop holding her breath until the nurse gave in and turned it back on…).

Somehow, Laura has still managed to avoid any side effects from her first 5 months in the hospital. Laura has perfect vision, hearing, and developement and has shown no signs of falling behind in any areas. She loves gymnastics, swimming, singing, running, spinning, climbing, yelling, TALKING, her babies (dolls), castle people, Dora, Paw Patrol and basically anything with a baby on it.

Laura hates sitting and will only really do so when she’s eating, drinking or being forced to sit in her car seat. She never stops – her energy is plentiful and I’m fairly certain she could spin in circles all day if she felt like it without slowing at all.

Laura’s heart continues to work perfectly – with it’s few little quirks. Laura has Bundle Branch Block that gives her a slight murmur and shows up on her ECG’s but she has no symptoms at all and can remain a-symptomatic forever – it’s a very mild form of heart block.

Despite her acute kidney injury post-transplant, Laura’s kidneys are functioning perfectly and her latest GFR study (to see how well her kidneys get rid of toxins) was above average. Neurology has discharged her from their service because they see no reason to continue seeing her.

Laura has hospital-related anxiety that causes her night terrors and panic attacks in situations where she feels a lack of control. We are being referred out to a pediatric psycologist to begin giving her some more structured coping tools.

We are blessed beyond belief to have the ability to raise this amazing little girl and we thank God every day for allowing us to keep her here with us.

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