Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Abby's Miracle by Michelle Doman. Abby's Miracle by Michelle Doman ,. Abby Doman's story of an unexpected trauma, her unyielding faith and the gratitude of those throughout the nation touched by her example is shared by her mother in this honest telling of the tears and triumphs that all heart transplant patients and their families will experience.
A young girl collapses on the ground during PE class. A mother is called from the hospital bed Abby Doman's story of an unexpected trauma, her unyielding faith and the gratitude of those throughout the nation touched by her example is shared by her mother in this honest telling of the tears and triumphs that all heart transplant patients and their families will experience. A mother is called from the hospital bed of one daughter to tend to another. And within hours, a community and a nation is transfixed by the story of this year-old girl's fight to live as she struggles through precious hours and days waiting for a new heart and a new life.
Abby's Miracle is the story of Abby Doman's heart transplant journey, experienced and shared through the eyes of her mother, Michelle Lambert Doman. This book shares the intimate journal entries of Michelle from the very first days waiting and wondering what the experts would say next at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, combined with the clarity of hindsight from reflections looking back as she wrote the book.
Abby's Miracle shares with its readers a journey of hope, tears, prayers, love, family, laughter, and especially gratitude. Gratitude that Abby made the decision to leave heaven and return to her family, even though she was told it was going to be hard. Gratitude for the outpouring of love and support that sustained their family through the journey. And most of all, gratitude for the gift of life and a second chance that was so miraculously given to a very brave - and inspirational - young woman. Paperback , pages.
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Abby's Miracle , please sign up. Lists with This Book. It's up to recovery for a 6 hour, lying flat and not moving recovery. For some reason Abby had a really hard time with the anesthesia this time. When we first got into recovery, she was having a hard time breathing and she felt really crummy. This lasted for 3 days. I don't know why it was so hard this time, but it wasn't a great day.
Abby was grouchy too, and she's never grouchy. During her recovery, we met with the transplant team to go over her results as well. They weren't exactly what we wanted, but they could be worse too. It seems like everything with Abby is "borderline" right now. First, her kidney's aren't doing the greatest. This has been on and off all year, so it's finally gotten to the point where it's time to see a nephrologist. We've scheduled an appointment, here in St.
George, for this Thursday. Abby had to have labs and an ultrasound today and then we'll see what they want to do from here. Abby is also in mild rejection. This is a level that they sometimes treat, but not always. They've chosen not to treat it for now. They took 4 pieces of her heart, and only one of them showed any inflammation, so that's why they're not too worried. We just need to watch for any other signs rejection. Her blood counts were also all borderline being too low, especially her ANC, so this is just something we're going to watch.
The last thing is that at her last clinic visit, they decided to take her off of one of her medications because she was having some uncomfortable side effects. This medication is used to lower her lipids and her cholesterol. Since she hasn't been taking it, her lipid count was way too high. Rather than putting her back on the medication, we're going to try to take of it by putting her on a strict diet first. Hopefully that will do the trick.
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Other than those things, everything looked great. After our 6 hours was up, we headed down to get an echo and an EKG, which both looked fabulous as well. Her heart and arteries did look good which is so important. Overall, we feel like things could be much worse, but they could be better too. We're hoping everything will take a turn for the better here very soon. We've had lots of other things going on top of Abby's biopsy.
Last Monday, Memorial Day, my dad had another heart attack. Thankfully, he called an ambulance. They took him into the cath lab the next day and he ended up getting a couple of stents put in. He's home, on lots of new medications, and recovering now. It doesn't seem very fair, he only had his bypass a year and a half ago. He was supposed to be good for 5 years, but I guess that would be too boring. It hasn't stopped him from kicking our butts at hearts on a regular basis. I am a little mad though, when he called to tell us he had called an ambulance, we were in the middle of my greatest bowling game ever and we had to leave in the middle of the game.
I will probably never be able to top that amazing score either. We're just thankful that he's okay. We've also been busy with Brock's graduation and getting him ready for his mission. It's different with Brock graduating. Britt didn't really like high school, she was so ready to move on, but Brock loved high school and so it made it a little sad. He's got such great friends that are all going in so many different directions.
