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Local 2043
Marblehead, MA
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Marblehead, MA
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Meet the Children - Allison Gilligan |
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Allison Gilligan
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Age 6
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 Allison
is known in her home as Alli. For all the tomboy that Kiki is, Alli is
the princess. Alli loves her dollies, she loves her Mutsy (A stuffed
dog that has been through every surgery, every hospital stay, and every
moment that Alli needed comforting), and this beautiful six year old
loves to chat. She will talk to you about anything, for as long as you
would like to talk about anything. Allison is also more than happy to
tell you about the kidney that her daddy gave her and what good care
she is taking of it.
Allison suffers from
Juvenile Nephrothiasis, a disease that has put her into End Stage Renal
Failure. Alli lost the function of both of her kidneys soon after her
first birthday. As a toddler Alli's condition deteriorated slowly, and
had her becoming increasingly more ill with each passing week. Her body
was slowly being poisoned from within. Over time her kidney functions
worsened, the waste material within her body began to rise. As a
counter-measure to this condition, the human body begins to increase
its rate of potassium. While potassium is an essential part of a body's
balance, too much can be lethal. With Allison's kidney function
declining, her potassium rate climbing, Alli gradually became very ill.
When the emergency room at Salem Hospital confirmed a problem with
updated blood tests, Allison was immediately medevaced to Mass General.
The problem with abnormal potassium in your blood stream is that it can
stop your heart.  Healthy
persons run a potassium range of 3.5 to 5.5 mEq per liter. Anything
over the normal range is extremely serious. Alli's potassium had shot
up to 8.9 upon admittance into MGH, and her immediate threat was that
she was going into cardiac arrest. Over the next forty-eight hours, the
brilliant professionals at MGH saved Alli's life for the first time.
Once her heart was stabilized, the Gilligans began to learn that her
failing kidneys caused all of this. Again, Amy & Patrick had to
learn the landscape of a new genetic disorder, this time surrounding
Nephrology, and what it meant for their baby girl to be in End Stage
Kidney Failure.
While
the weeks at Mass General provided the family with some sense of
"stability”, they were very difficult on Allison. She was operated on
multiple times for biopsies, emplacement of a catheter for dialysis, a
feeding tube, and hernia surgery... all of this before she was even
eighteen months old. By the time Alli could be brought home, she had
stopped eating and needed thirteen exchanges of Peritoneal Dialysis
every day. Peritoneal Dialysis is a soft plastic tube (catheter) that
is placed in the belly by surgery. A sterile cleansing fluid is put
into your belly through this catheter. After the filtering process is
finished, the fluid leaves your body through the catheter. Allison
needed to have these daily exchanges for about nine months, until she
had gained enough size to be at the minimum weight for a kidney
transplant. Before a year had passed, Alli & her dad would get much
closer than either of them had ever anticipated.
By mid 2004, the fine medical professionals at Massachusetts General
Hospital saved and gave back a quality of life to Allison that Amy
& Patrick thought she had lost forever. With Amy & Randy
(Patrick's best friend from the Marine Corps) keeping vigil, an adult
male kidney was placed into the lower front hip of a year and a half
old little girl, whose weight was under the charts!
The surgery was very rough on Alli, and she took months to recover. She
had to learn to eat all over again, she had to learn to go potty, and
she had to adjust to the rather large bump in her tummy. However, like
her sisters, her mom, and her grandmother Lynn, Alli is a fighter!
Today Alli lives as normal a life as a transplant patient can live. She
loves to show off her scars, if asked. Allison takes a battery of drugs
because she is immuno-comprimised. She lives with a virus in her
bloodstream, and rejection is always the shadow that lurks when
sickness enters the picture. Keeping her healthy & balanced is the
key to her quality of life. Like all the Gilligan children, there is an
equilibrium that needs to be struck. Live normally, but carefully. Alli
has the perfect temperament for that prescription. A beautiful little
angel, when you watch her dancing in the kitchen with her mom, you
can't believe that inside beats the heart of a fighter.
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