First Helicopter ride for daughter

NoWingsAttached

Unobtainium Member
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
4,871
Location
Columbia, SC
Aircraft
Air Command Tandem w/ Arrow 100hp; GyroBee w/ Hirth 65hp; Air Command Tandem w/ Yamaha 150hp
Total Flight Time
>350
My daughter arrived in the USA 10 days ago. When she arrived, she wanted me to hug her and she was a total lap monster. I have an office at home, so i don't always need to go downtown to work. I as I did so she decided papa's office was the place to be in the morning.

After 5 days I noticed she was not making the adjustment to the time change. I became concerned and decided that as soon as her SSN was issued, and I could add her as a dependant on my insurance, I would get her checked out to see if there was something else more serious going on with her. Her lethargy and listlessness did not improve. She quit seeking out my office in the morning, and her mom and I chalked it up to homesickness.

Yesterday she had serious problems breathing, and she became unresponsive. Her lips became HUGE, face puffy, and we started listing all the food and drink she had had, to try to come up with a start for an allergy list for the doc. Her eyes wandered and did not react to motion. I called our Human Resources and they said they could put her on the policy immediately.

We went to the nearest walk-in care clinic 10 minutes away. The doctor rushed out to the waiting roomn, and in 5 seconds told us to get an ambulance and get to the nearest hospital - she was too far gone for him to do anything at all.

I figured by the time an ambulance arrived, I would be at the hospital (another 10 minutes away), so why bother? We jumped in the Nitro and hurried over there.

Intubation for breathing, IV for fluids, blood tests...They determined she was in complete renal (kidney) failure, and she had slipped into shock.

My daughter got her first helicopter ride, to the next hospital in Atlanta.

When they got her set up there, her BP was 200. It was so high that she was leaking blood from her capillaries. It pooled between her brain and skull. Neurosurgeons. Cardiologists. Doctor after doctor. Normal blood count for her should be 8. She was 3. Serious lack of blood. Transfusions.

Around 03:00 this morning they had her on dialysis. She will remain on dialysis for 3 full days. Sedated, of course, she is too young (6 yr old) to handle this awake and aware.

Good news was the cardio doc found her heart was normal, which may indicate that the kidneys can stay where they are. I will find out later today for sure if transplants are not going to be necessary. If kidneys are large, that will indicate a short-term problem and we can arrest the symptoms, use steroids to reduce their swelling, do a biopsy and determine the nature of the problem. If they are found to be shrunken, game over and transplant time.

Next time I gotta plan this thing better and schedule the helo ride with a guy who offers a more reasonable rate. Sure hope there are no problems with our insurance. Our company has a really good plan, so I htink it will be OK.

Jeez, how life changes so dramatically in 24 hours. I think I need to escape for an hour, and I know just the place to do it. 500 ft over farmer Brown's cows, the lake, and the granite quarry this afternoon.

Then it's back to spend another night sleeping in little Xiu Xiu's (pronounced Zhu Zhu) hospital room over at Children's Hospital, totally out of it with tubes sucking her stomach, tubes breathing, tubes pumping, tubes peeing, tubes dripping, tubes drugging, tubes, tubes, and more tubes, wires and other tubes everywhere. And about 50 plugs and monitors beeping and chirping and ringing every 15 minutes. Not the sleep I got at the Western, but at least I don't have to listen to Ron's snoring! ( I really joke around just to be all right. Otherwise life is too damn crushingly serious.)

So, all ye gyronauts of the world. UNITE AND FLY!!! Leave your cares behind for a little while, and just be a pilot for an hour. Burn a couple of gallons off for my daughter. I know she'll be OK, cuz I know she's in good hands now.

And now the reason I spill my guts in public like this, which is not really a good thing to do. I ask for you folks who say prayers to just include a word or two for her when the time comes for you to connect. It broke my heart when two days ago she asked mom if we would adopt a new baby girl to replace her when she dies! She knew how sick she was well before we did. Well, you know how it is. Insurance or no insurance, riches or ruin, we aint' gonna let her die. Jeez. Kids can be soooooo "dramatic". Which is what I thought at the time (stoopid me). Or is that soooooo "realistic"?
 
Gerg,
I am so sorry to hear this. I get emotional when a child has to go through such turmoil. There are plenty of adults who have lived life with no appreciation that should bare these pains.
If there is anything I may do or say to help you in these times PLEASE let me know.
I hope the people who believe and pray work over time for your girl, you and your wife.

With all sincerity,
JAKE
 
Hate to hear she's going through all that, as well as you and her mom. I'll definitely be praying for her and for the doctors to diagnose and treat her correctly.
 
Greg she is in our prayers and so are you. Sending positive energy as mush as we have. Crossing fingers and hope that the doctors have her cured as fast as humanly possible. Bless you all.
 
Greg- I. Sank when I read your post. Our thoughts and prayers that she gets her full health back. Any of us may find ourselves needing support for unforeseen hurdles in our lives. Please keep us posted on her progress. Stan
 
I thought this was going to be a happy post, sorry to read of the little girls problems, will pray for her. hope you get some air time in to relax and be one with the sky.

when I saw the thread I was looking forward to seeing the smile on a little girls face from a Helicopter ride. I do hope she has a speedy recovery and that all works out well with the insurance and all those details.

keep us informed.
 
I'm speechless.

I hope she fully recovers and you and your wife are able to tell your grandkids how their mom was during her teenage years.
 
Gerg...

Gerg...

