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The day is upon us. The countdown is in the hours now. My wife and I will be heading to Honduras to pick Dunia up. We will be back later in the weekend and the adventure begins for her. I will undoubtedly be quite busy with her and with her care, but I will give updates on her treatment. She is scheduled for surgery on Sept. 5. I have said it before, but I will say it again, THANK YOU to all you guys and gals that have been a part of this in any way. Many have sent money, many have emailed and blogged, all have responded with sincere concern and compassion.
As most of the readers of PBs and BFC know, the world is not a very big place. It never ceases to amaze me, however, how so many people from so many places and so many cultures can come together with a common goal of helping a dying child who they will never know and who can never repay. My hat is off (uncovering my big bald head) to you all.
Final tally USD 6447.56
Dave
The Eagle Has Landed.
Dunia is in Kentucky.
We were delayed a few hours because a plane crashed here in Lexington this morning. It is midnight local time and we just rolled into the house. I have some catching up to do about the plane crash and find out if I knew anyone on it. There were quite a few flood lights on the crash site that was nearly blinding on our landing. Puts a big damper on things, this town ain’t that big and they are asking for dental records for victims. I hate it when I have to do that.
Dunia is doing great and is happy to be here. She’s awesome. Tomorrow is her first appointment with the cardiothoracic surgeon and then we schedule all the other diagnostics necessary prior to surgery.
Yeah Rob, count our blessings.
My aunt and uncle were on the other Delta flight that left 10 minutes before the crash. Both flights were heading to Atlanta, we have enough people using Delta they have multple flights to the Atlanta hub every morning. Talk about the 10 minute difference between the 6:00am and the 6:10am flight being significant! Apparently there was a tense hour or so for my family. Our clan didn’t know which of the early flights they were on and since their plane took off first, they had their cell phones off until they landed. Glad I missed that drama, its bad enough as it is.
Back to the good stuff now, I need to take Dunia shopping. Everything she owned she brought with her and fit in a soft sided briefcase. That is about to change :)
A new story. It came out while we were in Honduras. A lttle bit more of a focus on the periodontist than we were hoping. She called and apologized even though she had nothing to do with writing it (I told her not to worry about it, Dunia’s here so no hay problema). I figure whatever publicity is out there for Dunia is good publicity regardless of the slant of an article. It is a business newspaper so they focus on the local businesses and how they fit in to the big picture.
Dunia will be interviewed today by the local news station that first broadcast her story (WKYT). The interview will be with the cardiothoracic surgeon that will do the procedure, Dunia and my wife as her interpreter, and me. I’ll post a link if it is webcast.
Tomorrow she goes for the final pre-op diagnostics. Her cardiologist is going to be none other than Dr. Noonan herself.
For those here joining the story midway, Dunia has a condition known as Noonan Syndrome. Dr. Noonan is the only living physician with a syndrome named after her and she is the global authority on the condition. There are no better hands on the planet to be in control of her treatment. How do you like them apples :)
It is looking good. The surgeon said that he doesn’t see any reason this surgey won’t go off without a hitch. She will be getting a new pulmonary valve and he will close the hole in her septum. He also expects she will begin to grow again after the surgery. Apparently her heart has been “eating” the vast majority of her caloric intake, for her whole life, just to maintain function.
DUNIA NEEDS BLOOD: If you or anyone you know lives in the Central Kentucky area is eligible to donate blood, please go to the Central Kentucky Blood Center (http://www.ckbc.org) on Waller Avenue in Lexington. You can donate on behalf of Dunia Caballero. It does not matter what your blood type is, she will receive credit on a “unit for unit” basis. The irony of this is that neither my wife nor I can donate because we have been to Honduras in the last 2 years. Go figure.
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/category.asp?C=74738
Dunia’s interviews are on the web. Use Explorer to view the video, Firefox doesn’t work very well.
Click on the August 31 shows listed below if you want to watch them:
She was on the 12:30 news/talk show about 13 minutes into it with my wife and another dentist. She was on the 11:00pm news about 19 minutes into it and it was Dunia, the surgeon, and me.
Just go look what you all have done :)
The guy that did the 11:00pm story virtually melted when Dunia hugged him. I think she is bent on work domination through sweetness. No one has been able to resist her powers.
Today is the day. At 1:00pm EST Dunia begins her surgery. If you are so inclined, say a prayer for her today.
We took her to the lake yesterday for a day of swimming and tubing (don’t worry, the surgeon said it was ok and we drove really slow when she was on the inner tube). Never saw such a huge smile that lasted ALL day long. One day of fun before things get difficult and painful for a few weeks.
@DrDave wrote:
Today is the day. At 1:00pm EST Dunia begins her surgery. If you are so inclined, say a prayer for her today.
We took her to the lake yesterday for a day of swimming and tubing (don’t worry, the surgeon said it was ok and we drove really slow when she was on the inner tube). Never saw such a huge smile that lasted ALL day long. One day of fun before things get difficult and painful for a few weeks.
haha! i bet. even i love going out and tubing on the river, of course there’s usually alcohol involved when me and my compadres are doing it.
hope all goes well, thoughts are with her.