It's hard to even imagine my house with Brock and his friends there. It's going to be lonely. And finally, we've been getting Brock ready to leave on his mission to Orlando. This has all happened so fast. From the time Brock decided he wanted to go on a mission, until the day he's leaving is only about 8 weeks! He got his call so fast, then we only had 6 weeks to prepare for him to leave!
Let's just say that there's a lot to get done in a very short period of time. It's probably better that way so that I don't have too much time to think about it. Brock goes to the temple on June 7th, his farewell is on Father's Day, June 15th at 9: I'm so sad, but I'm so proud as well. Here's some of our favorite missionary pictures that my dad took last week.
He's looking so good and ready! It makes it easier on me to know that he's so excited to go. To say that my last 6 weeks have been crazy, is probably the understatement of the year, but I'm hanging in there. I think after Brock leaves on the 18th, I'll be ready for some extremely relaxing down time. But, for now, we'll just keep plugging away. Posted by Britt or Michelle at 1: Wednesday, April 16, So, what's going on with Abby? First of all, our trip to Hawaii during spring break was awesome of course!
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We love it there, the beach never gets old! It's always good to spend some time as a family, this is going to get harder and harder to do the next few years with Brock and Britt getting older. We were able to spend time with friends while we were there as well, in fact, both Brock and Britt went on dates with some friends from home!
Mostly we just hung out having fun.
Book review: 'Abby's Miracle' tells of family's faith in quest for a heart transplant
One really great thing, Abby's legs and feet didn't swell up at all on the flight! I'm so grateful that we got that problem taken care of. A couple of really weird things happened with Abby while we were there were that: It was very painful. The other weird thing is that after the second day, she had a very strong sensitivity to sun, so much that just walking from the car to the beach in the direct sunlight would physically hurt her.
It was so strange. She had never had anything like this before, not even when we went to Hawaii last June. It really stunk because for the rest of the trip she would either have to be in the shade, or in the water, or else she hurt, a lot. We still haven't figured that one out. For the most part, we loved our trip and can't wait to go back!
I love how happy we all are! Spending time at the Laie temple This is one of the beaches right by our house It was when we got home that Abby started feeling sick, and now, 4 weeks later, she still feels crappy. She's had a lot of GI issues, stomach cramping, throwing up, diarrhea as well as migraines and she's been exhausted, lots and lots of naps. The other problem she's having is that her arms and legs keep falling asleep, this would happen times every day! The first couple of weeks we thought she just had a virus, and we were just waiting it out.
Then things didn't change, so we talked to the transplant team and they suggested we see our pediatrician and have some labs done. So we did, and the lab results came back negative. We thought she had CMV again, and one of the lab results for CMV came back positive, but when we retested, it was negative. She continued to feel awful, for 4 weeks, some days worse than others, so that's when the transplant team decided they needed to see her to make sure that her heart was okay and to rule rejection and to figure out what's going on!
We went up to Primary Children's on Monday. Thankfully, the echo and ekg looked perfect, so that ruled out any issues with her heart. Her blood pressure has been running a little high, so they're changing the dose on that, and they're taking her off one of her medications that after taking for a while can cause numbness in the arms and legs. Hopefully this will fix that problem. Because Abby has been having frequent migraines and headaches, we're scheduled to see a neurologist when we go back up the end of May for Abby's annual biopsy.
Hopefully they'll be able to help with this. Right now we are still waiting for her lab results. I think it's her eosinophilic colitis again, she had this back in April a couple of years ago. Here's the link to that post 2 years ago: We're almost to the point that we don't even care what it is, we just want to know so that we can help her start feeling better. Hopefully we'll hear later today and we can start a new plan!
One good thing that has been going on at our house that has definitely made us happy is our new puppy Murphy. We new that our old shih tzu Rebel was sick and getting sicker and that he wasn't going to make it much longer, so I started looking for a new dog. Murphy is our new English Cream Golden Retriever and he is the perfect puppy. He is so stinking cute and hilarious. We miss Rebel, but we now have our little shih tzu Marli, and our new Golden, Murphy. Murphy is going to be big, we're thinking around 60 pounds.
