and we are out of here!
The day has finally come and as of yesterday afternoon we were finally discharged after 45 days in the hospital! Everything happened so quickly and seamlessly that once we drove out of the parking garage we felt like we had snuck out of there. I felt like we were holding our breath until we left the hospital premises lest something happen to prevent us from leaving. The doctors wanted us to stay a few days on Oahu to make sure Maliyah did ok and hopefully if all continues as they have been, we can head home on Friday.
In the meantime, we’ve been staying with our friends Melissa and Enoch and their 4 amazing kids. It’s been so good to see Maliyah playing with kids again and getting enthusiastic about playing outside.
We are not out of the woods yet but we sure do feel good about getting out of the hospital. We are still monitoring Maliyah closely as she continues to have a low grade fever periodically throughout the day. This is due to her still having an infection in her abdomen. We are giving her 3 different medications 3 times a day, and she is now on 17 hours of TPN. We’re hoping to advance her diet soon but have not been able to yet. She mainly drinks juice with her meds and that is about all the intake she able to do at this point. Thankfully, she isn’t too bothered by us eating around her and is quite content with her apple juice. Maliyah is still quite weak and every day we see little improvements.
Dating back about 20+ years I used to work in a life style center in Virginia where I learned about charcoal poultices. We would use charcoal topically and apply it to patients with tumors, infections, and abscesses. I asked the surgeon if I could use these poultices on Maliyah, especially since it seemed like our options were limited. Thankfully, they agreed to let me do them. I’ve been putting one on Maliyah’s abdomen every evening as she sleeps. Every morning her abdomen looks a little better. Hopefully, this will help in drawing out the infection from her abdomen.
Through all of this Maliyah has won the hearts of all the doctors, nurses, and staff at Kapiolani Medical Center. Even our surgeon tried to win Maliyah over by bringing her a special can of juice. The nurses would check in to ask about her progress even if they weren’t assigned to her and would cheer her on as she scoured the unit on one of her many scavenger hunts. While hospitalizations are never something you look forward to, the stress of this hospitalization has been lessened by the familiar and friendly faces of all the aunties and uncles that have taken care of Maliyah. I am so grateful for their kindheartedness, care and professionalism.
Hopefully our next blog will be from our home in Kauai. Please pray that Maliyah keeps her fevers down and that she continues to improve daily. In the mean time….our little miracle fights on.
