Olivia's Story: September 30, 2017

On September 30th, We were woken up by the doctors letting us know that, Olivia was officially being transferred to Children’s Hospital LA (CHLA). At this point in time, I was supposed to be recovering in the hospital a few more days, so Myke jumped out of bed, showered, and wheeled me down to say goodbye to her. I don’t remember every detail because my eyes were filled with tears and everyone kept telling me what the tubes mean, why she was hooked up to the machine, and all I wanted to do was hold my child.

We are at 3 days of not holding Olivia.

Myke drove to CHLA and encouraged me to stay in the hospital one more day and recover for one more night. He stayed the night with Olivia and I laid awake 20 minutes away in Tarzana. The morning finally came and my nurse was determined to get me out of the hospital as soon as possible. We were able to leave early afternoon and I was at Children’s Hospital by 1pm. Myke came down and got a wheelchair for me and I went and sat next to my daughter. She was hooked up to a ventilator and was on just about every medication they could put her on because they still weren’t sure what was wrong with her. The reason why were were transferred to CHLA was because there was a possibility she would need to go on a heart/lung bypass machine that only CHLA had. She wasn’t on it yet, but they had everything ready if that were to happen. My heart was broken. My body was in pain and I was unable to hold my daughter.

My mom stayed with me and got a hotel room in order for me to recover and we could drive to CHLA a little faster. Having my mom there was such a relief to both me and Myke. She was able to take care of me and help me recover while Make concentrated on Olivia. When we arrived the next day, we met our nurse Brooke. Little did we know that God specifically put her there no only for Make and I, but for Olivia. She is an incredible nurse and a wonderful person. The three of us hit it off pretty well and I walked out thinking that I really enjoyed having her with Olivia. It seemed like she really cared for Olivia. We ran into many nurses like that in our time at CHLA and I will forever be grateful for their support and kindness. Brooke eventually signed up to be our primary, which meant any time she was scheduled to work a regular shift, she would be assigned to Olivia. Which made us feel so much better to go in and see a familiar face every day. We also had another friend who was a nurse there and she checked on Olivia nightly and for that I will always be grateful.