March 10, 2005 forever changed my life

Now, where were we?...

When we got thru talking to Dr. Daniels, we made our way over to the hospital, and sure enough there was an ambulance waiting on me. My mom, brother, and sister in-law was with us. The EMT told my mom that she could follow behind the ambulance, but if he turned on lights and sirens, not to be alarmed, it just meant that he was going to be going faster to get through all the traffic on the interstate, and she wouldn't be able to stay behind them if lights and sirens were on. The paramedic noticed I was a little bit scared so, he let me talk on his cell phone to my mom all the way there.

When we finally got to Vanderbilt, we sat in the emergency room for about six hours, waiting on a bed upstairs to become available. While we waited for the bed, we met SO MANY Dr's. and nurses, and specialists. We met Dr's. Gillis, Branner and Jones like I told you about in my previous post. I even had one Dr, come in and test my eyes to see if I had Wilson's disease. He numbed my eyes, dilated them, and even took some kind of pointy object and poked my eyeball... literally... and I didn't even feel it. At this point, I finally got a room upstairs in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) my mom was the only one allowed to stay with me in the room, which meant my brother and sister in-law had slept in the car that night because the waiting rooms were so full. I keep referring to "mom, brother, and sister in-law" my mom is Becky, my brother is Jim, and his wife is Jennifer (just to let ya know)   :)

A few days later I was taken down to the operating room to have a biopsy done of my liver. They gave me a light sedation for it, but I felt every bit of it, and it hurt like the dickens! when I came out of  the OR I had a ton of visitors. I woke up and to my surprise I saw my mom, my aunt and uncle, my four little cousins, Jim, Jennifer and Shad. my uncle had went to Verizon and had an extra line added to his cell phone bill just so I could talk to them and my friends.(one of the best gifts I got while I was there!).

The next day, march 10, 2005, my mom came into the room with the team of Dr's.,crying. The Dr's. sat down on the bed beside me and told me that I was the sickest kid in the hospital and the region. that I needed a liver transplant. With all my blood work that had been done, I should be in a coma, and not ever wake up. If I would have waited another day or two, I would not be alive. My mom looked at me and said "Erin, do you understand what they are saying? "how come your not upset? The first words that came out of my mouth was, "I'm not scared, because I know God is going to take care of me!" and that's just what God did, he took care of me and is still taking care of me, to where I'm able to sit here and tell you all about my testimony!

To shorten up this story I was in Vanderbilt for 7 weeks. I had two liver donors, but when the livers came in and were tested, they turned out not to be suitable enough for transplantation. 6 weeks after hospitalization I finally got the name of  my liver disease. I have Autoimmune Hepatitis AND Primary Biliary Cirrhosis. or AIH/PBC OVERLAP SYNDROME.

From 2005, until just last week I have been hospitalized probably 30-40 times. I am still currently on the transplant list as inactive because my disease is under control as of right now. I told you God is taking EXCELLENT care of me. I couldn't ask for a better Dr.

Here are a few photos that I found while I was in the hospital.

 I believe Shad was putting make up on me to get me "dolled up" for the gorgeous Dr. Jones :)



I got to get to know Mary a lot better. I adore this sweet Godly lady.




I met alot of wonderful people through-out  my journey.