Emma’s Funeral Arrangements

First of all, thanks for all the prayers and support over the 8 years we have loved Emma.  She has touched many lives and will be missed by many.

Here are her arrangements:

Bertas Funeral Home & Cremation Services

Emma Lynn Kissock

( April 07, 2007 – January 21, 2016 )

Emma Lynn Kissock, age 8, of Bloomington, MN, died peacefully on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at Children’s Hospital, Minneapolis, MN, surrounded by her loving family.

Funeral Service will be held Saturday, February 6, 2016, 11:00 AM at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 4th and Oak Street, Chaska, with Pastor Greg Snow officiating. The visitation will be on Friday, February 5, 4 – 8 PM at the Bertas Funeral Home, 200 West Third Street, Chaska, and also one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday. Casketbearers will be Christopher Beighley, Russell Kissock, Brady Schmidt, Bill Schmidt, Eric Hestbeck, Tom Bush and Solomon Moore. The burial will be at St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery, Chaska. The family has requested please do not have any fragrant flowers ordered for the funeral.

Emma was born April 7, 2007 in St. Louis Park, MN, to John and Robin (Schmidt) Kissock. Emma was currently a Third Grader at Normandale Hills Elementary School in Bloomington. She was known for her infectious smile, her laughter, her big hugs and her colorful socks. Emma was a real people person and loved being around family and friends. She lived her life to the fullest and touched countless lives.

Survivors include her loving parents, John and Robin; sister, Michelle; brother, Anthony; grandparents, Carol Leverson of Bloomington, Sarah Kissock of St. Louis Park, Craig (Natalia) Kissock of Bloomington; great grandfathers, Don Schmidt of Spokane, WA, and Don Olstad of Mankato; uncles and aunts, Lynn Kissock of Maple Lake, Russell (Angie) Kissock of Eden Prairie, John Schmidt of Kansas, Brady Schmidt of Omaha, NE, Bill Schmidt of Omaha, NE, Maddy (Aaron) Blackwell of Warner Robins, GA; many cousins and many friends.

Funeral arrangements were with the Bertas Funeral Home of Chaska, MN.

 

Welcome to heaven my little angel!

Emma was taken by the Lord to be with him in heaven at 8:35 p.m. She was surrounded by her loving family and her pastor. She went peacefully to be with her savior. More information on services, etc. will follow later.

Thanks again for all your thoughts, prayers and support during this difficult time.

Love to all,
John, Robin, Michelle, Anthony and Grandma Carol

 

Emma update 1-21-16

Emma is a very sick 8 year old girl who is heavily sedated and on a ventilator.  We had a couple hour discussion yesterday with the doctors.  They think that Emma’s HLH (a form of cancer) that she had in 2010 is now back and has made her this sick.  Her lungs, stomach and kidneys are also slowing down.  They are trying a couple of drugs to see if that will help, but cannot guarantee any quality of life.  She will have to be sedated for a long time.  We were asked to come to a decision on what we wanted for Emma in the days to come.  They said they would do dialysis if we wanted them to, but they could not even guarantee that she would make it through the procedure.  Robin (Mom), John (Dad), Michelle (older sister) and I (Grandma) all discussed this.  John’s Mom and Sister came later in the day and their thoughts were considered too.  But in light of everything, we decided not to do dialysis and to let the Lord decide what will be Emma’s outcome.  If the drugs work and her kidneys continue to work, we will continue with the medications, etc.  But if the kidneys or anything else fail, then we will all say good-bye to Emma.  It is a very emotional and hard time for us all.

 

Thanks,

Robin, John, Michelle and Grandma Carol

 

Emma Hospitalized January 17, 2016

Emma was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, January 17, 2016. We got to the ED around 2am on Sunday because Emma had a fever of 103.5 even after Tylenol. They’ve done x-rays, blood cultures, urine testing and stool testing. At one time while in the ED her temperature was 104.9 – that’s the highest it’s been. As of right now, it’s been floating around 101, and that’s with Tylenol and/or Motrin every 3 hours. The x-ray showed the starts of pneumonia, the blood cultures are still pending (at the 24 hour point it was negative – so they’ll read it again at 48 hours), the urine finally showed a UTI this afternoon, and the stool showed C.Diff last night. So, in typical Emma fashion, she’s got quite a bit going on at one time…. But until we can keep Emma’s temperature down, she’ll be in the hospital.