Of course our hopes and prayers are with you and your family. As a parent of two teenage boys, both of whom have been hospitalized, You will be amazed at their resiliency. We wish her a speedy recovery.
Ben
 
Greg,
You're both in my prayers.
 
Gerg, wishing Xiu Xiu a speedy recovery and return to good health. I can only empathize with the worry you must be going through right now. Feel free to spill you guts - we're all one big gyro family and I'm sure it helps just a little to know that both you and your daughter are in our thoughts and prayers.
 
Post get well messages to

24x7 ATL
PO Box 1176
Atlanta, GA 30301

Att: GT Mills

I knew I could count on you guys, you are my "once-a-year-family", at the fly-ins, everyone is always such good friends through those gatherings.

She suffered a stroke sometime between the first CT scan at admit time, and the second CT yaesterday morning. It is thought that there will be no permanent paralysis or mental deficiency caused by the stroke, the neurosurgeon and neurologist are both in agreement that the artery that broke is small enough that it will be a minor problem she will heal through completely.

The BP is finally normal, so she is out of the woods this morning. MRI is coming up next, and the ultrasound shows no shinkage of the kidney, which is good. Bad news is the kidney looks completely solid white on the US scan. No differentiation between between the inner layer that does hte filtration, and the outer layer which produces hormones for making blood and supports the soft inner tissue. Kidneys do not repair themselves like other organs and tissue. Once damaged, that's all there is. They are going to biopsy her kidney Tuesday or Wednesday, and we should know the extend of the scarring by end of the week. But the initial picture, all solid white like that, is not good.

In short, to sum it up, I bought a long-term parking pass at North Atlanta Children's Hospital, Scottish Rite. Good news is she is stable.

You know, it's kinda funny the way things happen sometimes. I never really needed anyone's presence or support much before. I am kind of a loner, believe it or not. Yesterday, my wife and I went to the hangar together to leave this behind for an hour, to get away. We were in very good spirits. Charlie's Cessna was stuck behind one of the King Airs, and boy was HE pissed-off, cuz no one was responding to his request to get out of the hangar. He was intending to take Dave and Sarah flying.

I met Dave last month at our annual EAA Chapter 976 Fly-in and Young Eagles event. He has a helo license, and I recruited him to become a gyronut. He loves the gyro. I showed him both of mine, gave him some flying demos of the Blue Bee, and he was hooked. He wants to get into gyros and eventually get one. He has offered to help with the Yamaha conversion.

I gave him Steve McGowan's name for Helo and Gyro lessons, and I expect he is going to be contacting Steve soon.

Since everyone was there, with nothing to do, I preflighted the Blue and gave them a 30 air minute show. That seemed to ease the disappointment of the Cessna being blocked in and no FW rides for them.

That's the only time I've ever had a little gathering at my hangar like that, so it was really nice, and timely.

You can't always get what you want, but you get what you need. Just when I needed a few friends to hang out with, they showed up out of the clear blue.

Friends are what make the journey worth while. (that includes family, of course)

(I LOVE YOU GUYS! as my hand sneaks towards your can of Bud....LOL!! but Seriously...) Thanks. I don't often need anything, from anybody, but now I find, I've changed my mind, and a kind word from y'all has gone a long way to make me feel "right".
 
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Doc tried to jump start her kidneys with steroids. It made her BP jump so they couldn't give her another dose. Doc took her off dialysis, got an MRI. SHould have results tomoro. Wed is biopsy day. After that we can remove the tubes and she will finally be brought out of sedation. She has not been conscious since Friday afternoon when she almost stopped breathing.

Mom and Zhu zhu's SSN arrive by post today, so we got the insurance updates completed, and confirmed no "pre-existing conditions" clauses or "gotchyas" out there. Insurance is good to go, sir. But it was nice to know that Medicare would have kicked in had I fallen through the cracks.

Back on dialysis tomorrow. THen they teach me how to do my own at home.
 
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glad everything is good with the insurance, hope things work out and she gets better soon. will still be praying for you and the family.
 
Apparently the nurses have a competition going. Yesterday when we arrived, someone had knitted a hat for her that was REALLY cute! It was pumpkin orange with two "pigtails". Well, someone was not to be outdone, cuz when we got there today, there was Xiuwen, sporting another new knit hat, in the '20's Flapper style. so-o-o-o cute, ... the hospital staff is simply terrific, and so accomodating.
 
They brought Xiu xiu out of sedative sleep, to insure that she would regain consciousness. That worked, big sigh of relief.

MRI is not such good news. Many, many little strokes all over her brain. One major one very deep inside her brain. I just spoke to the neurologist about 8:00 pm. There were indications of weakness in her right side when they brought her around a bit. We won't know the extent of the damage until we can bring her fully conscious long enough to test her motor skills, which is tomorrow after the biopsy, i hope. The area of hte stroke was for some type of muscular control. So no impaired mental condition, but I am holding my breath on the partial paralysis thing, which remains to be seen.

Her BP went back up to 180+ today I got freaked out and we packed our things and now living at the ICU again.

WHen she came off dialysis for the MRI, she only made a few cc's of urine, so ... back on the machine.
 
It's bad that a child has to go through so much at an early age. I will keep her in my thoughts and I wish her a speedy recovery.
 
THanks very much, Chris. How's the Bee??? did you make any changes since Wrens? I am sitting in the ICU as I write this, they have WiFi for my laptop.
 
Prayers

Prayers

Very sorry this happened to your daughter Gerg, my family will be praying for her...
 
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