Difficult days

The past couple of days have really been such an emotional rollercoaster ride. Our little baby Guillermo* has been in need of heart surgery for the longest time and yesterday he finally got it. I had been managing to keep my cool, staying strong in the days up to and during the operation, but as I was waiting for news I received a phone call that just broke my heart. A friend of mine called to tell me that during a drunken brawl one of the street boys that I have known for quite some time now was stabbed in the heart and passed away. I think that hearing this really made me realize the fragility of life. I was sad for the tragic loss of a life of a young man (he was around16 years), the thought of what could have been in his life, and worried about the outcome of Guillermo’s surgery. I was so grateful for the phone call saying that it was a success, but that the next 24 hours would be critical. He is such an amazing baby, such a fighter. He against all the odds survived the surgery, we were hopeful.

This morning I got yet another phone call from Kimberly, my roommate saying that Guillermo’s was having problems with his lungs, more specifically the artery that connects the lung to the heart. It hasn’t expanded as it should have and isn’t allowing enough blood to get to the lungs. If it doesn’t expand enough they are going to have to operate again. Sadly that Is not the most worrying thing. Kimberly returned to our house to tell me that Guillermo’s kidneys have failed and he is on dialysis. They are watching to see if it works, but if it doesn’t they are going to have to do an emergency transplant. I just don’t know how much more one little body can take….

It is interesting though how the brain copes in times of hardship. I tend to go on auto-pilot, and clean like crazy. I don’t really like to give myself time to really see what is going on, but now that my house is clean I find myself having to come to terms with all that is happening around me and to be perfectly honest, I don’t like it.

NOTE -----We have just been told that the dialysis is helping, although only minimally. There is a chance that the kidneys will function again, but he is by no means out of the woods yet.