This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a benefit gala for Kawasaki Disease research in San Diego, CA. I was asked, as a "KD Kid", to share my story with Kawasaki Disease. They, in turn, printed it on a large foam core poster and placed it, along with several other "KD Kids" boards throughout the event. Below is my story:

With my poster at the event

My Kawasaki Disease experience

In December of 1993, at the age of 15, I became ill during my school’s winter break. My symptoms included flu-like stomach issues, red, bloodshot eyes, swollen lymph nodes in my neck, and dry, cracked lips. After three trips to the pediatrician over the course of 10 days, I was admitted to the emergency room for re-hydration via IV. While there, I started to feel worse. I began throwing up and they performed blood tests, chest x-rays, and a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. All tests came back negative. I was admitted to the hospital and placed in isolation. My pediatrician went home and poured over his medical books until he found what he felt was a proper diagnosis for me – Kawasaki Disease.

He contacted doctors at a larger hospital about an hour away and they agreed to admit me. I was brought down via ambulance, and started treatment with gamma globulin. Within 24 hours, I felt better. After a few days, I had a routine echocardiogram, which revealed that I had developed coronary aneurysms. I then had a cardiac catherization and it was determined that I had multiple, “giant” (8mm – 13mm in size) aneurysms on my left and right coronary arteries. I was placed on Coumadin, a blood thinner. After two weeks, I was released from the hospital and returned to my “normal” life, participating in sports with the encouragement of my cardiologist. I entered college in 1995, where one morning, about a year and a half into my college career, I awoke at 5am with arm pain on my right side only. The pain would not subside, so I called my cardiologist, who directed me to the ER for an EKG. Additionally, an enzyme test was performed and it was determined I’d suffered a small heart attack. I was 19 years old. My cardiologist informed me that my Coumadin levels (INR) had been too low and I’d formed a clot in one of the aneurysms. A few months later, I awoke with arm pain in both arms, went to the ER and had the same results via enzyme test – a second, albeit minor, heart attack. Despite the heart attacks, I was continually encouraged by my doctors to maintain a healthy lifestyle (eating right and exercising.)

Since 1997, I had occasional episodes of angina, but had no heart attacks. I had annual stress tests, echocardiograms, EKG’s and took Coumadin. I also had cardiac catherizations every three years to check on the aneurysms, which showed no change.

I maintained a healthy lifestyle, got married, moved from Maine, to Florida, to Washington State, where I live currently. In July of 2009, after a year’s worth of consultation with a perinatologist specializing in women with heart conditions, I became pregnant. I spent 9 months giving myself Heparin injections, and my pregnancy progressed normally and without complication. On March 15, 2010, my husband and I welcomed our beautiful son Santiago to the world via c-section. Having been on blood thinners prior to the surgery created some complication, and I developed a hematoma beneath my skin that required a second, exploratory surgery to remove it. After an 8 week resting period once I returned home, I began working out five days a week and started training for a 10k road race.

Unfortunately, on August 20, 2010, I suffered another small heart attack and endured my fifth cardiac catherization, which showed no change in aneurysm size but determined that a clot had formed in a tiny branch off of a main coronary artery. Again, my heart showed no damage, and since then, I’ve maintained my exercise routine with my doctor’s blessing.

I am currently 32 years old, and despite my past issues, plan to continue maintaining my active lifestyle, and have more children. Despite the occasional “set backs” of chest pains and the like, I consider myself to be very lucky – I have a wonderful husband, and a beautiful 6-month old son, who continues to amaze us every day. I try to maintain a positive outlook about life, without making light of my situation.

Santi's growing up

My almost-6-month-old Santi (seriously, how did THAT happen? How do I not still have a 3 week old little baby that I just brought home from the hospital? How is it that I don't have to support his head when I carry him all the time? How is it that he's gone from basically a little lump of a baby to a person who can roll over both ways, sit up, babble, play with his hands, play with his feet, recognize my voice and smile when he sees me, cries real tears, eats solid food and is super social? It's crazy to me!)

