aja!

Time for an update on Jassel, the little girl I talked about in a previous blog: http://daphnecheryl.blogspot.com/2010/11/you-look-like-aswang.html

Jassel has been waiting for 3 years for surgery on her heart.  She was born with a special heart.  Her heart is completely opposite anatomically and the ventricles do not pump properly.  Because of poor circulation, her blood is not as oxygenated as it should be, leaving her to appear blue (aka “blue babies”).  Jassel’s heart formed special veins and arteries in order to bring the blood to and from the rest of her body.

While waiting for surgery, she has had to have multiple blood transfusions to replace her very thick blood with normal thin blood.  The blood that is used must be replaced in the blood bank, therefore, requiring all, who are able, to donate blood as frequently as possible. 

Thankfully, an angiogram was FINALLY performed yesterday (Friday) on Jassel after she was admitted on Thursday.  She was given a blood transfusion today (Saturday).  Therefore, I went with Ate Red (Safe’s National Director) to the Heart Center to donate and replace the blood that was used.  I was able to give and the process was amazingly faster than the last time (even though drug and blood testing was added to the list of pre-donation procedures).  And afterwards came my favorite part again…going to see Jassel.

As we sat and talked, her mother told us how strong she was during the procedure.  Jassel could see the concern and fear in her mother’s eyes and asked the doctors if her mother could come in with her during the procedure (here’s the tear-jerker) so that Jassel could make sure that her mother was okay and hold her hand through it to let her know that she was going to be fine.  Jassel had been through so much in the past 2 days but still held an incredible amount of strength in her tiny body.

We were able to talk to the doctor who gave us an idea of the future plans for surgery, as up to this point there hasn’t been a clear plan and so many “it depends” and “we’ll sees” have put off surgery for far too long.  The doctors are hopefully going to meet next week to review the angiogram results and set-up the next step.  The doctor also informed us that Jassel would be staying in the hospital at least until tomorrow (Sunday) and possibly longer depending on how she is doing.

After the doctor left, Jassel was sad. It was the first time I didn’t see a smile on her face.  Her mother finally told us that she didn’t want to miss the Christmas Party at church tomorrow. As she told us, Jassel began crying.  This precious, tiny girl who has so much courage and is so strong everyday with needles going in and out of her and doctors and hospitals, etc., etc., etc. was so upset that she wouldn’t be at a party.  Ahhh! I was broken….into a million pieces!!! With her keeping her brave face on 24/7 sometimes I forget how fragile she is and that something like a Christmas party could be so important to a little 9 year old. 

It’s times like these that make me frustrated that something hasn’t been done already….3 YEARS she’s waited for surgery but “it’s not bad enough yet.” She is missing out on so many things that most 9 year olds do just because the system isn’t ready to deal with her case yet.  Her not living her childhood the way that she should and could be able to…says that it’s past bad enough.  Hopefully, things will begin to move forward now though and Jassel will be able to run around like the other little girls her age soon. But until then...she'll keep fighting and she'll stay strong...with the help of a SUPER strong God :)

Aja! She's a brave little fighter :)

As you can imagine, the multiple hospitalizations, procedures, and surgery that Jassel has and will be going through are expensive.  Therefore, if you would like to donate specifically to Jassel, please send a check made out to RTP Community Church to P.O. Box 11236, Durham NC 27703 

(Please put Daphne Meeks-Jassel in the memo line).