I would imagine most of you know the reason as to why I have been a stay-at-home dad for years now. Everyone in LAT is family and soon, everyone will know the reason as to why I started making patches and bringing people together.
Life’s A Trail started as a blog for my outdoor adventures and travels with close family and friends. There is never a guarantee that the trail you take will be easy and life happens. My trail took a bad turn close to 5 years ago. This is where Leslie and I found out that our daughter Kiana has bad asthma that has since remained very chronic.
Kiana ended up getting a cold before the age of 1 and it wrecked her respiratory system really bad. We ended up taking her to the ER and we were rushed in because her oxygen levels were on the lower side. As we waited in our assigned room to be seen by the doctor a nurse came in and noticed that Kiana was having retracted breathing and was concerned that her body was working too hard to keep breathing. Shortly after a team came I. and took our daughter away. The doctors then told Leslie and me that Kiana needed to be intubated and if she wasn’t, she could stop breathing completely. I have never experienced fear as much as I did that night. It was the hardest thing having to watch a team sedate and intubate my baby girl that hasn’t even turned 1 yet. The intubation was successful and she was then rushed to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and placed in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Once there she was assigned a great care team. Kiana was sedated for about a week. This week was the slowest week of my life. I can still remember it all as if it just happened yesterday. My daughter just laid there hooked up to everything and anything. I couldn’t hold her in my arms or do anything except pray and hold her hands. I have never felt so helpless and is definitely a feeling I wish no one has to experience with their children. We had our first Thanksgiving with her in the PICU even though she was still intubated and not awake to celebrate with us.
After about a week Kiana was able to come off intubation and sedation and she was slowly returning back to her normal self. We had to stay several days after to make sure she was healthy enough to come home. I could go into more fine detail but this is pretty much the summary of it all. She was officially discharged in her 1st birthday.
Ever since this happened Kiana has been in and out of the ER more times than I can count and she’s had more extended stays at the PICU. This is the reason why I became a stay-at-home. I can’t trust anyone with my daughter except for close family, as a cough for her can turn into an asthma attack really quick, and a cold for her turns into an ER visit turned Pediatric Intensive Care Unit hospital stay.
So with all that being said I will share a project I have been working on for a few months. I have always wanted to repay the hard working teams that saved my daughter’s life at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and now I believe I can.
This patch is a thank you to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and all proceeds will go to their Asthma and Allergy research efforts. You can expect them sometime in the near future.
A huge thanks to Michael Skelton and the staff over at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Kiana would like to thank everyone who purchases a LPCH Patch today.