Anyway, since he's growing up, he's also gaining weight (sorry buddy!) and is now a hefty 18lbs. Which means carrying him and the infant car seat = almost 28lbs. Which carrying for short distances is fine, but carrying for more than that is too hard even for Tito. So we decided to get him his new convertible car seat that will stay in the car all the time. And since we were getting rid of his infant car seat, we had to get him a new stroller since the strollers we have are a jogging stroller (too big to use as a regular stroller in stores and such) and a Snap and Go, which, if not using the infant car seat, we can't use since it's just a stroller base without a seat. I love this stroller by the way, but it's time to move on to his more permanent stroller and car seat.

So after a lot of looking, and after getting one stroller (the Combi Cosmo stroller which we hated because the wheels got stuck all the time, there was no room in the underseat basket - which didn't matter because you can't get anything out of it once the kid is in the seat),we decided that it just generally sucked overall. So we returned it after a week.

Our choice (after a lot of looking and trying out in the stores) for a stroller was the Chicco Liteway


The seat folds all the way down, the basket isn't that big but we don't mind that, and we're getting a system to hang on the back of the stroller anyway to hold his stuff. It's just a really smooth stroller and he was really comfortable in it (whereas with the Combi he cried after being in it for a few minutes.)

And for his car seat, we looked at a lot of different types and brands. We decided on the Evenflo Symphony because it's basically the same as a Britax Marathon at half the price. And this seat will fit him up to 35lbs rear facing in the car, up to 65lbs forward facing in the car and will fit him up to 100lbs as a booster seat, so we don't have to buy him a separate booster seat after he's done with the car seat. And, after reading the reviews, we discovered that it's a good size and will fit in my Toyota Corolla which a lot of the larger convertible seats have a hard time fitting into smaller cars in the rear facing position.

And I found a deal on Amazon.com where the seat was $60 off the regular price! I'm excited about these items arriving (this week!) although it's a little sad that my little baby is becoming a little boy!

Fall

I do believe that fall has arrived in the Pacific NW. Not that we really had a summer, in my opinion. I can count on one hand the amount of times we went to the pool or the beach, which is sad. Oh well, fall is fun too...this year we're planning on doing some apple picking, going to a pumpkin patch (we feel like we can do this now because we have a little one!) and we'll also be celebrating my 33rd birthday! What a year it's been for me, but I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Yesterday I ran a 10k race that I'd been training for since June. Not as consistently as I'd like but my goal was to run the entire race and not walk at all. Which I didn't. One blister and some very sore legs and 6.2 miles later, I crossed the finish line, finishing the race in just over an hour. I was pleased with myself, and managed to time the end of the race with Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" which is also the first song I heard on the radio when I got the official confirmation that I was pregnant with Santiago. So that song always makes me think of Santi, and I was running the race with him as my inspiration. Here are a few photos from the day:

With my friend Jess - a great training partner! (And yes, I'm wearing a skirt to run in..."real women run in skirts" don't you know? It has spandex shorts underneath and is seriously the best thing I've ever run in..and it's cute to, so I love it!)

With Santi before the race

With Papa Beto, Tito and Santi before the race

Mid run - one lap down, one to go!

After the race with Jess

With Santi

And just because you all read this blog to see Santi more than you do to see me, here are some of his latest photos - he's wearing his lobster hat, as he's really a "Maine" boy at heart!

Santi is sitting now! We've been seeing him strain to sit up for awhile now, but we tried him sitting with a boppy around him today and he sat up for quite some time! I was so excited and took a video, which you can see here:

Santi sitting

Our little roller!

Santiago's 5 month letter

8/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now five months old! Almost half a year!

You have mastered rolling over! You can roll both back and forth, although you only roll to your left side. You tend to favor your left side more than your right – when you grab for toys, you mostly grab with your left hand, you roll to your left, etc. – mommy likes to think this means you will be great like her and a leftie, but only time will tell!

