Why We’re Still in the Hospital…

Malnutrition is no joke. It affects every function of your body and serious malnutrition can rock your world when you try to correct it. That’s why we’re still in the hospital.

Abiella came home weighing 15 pounds. She is almost 2 years old. For the majority of her life she ate (best we can guess) a no-calorie, “porridge” type filler, that was probably void of any nutritional value. She probably received 2 or 3 feedings a day with perhaps no liquids (other than what was in her porridge.) Because of this, she is at a high risk for what’s called, “Refeeding Syndrome.”

Refeeding Syndrome is when a body is SO malnourished that consuming nutritional substances can cause a number of serious complications, including cardiac failure. You can read why here. This phenomenon is commonly seen in starving children, those recovering from anorexia, etc.

This means it is not safe for us to begin feeding Abiella a balanced diet until we’ve maintained a successful transition under strict supervision in a hospital. What does this transition look like? Well, it means feeding her nutritional formula through a feeding tube that runs day and night, and letting me feed her two small portions of rice cereal a day by mouth. In the meantime, blood is drawn every 8 hours to look at her electrolytes, potassium, magnesium, etc…. These labs tell us how her body is reacting to the new diet and if the “refeeding syndrome” is showing its head. Depending on each lab result, doctors either increase the amount of food she can receive (via tube) each day and/or supplement her with additional vitamins. They also have her hooked up to a million electrodes to monitor her heart and observe how it is handling the new diet. It’s a lot of mumbo jumbo that I could continue to talk about, but the bottom line is it has been hard.

Abi is a real trooper but MY GOSSSHHHH. Adoption studies show to try not to leave your home for 2 weeks and to not take your new child to places with major stimulus (malls, grocery stores, etc.) for months! Now, 2 days after landing in America, baby girl is getting poked and prodded by a bunch of white people, woken up every 4 hours to have a cold thermometer stuck under her armpit, and gone through a series (as in 9) tests sending her through x-ray machines, radiation, etc., etc. ,etc. Since I walked in this building Monday morning for Abiella’s first doctor’s visit, (Our pediatrician’s office is in the hospital) I have not walked back outside…

To say Abiella's had a few hard days is an understatement. She’s bruised, and sore, and working hard to maintain her spirits. However, despite some major blows, she's still finding some time to be happy...

…which is saying a lot… Over the past few days, she’s blown through 4 IV’s b/c her tiny veins can’t take it and now they’re just pricking her every time they need blood (and sometimes THAT doesn't even draw blood…and they have to do it again) Someone literally mentioned to me today about the idea of putting an IV in her scalp… Um yeah- you’ve got to be kidding me.

BUT Abi’s marching forward. Luckily we have had an incredible team of doctors and nurses and PT and OT come in each day and give her baby massages which she seems to adore… and today, despite the 15 chords attached to her body (feeding tube, IV, and 10 electrodes) we managed to get her in our laps and hold her… all day.

She responded quickly and loved the affection… which is a blessing.

…So if you think about it, pray for our little one. Her first week in America is turning out to be quite a challenge…

However, we remain exceptionally grateful that we're here in America together, getting her the health care she needs.

Let's just hope we can get healthy and back home quickly :) 

Signing off from the children's hospital...

mama mae mae