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Karis L.
Texas
Birth Date - October 25, 2002
Main Diagnosis - Adrenal Insufficiency, Food Allergies, G-J tube and TPN
THEME:All our Yesterdays
Biography
Karis has had a hard little life. Born in October of 2002, Karis was truly a blessing from the Lord. As a newborn she was critically ill and by God's grace He spared her little life. She was born with malrotation of the bowel with twisting. She was rushed into emergency surgery to correct the problem when she was only 6 days old. It was supposed to be a routine recovery but Karis's recovery was anything but routine. She struggled her first year of life with severe GI complications. Very early in life we learned that Karis was a very allergic child. It seemed like Karis was allergic to everything in her world. She developed severe eczema, allergies and asthma early on. All allergy treatments have been exhausted for Karis. Over the past couple of years Karis's health has become more complex and difficult. She has dealt with chronic body pain, horrible allergy flares, severe eczema, and asthma. She then started becoming more intolerant and allergic to various foods. One by one foods have been taken out of her diet. In April of 2011 we almost lost Karis to undiagnosed Adrenal Insufficiency. Whenever Karis's health is compromised in any way or she suffers emotional upset or trauma all of her health issues spiral out of control and we are left to scramble to find ways to get her back to health. In August of 2011 the decision was made to take Karis off of all foods and feed her via a feeding tube. She was reacting to more and more foods, dealing with severe eczema and skin infections, and dealing with many GI related issues and was down to a diet that was not meeting all of her nutritional needs. She was beginning to suffer vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition. She failed the first elemental formula and thank goodness the second formula was a success. Karis had a g tube surgically placed in order to feed her. What is normally a simple and often routine surgery and recovery was not the case for Karis. This is when her health yet again took a horrible turn for the worse. She started out at Medical City and the day after surgery her health starting going downhill and it was decided that it was in her best interest to transfer her to Children's Medical Center Dallas where her GI doctor was. It was a very tough decision. Her allergist who knows Karis's health the best and has been caring for her since she was a baby is at Medical City as is her surgeon. But her GI doctor and Endocrinologist are at Children's. Trying to juggle the many health issues were just too much for her body. Upon arriving at Children's she was very dehydrated and very sick. For almost a week we lived on a day by day roller coaster with her health. Karis then suffered a severe unexpected and scary seizure that landed her in the PICU. After working on her for what seemed like forever they were not able to get the seizure to resolve and they were unable to get her vitals stabilized. We were so fearful that we were going to loose Karis. She was on a ventilator for almost two weeks. Karis was diagnosed with PRES as a result of the seizure and developed severe hypertension. Within days of being in the PICU Karis yet again became very critical and yet again we feared loosing her. She developed abscesses on her liver, spleen and in her abdominal cavity. After a blood transfusion Karis was taken to surgery and opened up to clean out the infection and to place a second feeding tube. Karis's health is so much like a rollercoaster. The doctor's have a hard time making sense of Karis's health issues and often times leave them very stumped. Most of 2012 was an up and down rollercoaster of many of the same issues as well as multiple PICC and central line infections that landed her in and out of the hospital for 3 months with severe fungal blood infections. 2013 has brought yet another crazy issue, low Hemoglobin levels that have required blood transfusions. Karis is currently dependent on TPN again going on 6 months. We continue be optimistic and hopeful for better health in the days, weeks and months to come.
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"THANK YOU"
Today Karis got her special quilt. She was so excited and was all smiles. This came at such a perfect time as we have been so discouraged by recent news with her health. Thank you!!!!!!