You’ve started laughing some big laughs. You’re also getting SO strong and when you’re not happy somewhere you’ll put your feet down and push your body up. Usually this isn’t that much of a problem, but sometimes you try and do it when you’re in the bathtub, on the changing table or in your bouncy chair, so we have to watch you all the time now!

We’ve also started you on solid foods! You’re doing so well! So far definite “likes” for food are carrots and apple. You have also tried sweet potato but you don’t really like it that much.

Here are some of the things you’re doing this month:

• Trying to sit up (when you’re in your car seat or on the bed you’ll lean your head forward trying to pick yourself up)

• Playing with your rattle (you get REALLY excited when we shake it in front of you and you’ll hold it in your hands and shake it around)
• Big belly laughing

• Eating solid foods and recognizing when mommy or daddy are eating

• Just starting to play with your sippy cup. You know that it goes to your mouth but you haven’t mastered the two handed hold on the handle

• “Talking” while we’re feeding you – you’re usually making a lot of commentary while you eat!

• Wearing Size 3 diapers

• Wearing size 3-6 month pants, 3-6 month shirts, some 9 month shirts and 6 month onesies

• Wearing size 1 shoes

• Wearing size 3-6 month hats

• Eating about 4-6 oz per feeding

• Rolling all over the place! We can’t really leave you in the gym anymore because you’ll roll into the sides

• Spitting up less and less, although when you do spit up now it involves colored food which stains

• Indicating that you want to play by flapping your arms around

• Feeling textures more and more – when we hold you you’ll often move your hand over our chests to feel the shirts. Also you’ll feel our arms, legs, etc. and when you’re in bed, you’ll feel the mattress

• Start out the evening sleeping on your back and then eventually rolling to your side and then tummy

• Still only have two teeth – the bottom middle two. Waiting on the top two to come in!

We have had so much fun with you this month! We can’t believe you’ll be half a year old next month – where did the time go? And how did you grow up so fast?

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Some of you have heard that I was in the hospital this weekend. Just wanted to update you on what happened to me. On Thursday evening, I went running with a friend (and did 4.33 miles which I'm pretty proud of in training for a 10k race in a few weeks.)

On Friday morning at about 4am, I woke up with pain in my arms. Like a dull achy pain. I got up and moved around, thinking I might have slept on my arm wrong. After a few minutes, I took a Tylenol. 20 mins later I felt no relief and Tito was awake, and massaged my arms, thinking that it might be dehydration from running. After another 20 mins with no relief, I took a nitroglycerin tablet that I keep for emergencies due to my heart condition. This had no effect other than giving me a headache. So we decided I should go to the ER to get checked out since it was better to be safe than sorry.

Needless to say, due to my history, they kept me (although it took them forever to get me back to a room and NO ONE was in the ER.) They did a blood enzyme test and it was negative. Then they did another one 4 hours later and it was slightly elevated. At that point, they decided to keep me in the hospital and repeat my enzymes at noon. When they did, it was elevated again. So they admitted me. Of course, it took them 9 hours to get me a bed, so I spent a total of 17 hours on a gurney in the ER. (Tito's dad was watching Santi during this time at the house.)

I finally got upstairs at 10pm, and they put me on heparin and then I went to sleep. That night they tested my enzymes again and the next morning they came in and said that they were elevated from a .4 to a 4. When the doctor came in I asked him what that meant and he said I had had a small heart attack (which for me, this was my third.) They wanted to do a cardiac catherization and said originally that they'd do it on Monday. Then, since it was a slow Saturday, they were able to get me in and I had the procedure that morning. The catherization showed that they think that I had had a clot/blockage on a very small artery that branches off from my main coronary arteries. They said that the clot wasn't there when they went in but they saw evidence of it (left over pieces of the clot.) They said it was in such a small part that it wouldn't have even been possible for them to get instruments in there to blast the clot if it had been present when they went in.