Dunia is out of surgery. She did great and the surgery went smooth as silk. Her heart is now in very good shape. I was allowed in the OR to watch and it was amazing to watch a master at work as he rebuilt her heart.
She woke up in quite a bit of pain, but they got her regulated and she is now sleeping and wakes up every once in a while and asks for ice chips.
Tough kid, they put deep lines in two arteries and she took it like a champ. I think I would have cried if it were me, looked like it sucked.
She is doing FANTASTIC! Last night I removed a suture from where she had a chest tube placed post operatively and that is the last suture to be removed. Her incision is nearly completely healed already, I can’t believe it myself. She is not taking any pain medicine, she is walking with gusto, requires no assistance, and will walk as far as you want to go without exhaustion.
Her only complaint is that the incision site itches and she knows she can’t scratch it. She cracked me up last night and said since she can’t scratch the healing wound, she just rubs her chin instead (she had a nice rosy chin by the way).
I will get some photos up here soon. I am kicking myself for not taking some video of the surgery. I normally video EVERYTHING but I was so focused on the heart starting back up again (after they stopped it for the operation) that I just didn’t care about video. I told the surgeon I am glad I’m a dentist. We generally don’t have to stop and start hearts, too much responsibility there for ‘ol dave.
She was feeling so well yesterday that we took her to a little league baseball game and she loved it.
I have now seen the movies Legally Blonde, ET, Shrek 1&2, and Good Boy 16,326 times each in Spanish. For you guys and gals with kids, do they all watch movies over and over and over and over again?
She is slowly gaining weight, she has no fever. With no rapid weight gain, she is not collecting fluid anywhere so no congestive heart failure or fluid in the chest cavity. No fever means no infection and that is what kills in heart valve replacement. In Honduras, the cardiothoracic surgeon that would have done the procedure, if it would have ever happened there, has a 37% infection/mortality rate. The doc here has less than 1%. I am all but certain she wouldn’t have made it in Honduras, but here she is 1 week post-op and you would never know she had her chest cracked open such a short time ago.
Final doctor visit is Sept 19, but I doubt there will be any problems.
Her birthday is on Friday Sept 15, we will have a big party on the 24th.
@DrDave wrote:
For you guys and gals with kids, do they all watch movies over and over and over and over again?
They sure do. And then some.
We had Whinnie The Pooh on a permanent loop for about a month when Jemima was 2.
Dunia had her follow-up appointment with the surgeon today.
She is in about as good a shape as anyone could possibly be. Perfect heart function, full range of motion of arms, no pain on movement, incision is totally healed, she’s ready to go home.
We take her back to Honduras next week.
It is strange to think this adventure is coming to a close, it has been all consuming for the past few weeks.
You guys and gals have had a part in giving her a gift. What she does with it is up to her, but she most certainly knows that the world is a big place now. I believe she is motivated to see what life has to offer.
Well the time has come. We are taking Dunia home tomorrow. I can’t thank you guys enough for doing all you have done to get the word out. Rob and Lee, your efforts had a significant impact on this whole project. Thanks for letting this story run on PBs for so long and for pushing it at the Flag as well. Thanks again to the rest of you that did something to change the future, for this little girl, in whatever way you did it. We couldn’t have done this alone.
Just in case you didn’t see it, here is a link to some pics. I will put some more up later. The upper left photo is Dunia before she came to the States, the upper right photo is Dunia last weekend. Her trip had an effect. She now knows there is a world out there and she has a desire to explore it.
It is done, she is home. The Mrs. and I are going out to dinner with some friends tonight in San Pedro Sula and then we are going to relax a little bit before we have to head back to the States. It has been a long hard road, but hey aren’t all the good roads long and hard?
You guys rock. Where’s the next place we ain’t supposed to go?
Dr. Dave–you, and people like you are the real rockers of this world. You find the Dunia’s, Bastards do what they can. There are a lot of “Dunias” here in Peru. Mostly nobody cares because it is so common place. You made the difference. We all make a difference. For every thousand that don’t care, one person that does care wipes it all out. No, we didn’t come to watch. Some come and stare and walk away. But the outcasts, degenerates, drunks, druggies, whoremongers, ex-pats and mercenaries have hidden hearts that no one seeks out. Well, some of us care because we’ve been there, done that and walked away without a tee-shirt. No thanks expected nor needed. Sometimes, when you see pretty little Indian girls, their faces half rotted off from ringworm due to a lack of $3 USD of medicine , and the International Red Cross across the street and more concerned with the well-being of terrorists, ya just gotta do something. It’s just what you/we do. Some things are just right. God speed and bless you and the Mrs. come to Peru and stay with us sometime and check out the situation, especially in the Selva. You and the Mrs. are more than welcome anytime. I’ll get off my soap box now, lest the Bastards think I’m too soft, eh Rob?(ya Bastard ya)
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