Prayers for Alyssa

Last Updated on January 14, 2014 by John Morehouse

Every now and then you’ll hear a story or know of an event that has transpired that causes you to do all that you can to help them out.  This is one of those times.

I’m borrowing the verbiage from my friend Tami, who wants to get as many people praying and thinking about this young woman, Alyssa, who is very sick. Alyssa is 15 years old, lives in my town and has even baby sat for one of my boys a couple of years ago.

I would ask that after reading the story, if you decide to pray for Alyssa, would you please leave a comment as to where you are located.  I’d like to show Alyssa & her family all of the people around the world that would be thinking & praying for her.

I’ll notate dates with “JM”. I’ve also changed/removed names of other family members from the post to respect their privacy.

EDIT:
I’ve moved some of the updates from Tami to their own posts so that it’s easier to keep things in order.

1/12/14 – Update #1: Prayers for Alyssa
1/14/14 – Update #2: Prayers for Alyssa
1/14/14 – Update #3: Prayers for Alyssa

From Tami:

This is Alyssa. I thought it would be nice for people to put a face to the name. I will try to condense her story as much as possible. Just remember, her condition is very serious.

For those who don’t know, Alyssa was diagnosed Sunday (JM: 1/5/14) night with Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension. This basically means she has high blood pressure caused by restrictions of the arteries in the lungs causing pressure to build in the lungs which then causes the heart to work harder to pump the blood through the lungs causing the heart muscle to weaken or fail. The idiopathic part means they don’t know why.

Alyssa had a procedure done on Wednesday night to see what her pressure was. Normal pressure on the right side of the heart, for her, should be 25-30 her pressure is 125. This is bad news because it is causing the left side to basically be empty and not properly pump blood in and out to where it needs to be.

They also put a port in to administer drugs through and started her on a medicine to try to reduce the pressure. She started at 6ml and was increased every 2 hours until she got to 14ml. This caused her to be very uncomfortable and nausea, vomiting, and fainting. The Dr said if he didn’t see improvements in a week she would be transferred to a hospital out of state to await a lung transplant.

They started her on a second medicine on Thursday, that they are hoping will also help with the pressure. They have also contacted a Dr in Dallas to introduce Alyssa and her case so in the event it is needed Dallas would be ready for her.

She continues to have nausea, vomiting, and fainting and is very uncomfortable. They have also now started her on a 3rd medicine.

The medicine is not doing what we had hoped for however it has stabilized her and increased the blood flow. Now they are hoping for a small improvement and to keep her stable to transfer her next week to Dallas to wait for a transplant.

Alyssa’s condition has continued to deteriorate each day. Please pray for Alyssa and her family!

and from an updated post also from Tami from 1/11/14:

It has been an extremely ruff couple of days and nights. Alyssa is very uncomfortable and has a lot of nausea and vomiting. When she vomits it makes her faint. This has made it extremely difficult to get much more than a 10-15 min cat nap at a time.

They got her to the full 14ml of the first medicine and have started her on 2 other meds. They have also increased the first med to 18ml now. These meds are what is causing the vomiting and discomfort but are needed to stabilize her. They have her on 4 anti nausea meds that had been sort of keeping the vomiting to 1.5-2 hours apart but are not doing so well now. Last night she began to have blood in the vomit which they believe is from her liver stretching. They are also worried she may have aspirated so they are monitoring her for that as well. They are now going to try yet another anti nausea medicine in hopes that it will stop the vomiting so she can get some rest.

Alyssa will be transferred either Monday or Tuesday (JM: 1/13/14 or 1/14/14) to Houston (we originally thought Dallas) to wait for a double lung transplant and now a heart transplant as well (they say the average wait time is 10-30 months). They are getting together a cardiac team to travel with her to keep her condition stable. The Dr from Houston is working with her Dr’s here on how much and what meds to give.

Tina and Jeff (JM: Mom & Step-father) will travel with her as well but Jeff will return home after they are situated so that he can continue to work and give Alyssa’s sister and brother some sort of normalcy. They are currently staying with their grandparents.

I would like to answer a few questions that have been asked ( sorry I am trying to give you all the information but get lost in what to say sometimes). 1st Alyssa is 15. 2nd Alyssa was not born with this and they don’t know if it is hereditary. This is why it is idiopathic. They don’t know. 3rd There were no symptoms really other than a slight cough. She was fine on Saturday and on Sunday she was vomiting and passed out and that is when this nightmare began. Her condition has deteriorated quickly over the six days since it started.

Please, everyone pray that Alyssa can stop vomiting and get some rest and that she will hold on until a heart and lungs can be found. Also pray for her family that they have strength and peace and that they also get some rest so that they can be there for all of Alyssa’s needs.

One other request please share Alyssa’s story so we can get as many prayers for her during this journey.

Also if you have questions you can ask and I will try to answer them as soon as I can.

For those that might not know, my second son Simon had a rough start in life and spent the first 5 weeks of his life in the NICU.  I know that I had a lot of folks praying for #TeamBabyNinja (that’s a story for another post)  during this time and that meant the absolute world to my family and I.

So, Please Please take 30 seconds out of your day and send a quick prayer for Alyssa.  I know that Alyssa and her family will very much appreciate every single thought & prayer.

Don’t forget to leave a comment as to where you are located.  I’ll be compiling the list to get it to Alyssa’s family.  I’ll also be trying to keep things updated for those that want to know so check back to this posted for updated information.

Take a moment to tell those in your life that you love them.  You never know when things might change.  All it takes is a single heartbeat and it’s changed forever.

© 2014, John Morehouse. All rights reserved.