But at that point, my heart looked good and the aneurysms were all still there, all still giant and from they could tell, all unchanged. I was shuttled back to my room where they elevated my bed which was flat, at a 45 degree angle down. I had to lay flat for 5 hours...doesn't seem to bad until you have a few hours left and your back is killing you from lying on the world's most uncomfortable bed! At this point, Tito, his dad and Santi were all there, so I was able to see them all before and after the procedure. When I was allowed up, I walked a bit and then finally changed positions.


So I was surprised when the docs came in this morning and said I could go home! They put me on Lovenox (hello old friend! I didn't think I'd see you again until the next time I was pregnant!) and Coumadin and told me to get rechecked in a couple of days to see if my blood levels were therapeutic.

Basically they said that I had a clot that formed in a tiny "branch" off off my main coronary arteries where my aneurysms are. So due to that, and the elevated enzyme levels, I essentially had a heart attack. A baby one, super tiny and no damage. They said when they looked at me via the cardiac cath that the clot was gone but that if it had been there it was in such a small spot they wouldn't have been able to get any equipment down there to remove it anyway. So the heparin they put me on the first day I was there apparently worked to bust the clot out of there, and keeping any damage from occurring to my heart.

Santi, Tito and my father in law came to the hospital today and I was so happy to be able to tell them that I could go home! And once we got home, I had a surprise - Santi rolled over! Back to front! On Saturday he almost went all the way...here's the video:

Almost rolling over! (8/21/2010) from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

And today, right from when we walked in the door we put him down on the floor and within minutes he'd rolled over! I hadn't seen him and thought FIL had just put him down on his front. But then we put him down on his back and he rolled right over!

Here's that video:

He rolls! (8/22/10) from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

5 months!

Guess who is 5 months old? Who knew the time would fly by so quickly? SO much has changed with Santi in the past 5 months. He's such a fun little guy and getting to be more and more interactive every day!

At 5 months, Santi is:

* Talking and squealing more and more

* Has perfected the "airplane" pose when on his belly - legs up, arms up, rocking on his belly

* Still sleeping through the night although lately has been waking up for one feeding at about 4am (we think he's in a prolonged growth spurt!)

* Recognizes my voice and looks for me in the room when he hears me

* Recognizes daddy's voice and looks for him too - especially if I'm talking on speaker phone to him!

* Likes his stroller more and more and is now sitting up completely in the jogger stroller

* Still working on sitting on his own

* Can stand with just holding onto my fingers (no longer needs my hands under his arms!)

* Loves playing hide and seek with me


Stats:
17 lbs. 6 oz
25.5" tall
Wearing Size 3 diapers
Wearing 6-9 month clothes
Wearing Size 1 shoes

Official photo

Wait, what does this say?

I'm what??

Oh...5 months old!

Look how big I'm getting!

So we have decided to do baby led weaning, which basically means, when Santi is interested in solid foods, we'd let him try it. So for the past two weeks, he's been showing TONS of interest in what we're eating, i.e. trying to grab our food, watching us while we eat with intensity, and trying to grab cups from us if we drink while holding him. So we decided that on his 5 month birthday we'd allow him to have rice cereal.

We were very excited about this event, and a little sad too - it means our "little baby" is no longer little and is a bigger baby. But exciting because we're watching him grow and change all the time!

So we mixed up the rice cereal with some breast milk tonight and weren't sure what would happen...we weren't prepared for how much he loved it! In fact, we couldn't get it in him fast enough it seems!

Santi tries solid food for the first time! from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Videos for a laugh

Just had to share - Santi was a little fussy so I started playing hide and seek with him while I was making dinner. He was loving it when I popped up from behind the counter, so I had to tape it...enjoy!

More laughing from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Laughing from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

And also, if you're ever looking for videos of Santi, I put them on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/user2821642/videos

You can subscribe to them so every time I add a new video you'll get an email!