Most of this blog post is from a very dear friend of mine settled in Clayton, California, US. I have added a few words as an introduction and post story-line. It is all about how everlasting courage exists beyond the realm of advances in medical sciences and health technology.
A decade back, I met this sweet, shy and chirpy girl at my working women's hostel in Chennai. Sharing a common room, we built a cozy and soothing relationship which has continued. Much younger than me, she bubbled me up with childish wits. Her biggest fear was darkness, the night scared her beyond limits but, somewhere I knew that some day in the future she will defeat the pitch black and live up to her name Esther which means Star.
Continue reading in her own words, her story of fight, withdrawal, fear, struggle, loss, hope and courage beyond pain.
All of us have our spiritual beliefs we follow. Esther follows her God and faith in this journey. And so let us respect her choice and personal judgement here.
The real need here is to:
- know the medical condition she faced,
- be aware and have knowledge about our physical and mental capacities,
- build perseverance to re-frame our denial attitudes on it can't happen to us,
- stop running away from hard talk and rough experiences of our own kind.
Esther wants to tell her story to everyone out there. She still is recuperating and coming to terms with her own revived self.
She says -
"I thank my father god Jesus for using me as his vessel. This is a testimony that gives hope in every hopeless situations. Back in April-May this year our family went through some undesirable situation, one of the worst in our lives.
We were happily expecting our 2nd child . The planned due date was May 5th 2018 but on April 18th 2018 midnight I got the contractions. After monitoring me throughout the night, the doctors at John Muir Hospital decided to do the C-section the next morning April 19th 2018 around 10.
After delivery, I was put on normal recovery path, but on the 3rd day my eyes started turning yellow , visibly exhausted and by late evening... the doctors worried about my condition and moved me to the ICU. I was loosing my memory. In the ICU they poked me at multiple places several times to perform hundreds of tests.
The next day the doctors approached my husband and said that I need to be shifted to UCSF ( University of California San Francisco) as they were not equipped enough to treat me there. My kidneys had failed and my liver was not functioning normally. I was shifted to UCSF around midnight on the 4 th day, while the baby was still in the other hospital. The baby was healthy but since he came early he was kept under close observation.
The UCSF doctors confirmed that my liver and kidneys had failed . They did not know why and they ran series of tests to see if there was any infection like hepatitis A,B or E and all came negative. I was put on life support and dialysis. The doctors called it as acute liver failure and it’s a very rare condition in pregnancy.
I was listed for immediate liver transplant status 1A means any time there is a new liver harvested from any diseased person in the western region I would get it . After hearing this my friend and family started praying rigorously asking god for a miracle.
My husband was explained about the whole procedure, the chances of inheriting any unknown diseases like cancer from the transplanted liver and a completely uncertain life. My body was not in a position to go through another major surgery just after having gone through c-sec few days ago. I had only 20% survival chance.
I was given blood products since my own blood turned toxic and would not coagulate. They performed a procedure called Embolization to stop the internal bleeding twice . On one occasion I did not wake up after the procedure. Doctors performed CPR to revive me . My liver condition hadn’t improved.As days went my my condition thought worse was stable.
One fine day there was faint sign of improvement . God heard our prayers and slowly miraculously things started turning around. They took me out of the life support and dialysis and after few days I regained my memory.
They moved me from the ICU to the normal ward and then I was discharged home. My eyes were still yellow and my body had swollen 4 times my own weight. Fluids coming out of my torn and overstretched skin were yellow too. I was undergoing blood work every week.
The doctors thought I will improve but my condition took another turn. My liver enzymes were abnormally high. Liver enzymes are usually high when the liver has damaged completely.No signs of improvement in the blood work. The doctors said they haven’t ruled out liver transplant and they suggested for liver biopsy. Up until then we thought there was may be some hope but after hearing this broke us down. We were crying all the way back home from USCF. That night I was thinking, 'is god listening to my cries and is he seeing my pain? I have no place in my body to be poked anymore. I was praying and asking god for a miracle.
Myself and my family were praying with these verses from psalm 139: 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.and psalm 121: 7The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
After few weeks they did the liver biopsy through the neck and we were waiting for the results. Doctors had given up. They said, there was no text book for reference for this case!!!
I have heard many testimonies in my Christian life how god performed miracles . God heard our prayers and started healing me.
My biopsy results came and there was nothing alarming. I kept improving In my last doctor visit on August 2nd 2018 the doctors ruled out liver transplant. My liver enzymes are close to normal and my bilirubin is normal. Yes our god is faithful, he is mighty, he listens to our cries and knows our pains.
Now I’m here, the answer to all of your prayers. Thank you everyone who prayed for me and my family.
I want to emphasize one important thing that, while pregnancy, women will have their whole body checked only at the start of the pregnancy but, later the gynaecologist will check only the fetus. We have to insist them to check our health also until the end of the pregnancy."
Dear Readers, we as friends and family of Esther continue our prayers and hope or in other words the channelization of positive energies towards her complete recovery. Thank you for taking time to read up. I believe as women, we need to understand our mind, body and soul and keep it in alignment to sail through uncharted territories. So, pass on the story. Awareness is imperative. May courage be with us all.
