Meet Aly
Meet Aly
Dream Kid Aly is a sweet, happy three-year-old. Her Dream is to visit Disney World with her family!
Aly is a happy, bouncy three-year-old who loves dancing and reading books. Her smiles are contagious and she thinks she’s pretty funny, if she does say so herself. Her favourite person happens to be her dog, Sadie.
Photo: Dream Kid Aly was born when her mom was just 24 weeks pregnant.
When Aly’s mom was just 24 weeks pregnant with her, she suddenly developed HELLP Syndrome and Eclampsia, while also showing signs of seizures. Aly was born by crash C Section. This little fighter was resuscitated at birth, put on a ventilator and whisked to the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where she spent her first six months.
In NICU, Aly needed caffeine to remember to breathe, and pain meds to deal with being born too early. Her lungs weren’t ready and she relied on a ventilator to breathe. She also required a couple of blood transfusions, a feeding tube in her nose, and dozens of X-rays. While in the NICU, she had recurrent blood, for which she was put on antibiotics for 12 weeks, and had three needles in her spine to ensure the infection wasn’t in her brain.
On top of all this, Aly had a blood clot near her liver, a grade 1 brain bleed, and ROP – an eye disease which is common in preemies, and requires injections, and eventually, laser treatment. Aly’s medical team tried several times to take her breathing tube out, but each time it was unsuccessful. This lead to Aly having a narrowed airway.
At six months old, Aly went to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), where she had a tracheostomy – a hole made in her throat so that she could breathe more safely than relying on keeping a tube down her throat. This gave Aly more freedom to start moving and developing. It also meant a long recovery for both Aly and her family, because Aly would have to stay in the hospital until just after her first birthday – 369 days in total.
Photo: Aly’s family spent most of her first year in the hospital with her.
Aly’s parents learned how to do a trach change, suction her trach, feed her by Gastronomy Tube (GT), and perform GT care. They were both required to take first aid and CPR, as well as spend 24 hours on their own to show they could provide the care Aly would need when they came home.
Photo: Aly spent her first year in the hospital; her sister only met her once for a short visit outside with very special permission.
This was all in 2020, when family and friends were not allowed to come see Aly and support her parents in the hospital. Aly’s big sister Lexie was allowed one short visit outdoors, with special permission.
“While the team at the hospital were amazing, it was an incredibly difficult journey,” Aly’s mom shared with us. “Bringing Aly home was exciting but also scary. She always requires a suction machine and an emergency bag with her. She was on oxygen for the first year and a half, but now she’s completely off oxygen.”
When Aly gets sick, it’s harder for her to recover, but she’s getting stronger as she grows.
“For her first cold, I gave her a bronchial wash, used a resuscitation bag to help her breathe, and took her to the Children’s Hospital Emergency – just four hours after she started showing cold symptoms,” Aly’s mom told us.
Now, Aly sometimes needs steroids and antibiotics for her lungs, but thankfully, not every cold means a trip to the ER anymore.
“We couldn’t have asked for a more amazing daughter. We can’t wait to see her continue to grow.”
Photo: Aly’s illness doesn’t stop her from Dreaming BiG!
Aly may soon have reconstruction surgery to open her airway. This would get rid of her trach, but would also mean another week or two sedated in PICU so that the surgery can heal, with another 2-4 weeks of recovery and rehab in the hospital.
Before this surgery, Aly’s family will be going on her Dream Trip to Disney World! Her family could use this time to be together to regroup and make some amazing memories before the surgery.
“We were talking about family vacations, maybe going away somewhere nice and sunny – and Aly got very excited,” Aly’s mom told us. “She picked Disney World as her Dream Trip!”
Aly has a harder time breathing in cold and dry conditions, so her family believes Disney will be a nice reprieve from the Winnipeg winter.