On December 31, 2021, just hours before the country rang in the new year, we received a call that changed our lives…
The weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve, our fun, outgoing, and silly teenage daughter had become withdrawn, weak and complained of feeling sick.
We took her to her primary care physician and that’s where we learned her blood pressure was extremely elevated (182/102). Our otherwise healthy daughter was not doing so well and we had no clue why.
The doctor ran labs.
The following night we received a call from one of the on-call practitioners who said
“Please write down these (lab results) and immediately take her to the emergency room”.
The first ER staff quickly ran labs, again. At the time, it seemed odd, their behavior, but later I learned why…
The emergency room doctor explained that there is a lab result that indicates whether someone’s Kidneys are functioning. The higher the number the more likely something is seriously wrong. Her number was so elevated that their machine couldn’t accurately read her numbers (which explained the odd behavior).
Zaleya needed to be emergency transported to Phoenix Children’s Hospital ICU.
The following day, the wonderful Dr. Joseph sat down and shared her diagnosis – End Stage Renal Failure.
“In my 27 years of being a kidney specialist, I have never seen someone in such condition.”
The first few weeks in ICU were difficult….
The lack of sleep, traveling to and from the hospital, and somehow managing our other 4 children at home, was hard.
The emotions surrounding her diagnosis was hard.
The staff and intense treatment helped stabilize Zaleya.
Zaleya was eventually transferred to another floor of the hospital where we prepared for discharge.
She was to receive dialysis 3x’s a week for six weeks then would begin at home dialysis.
About a week later Zaleya was discharged!
She began outpatient dialysis.
Three times a week Zaleya’s routine was grueling. She would wake up at 4am, sit through 1.5 hours of traffic, receive treatment for 4 hours, and continue to be cared for following dialysis because her vitals were always a concern. Treatment days drained her. As a mother, it is difficult to watch your baby be so exhausted from the very thing that was keeping her alive.
During the first few weeks of dialysis the nurses trained mommy on how to do treatment at home.
Zaleya was excited and nervous to start treatment at home.
Not long after starting at home Dialysis, on March 21st Zaleya was admitted into the hospital again.
Her treatment line, the catheter the runs from the inside of her body to the outside of her body, began to leak which caused an internal infection. She was placed on an intense round of antibiotics.
Once back home we got into a good routine with treatment.
Zaleya receives dialysis for 9 hours out of every day and is currently waiting on a transplant.
Zaleya is in good spirits. She is laughing, cracking jokes and doing her best to manage her diagnosis.
The transplant team recommended we reach out to COTA.
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association and the gracious donors will play a vital role in helping our family. With your donations to COTA for Team Zaleya, we will be able to solely focus on helping Zaleya!
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The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.