A Very Close Shave - Synopsis V

I'm back in July still.

To be precise Wednesday, July 10 2013.

We were in the middle of the meetings for Smurfette.

Around 9pm that evening I got a text from my sis Sheri.

It said that my niece-in-love Callista had collapsed earlier in the day.

Her aorta had split the text said.

 

This is often a killer. So far Callista was still alive.

The correct term is Aortic Dissection

Usually the Life Flight helicopter would transport her.

They live in Masterton.

But it was too windy to fly.

So they had to send a specialist team over to Masterton.

Then bring Callista to Wellington Hospital by ambulance.

They arrived about 2am Thursday morning.

Kato, Callista's husband, was told she could die at any time :(

It was a very looooong night.

 

I was praying for God's will in the whole situation constantly.

Think I slept for maybe 30 minutes all night.

I'd been in contact with Kato and offered any help.

Kato and Latisha, Callista's oldest daughter, had gone to Wellington Hospital.

We thought that Callista would be wheeled into surgery straight away.

However she was stable enough that the decision was made to wait till 8am on the Thursday.

 

Kato and Latisha arrived at our place around 3am.

They'd waited to see Callista settled into ICU

After a few hours we went in to see Callista before she went to surgery.

Hard, very hard for Kato and Latisha as they knew it may be the last time they saw Callista alive.

 

Sheri had been looking after Callista and Kato's four young children.

I offered to go and get the children as they needed to be with their dad, Kato.

 

So after the meeting on Thursday for Smurfette's issue I went over the Rimutaka Hill

The children were pretty happy to see me.

I think Sheri was as well.

The children are all active wee people.

They are: Hana, 6yrs; Caia, 5yrs; Akiva, 3yrs; Uriah, 2yrs.

3 beautiful girls and 1 strong young lad :)

 

I had a list from Kato of what to pick up and a few messages to pass on.

When asked by the children I said that their mummy was in hospital being looked after by the doctors and nurses.

Enough info for wee ones.

Sweet Hana got a pillow for her mummy when Callista was lying on the floor.

 

I'd got to Masterton about 3.30pm.

Was waiting for any news from Kato.

A case of no news is good news.

 

The surgery was Open Heart Surgery

and involved heart bypass

My understanding is that a patch/graft is in the aorta to seal the bit that leaked.

However I may be wrong.

I do know the Aortic valve was replaced with a mechanical one.

Surgery was expected to take 8 hrs, maybe more.

So no call meant things were going as expected.

 

The news came around 4.30pm.

Callista was out of surgery and doing as well as could be expected.

Back in ICU.

 

I got home around 6pm with the four young ones.

Akiva and Uriah had fallen asleep.

Hana and Caia managed to stay awake.

 

I'd even managed to prepare some food in the morning before I left.

When I walked in the door I was greeted with the news that Jamila, Kato's s-i-l and my other niece-in-love, had brought dinner around for us 

I really appreciated that. And it meant I had dinner ready for the next night too.

 

There were many people praying for Callista.

 

It was a very busy few weeks.

Kato and the four young ones stayed here for the first week.

Latisha stayed some of the time, and with her boyfriend other times.

 

Locket and Brains were fantastic with helping me look after the little ones,

who were really missing their mummy.

 

I won't go into all the details, suffice it to say that it was a challenging time for Kato and the four little children.

Latisha at 21 was able to understand what was going on.

All the little ones knew was that their mummy wasn't the one they remembered!

 

It is now 5 1/2 weeks since Callista had the surgery.

I'm very happy to say that she is doing really well.

There were a few setbacks, but that often happens.

The family are staying at Pa's old place.

Mainly because they were renovating their inside bathroom.

The toilet pan (bowl) is plumbed in.

But no cistern, no shower or basin.

The only bathroom is by the sleepout, in the garage!!

Which would entail going outside, crossing gravel to get to it.

 

Kato didn't want that for his beloved wife.

Also staying at Pa's means they are close to the hospital if there were problems.

Kato is working hard to get the home ready, there are some draughty bits.

So he is fixing it up.

From the sound of things they are planning to move back at the end of August.

The children will all be very pleased to get back to their own home.

 

As 3yr old Akiva said to me the other night, crying,
"I want to be in mine own home!"

 

Thanks be to God for the surgeons expertise and Callista's recovery.

It could have been a very different story.