So far, he's the perfect dog, let's hope it stays that way. The last exciting thing that is happening at our house is that Brock has decided to go on his mission before playing football at Weber State. His coaches told him that he should get his papers done and in as soon as possible so that he'll be back for spring ball in 2 years, so Brock and I sat down and filled out all of his papers and submitted them all last Saturday.
I think we probably set a new record for fastest time ever! He thinks he could get his call as soon as next week and that he'll leave the first part of June. I have mixed emotions about all of this. Brock will be an excellent missionary, I've always known this, but I don't like to think about not seeing him for 2 years, that's too hard.
With Britt being in nursing school starting in August and being gone all day, and Brock on his mission, I'm going to be lonely! I guess it's time, but it doesn't make it any easier. For right now, we just want Abby to start feeling better! Hopefully they'll find something today that is easy to fix and she can get back to feeling good right away. A month is a long time to feel sick and not to be able to go to school or anything. Lots happening, but summer is just around the corner!
Monday, February 10, Clinic Day!!! We had to postpone it last week because somehow, even though I got my flu shot, I still ended up with h1n1. So after two weeks of being sick and missing school, I was finally feeling well enough to get Abby up there. I do have to say that I'm pretty impressed that Abby didn't catch the flu, we are feeling pretty good about that. As soon as I was diagnosed, Abby and I both started on Tamiflu and then I went and stayed at my parents for a week to keep Abby safe, I think it worked Thank you to everyone that brought my kids dinner while I was staying at my parent's house, they were well taken care of!
Even though it's been two weeks, I still don't have a voice, but I'm back to work anyway. Hopefully it will continue to get better. Now for clinic day. When we first walked in, we were grabbed by a lady that wanted to know if we'd be interested in participating in a study they were doing on finding another genetic link to cardiomyopathy.
Of course we said yes, we will always do anything that could potentially help determine the cause of cardiomyopathy. Brock was with us, which they loved because they wanted siblings of the carrier as well. So, all 3 of us had a lab draw today. Good day for Brock to come to clinic!
Abby had her echo and then we talked to the transplant team. The not so good news is that her kidneys are not functioning in the normal range, her creatinine is too high. This is the 3rd time this year that her level has been a too high, and because of that, Abby's going to have to start seeing a pediatric kidney doctor. We knew this eventually could be a problem, her anti-rejection meds are just so toxic and bad for the kidneys, but I didn't think we'd be dealing with it this soon. Hopefully, we can do some things now that will save her kidneys for as long as possible. We'll see what the doc says after our first visit.
The other good news is that ever since Abby went off of her med, Amlodopine, about 6 weeks ago, she hasn't had any swelling in her feet and legs, not even once! I think we finally figured that problem out and it is taken care of now! Thank goodness, because that was not good. Abby's next clinic visit will be the end of May when we do her annual biopsy again, until then, she just needs to stay healthy, especially through March and our trip to Hawaii!
Also, in May, Abby's going to have some neurological testing done. Ever since Abby's collapse, when she was not breathing or alive for 15 minutes, she's had some memory problems, and we're starting to see it more and more. We're going to try and find some things that we can do to help her, school can be frustrating for her sometimes.
Molina told us today that this is a quite common problem with people that have suffered a cardiac arrest like Abby. Even though we can't "fix" the problem, we can discover what the best ways are for Abby to learn and store new information. It just might not be the same as the rest of us. Abby's excited for this, it should be helpful. Although clinic wasn't perfect, it was okay. We know better than to expect perfection anymore. As for the other two Doman kids Britt has her nursing test next week and she has her nursing school application complete and ready to submit.
Then it will be a waiting game.
Abby’s Miracle from God
If she gets in her first attempt, it will be awesome. But, if she doesn't, that's alright too, she'll just have to decide what her next move is. She's definitely put the work in! And Brock, after going through the exciting, yet frustrating recruiting process, has signed to play football for Weber State next year. It's a little farther away than I wanted him to go, but he is so excited, and I feel like it's going to be a good thing for him. We spent some time yesterday with the coaches and looking around at the campus.
The coaches that we did meet were great, I know they'll be good to Brock. I felt a lot more confident about things after talking to them. It was not an easy decision for Brock, but we both feel like he made the right choice. He's still debating whether or not he'll go on a mission this summer, but I think that right now he's leaning towards going to school for a while first.
