Back at the Hospital...

SO many of you saw my post first thing this morning. Here's a run down of Kayli's day...well it really started last night-

Last night before Kayli went to bed, she was feeling a little dizzy. She drank some water and went to bed around 9:30ish. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, Kayli woke up her Granny and said she had felt like she needed to throw-up but couldn't. She sat at the toilet for awhile, but wasn't able to throw-up so thought maybe she didn't have to after all, and decided to go back to bed. She told us later that she had run into the wall on that attempt. Around 4am, she woke up again and stumbled into the bathroom, and felt dizzy, and she says she fell down and knocked some stuff over, which Granny heard. This time she actually threw-up, Granny Norma quickly woke Mark & I up, I went to the bathroom to inspect and Kayli was in fact vomiting blood, lots of it. I turned to Mark and said "we are going to the emergency room".
I went downstairs to call the doctors to make sure that is what they wanted us to do, as I was doing that I heard Mark having a hard time walking Kayli over to sit on the sofa in the gameroom. She was pretty incoherent and almost passing out on him, so he eased her to the floor and sat with her. I called 911, and Mark and I changed clothes while waiting for them to arrive.
When emergency help arrived, they took her blood pressure, and it was very alarmingly low. They loaded her up on the ambulance, I climbed in behind and we headed back down to Childrens Hermann Memorial with Mark following closely behind. Most of the ride down she was complaining of dizziness but for the most part ok- we were laughing at the IV tubing swinging wildly around her head with every bump of the ambulance. As we were pulling onto the street near the hospital, she told us she needed to throw-up again, I went to hand her a barf bag, and as I did she looked at me very blankly, stiffened up, and began having a seizure. Probably the scariest moment of my life- I can't even put it in to words. It only lasted a few seconds but its something I will not soon forget.
We arrived at the hospital, and they wheeled her into the ER. Things seemed to move pretty quickly after that, I had already called the liver doctor's PA, who had called him, who had already arrived at the hospital and was arranging for Kayli to have a room in the ICU. The worst part of the whole thing was the ER nurse trying to get an IV started, (the EMS had alredy started one, so not sure why they couldnt just use that one), she poked Kayli 4 times! Mark & I were so mad. She finally hooked up some fluids to the IV the EMS had started, but then was confused when it would not infuse...well dumb girl had left the tourniquet on!!!! Kayli quickly asked when she would get a PICC line again, LOL.
When we arrived up to the ICU- they got her settled in then she decided she needed to go to the bathroom and did not want to use the bedpan (who could blame her?). The nurse sat her up for a few minutes, and she did ok, then stood her up for a second and she did ok- so Mark and the nurse walked her to the bathroom. She said she felt ok the whole walk over, but once in the bathroom she went limp on them. Mark again told her just to ease to the floor, but it wasn't happening- she stiffened up on them and her eyes fixated again. I called for help and several came into the room quickly and they carried her back to the bed (another scary moment).
All of her doctors came in the room and it was decided that she would have a head CT scan to check for any potential brain bleeding, and a EGD (upper endoscopy) to determine the source of the bleeding. Dr Rhodes suspected Esophageal Varices, which apparently is common in Liver patients. They infused a quick and large dose of Albumin, and a unit of whole blood, then wheeled her to the OR.
The wait was long, but Dr Rhodes finally appeared and showed us pictures of the varices, and where he had banded them to prevent further bleeding. Also, her CT scan was clear, so the seizures were a result of the extremely low blood pressure. They will her back to the ICU where Mark and I met her. She was in a great deal of pain, so the doctor ordered Morphine. Mark and I left close to 4pm to come home. He showered, packed a bag for he and Kayli and went back. I am staying with Emily tonight. Apparently the symptoms Kayli are presenting with today, are what patients normally present with FIRST, she is just doing this backwards. We are not sure yet what this means as far as her timeline for a liver transplant, except that it makes it inevitable. Tonight she is receiving more blood transfusions and IV nutrition. She is really more upset that her weekend plans have been foiled again, she cannot eat solid food until Sunday, and she is likely to be kept in the hospital until Tuesday.

On a totally different note, we want to attempt to keep things "normal" for Emily, or maintain some sort of normalcy for her. In an effort to do that Mark and I decided to try not to change her schedule as much as possible. Emily has auditions for CYT's Seussical tomorrow afternoon, and I will be helping her get ready for that tomorrow and taking her at 4:30. So GOOD LUCK MIMI!!!!! I only hope she can focus on what she wants to do and not be too worried about her sister, but as of this evening I am not sure that is going to happen.

We again ask for your continued prayers for us and for healing for Kayli, and we thank you all for your words of hope and encouragement. As Kayli is in ICU- she can only have 2 visitors at a time this go round, and she is feeling a bit more weak. Again, you can send e-greetings to Kayli through the hospitals website- she is in ICU bed 7 (mine & Emily's lucky number!)