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Hopefully, he won't be criticized for this choice. The decision isn't always as cut and dry and some people think, not every kid is the same. Brock will need support with whatever he chooses to do right now, and I have complete confidence in the choices he makes, he knows what he's doing. Anyone that knows Brock knows that he's got his head on straight and he's mature enough to do what's best at this time in his life. Lots of fun and exciting things are going to be happening around here in the next few months, I need to get myself ready for some changes to take place.
Going through the past 2 years with Abby has made me appreciate the little, easy things and life as it is, I think it will be hard for me to give some of those things up. Posted by Britt or Michelle at 7: Tuesday, December 31, Reflections and Predictions.
One thing I can say is that it was definitely easier than and ! Things settled down for us a little bit this last year and we were able to start finding our new "normal. Things I learned in Sometimes when you think you have a new boy puppy named Milo, you really have a new girl puppy named Marli. There's nothing sweeter than seeing one of your kids succeed at something they've worked so hard at and care so much about.
Watching Brock's reaction to winning the state championship was something I'll never forget. Sometimes, when you've taken on too much, it's okay to say no or to give something up. I had to do this recently and it wasn't easy. I was feeling too overloaded and like I was drowning, something had to go. I backed out of something I was supposed to do.
I felt guilty for a long time, but I know it needed to be done, it was the right choice. I'm okay with it now, I think that sometimes you need to say enough is enough. Okay, I already knew this, but I relearned it this past year. Some of the people that were the most involved and concerned with Abby during her transplant, are the same people that now never ask me about how she's doing, her name is rarely brought up; But some of the people that stayed in the background when things were crazy are now the ones that are the most concerned with her and continue to ask about her and how she's feeling.
This isn't true for everybody, just a few. Like I said, people are weird. Never count on anything. A month ago, we were pretty sure that Brock was going to be playing football on a scholarship at SUU next year. The coaches had even asked him if there was anyway he could graduate early and come up to play spring ball with them. But, a couple of weeks ago, 3 of the coaches, including the one that had been recruiting Brock, left SUU and went to Weber.
Abby's Miracle by Michelle Doman
Now things are up in the air again. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out. I think that signing day is the first week in February. It will be so nice to have things settled and not worry about it. We are lucky though, if nothing else works out, Brock can always play at Dixie State, they've been interested in him and in contact with him for a long time. I'm sure that things will work out just as they should. You can't lose weight with just good intentions, dang it. I wanted to get back in shape and work hard, I wanted to really badly, but it didn't happen.
I guess I have to act on those good intentions. Abby and holidays don't mix. She was sick on Christmas this year too. For some reason, Abby is always sick on holidays. It breaks my heart, it really stinks. I love it when my family is all home and together at the same time. I know these days are numbered, my kids are getting old and are going to be doing other things soon, but for now I'll just enjoy it as much as possible. There's no better, more peaceful and relaxing place, then the beach in Hawaii.
I love it there, it's heaven for me. I wish I could live there. It's really hard not to properly be able to say thank you for a gift. Especially a gift that saved the life of your child. We hope and pray that someday, we'll be able to meet Abby's donor family to let them know how grateful for we are for the decision that they made back on July 12th, Without them deciding to donate their loved one's heart, Abby might not be with us today.
I just want to thank them in person. Maybe it will happen this year. Probably the most important thing that I learned in is that I can survive anything and come out okay. We had 2 really hard years, really hard and I'm still here and I'm doing well. It didn't beat me, in fact, I'm better for what we went through. I'm stronger than I thought. Shell's Predictions I'm sure that some of them will be way off, but I'm going to try anyway: Britt will apply to and get into nursing school at Dixie State.
She'll be applying soon, keep your fingers crossed for her, she deserves it. Brock will be playing football at SUU on a full-ride scholarship. Abby will be a sophomore at Desert Hills and will pass the driving test and get her learner's permit in May. I will get in shape and lose weight. I'll get back on my bike and back in the pool.
This is the year that I have time to take care of myself again. Abby will have a hospital stay. I'm not being negative, I've just been feeling it. Hopefully, this is the one that I'm wrong about!