Latest update from Robin at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. I’m not even sure where to start with an update….today was just such a whirlwind…Just as the nurse of getting ready to leave to go and check on her other patient, Emma started coughing up blood. Her temperature is still elevated, even now it’s staying steady at 103. Because of the bleeding earlier we’re not longer giving Emma ibuprofen, just acetaminophen. Emma has been intubated since around 10:30 or 11am. Everything just seems so surreal at the moment. I can’t believe that they had to bring me down in a wheelchair when they brought Emma down to the PICU. I’m glad that she’s resting comfortably right now. They do have a Foley catheter in to help with the edema – she’s looking a little more puffy than she was earlier today. I’m not sure what all the antibiotics are that she’s on currently are. Because we still don’t know what type of infection that we’re dealing with. Especially since they said that she does NOT have a UTI…. The resident that was thinking she had one said that because she grew bacteria in her urine, but she’s always going to do that because of her vesicostomy. The cardiologist was in to do an EKG – still waiting results on that. ENT couldn’t find any reason for the bleeding. At least that has stopped – hopefully for good, but at least for now. The doctors are still kind of baffled as to what we’re dealing with. They can’t pinpoint any one thing yet. Hopefully tomorrow will bring us some answers. I’m getting tired from such an emotional day, I think I’m going to try to lay down and get some rest. I’m hoping that it will be better than last night. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.

We will send another update when we know more.
Robin and Grandma Carol

 

Emma in her casts!

Here is a picture of Emma with her casts. As you can see, her baby also has casts! They got them this afternoon.

As you can see, Emma is limited as to how she can move. She is restricted from even sitting up. She can only bend 40 degrees at the waist. They also took out the epidural and will be giving her pain meds. Last night the pain meds weren’t working very well and she was also running a temp. Still running temps and some pain meds are working. So don’t know when she can go home yet.

Emma has a rental wheelchair to use for now as long as she has to be transported in a laying position. Once the casts come off and she can sit again, she will be fitted for a new wheelchair.

Grandma Carol

 

Emma Surgery Update 11-3-2015

Emma’s surgery didn’t get started until 1:00. We were told that it could be 4 or 5 hours. They did the dye study first and then the surgery. They found that her tendon was tight so they made an incision in it to release the tightness. They tipped the ball inward and tipped the pelvic bone downward. She has a metal plate to keep the hip in place. So as the doctor said, “She is a little hippy on the left side”. After 3.75 hours, the doctor came out and told us all of this. They are putting her leg casts on now. She will have both legs in casts with a bar between to stabilize the hip. She is not to sit completely upright for a while. She will probably be out of school for about a month. She will have to get a different wheelchair before she comes home. They also found that she may have a knee issue as well. But we will investigate and fix that later. One thing at a time. Emma will be in the PICU overnight until they see how she handles the pain, etc. Then she will go to a regular room. She will be in the hospital about 5 to 7 days. Of course, that is subject to change as we all know Emma keeps us guessing and changing. John and Robin should be able to be with Emma about 5:45.

Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers and kind words as we go through this with Emma.

Grandma Carol, John and Robin

 

Surgery Scheduled!

Emma saw her orthopedic surgeon a couple of weeks ago as she was having pain in her hip. She is going to be needing surgery on her hip as they believe that she keeps rolling her hip out of the socket, which is what’s causing her the pain. They will need to do a dye study of the joint before they start on the actual surgery, and they’re not sure how invasive it’s going to be until they get in there and start working. With that being said, they’re also not sure what type of cast (hip or more full body) she’ll need to be in afterward. She will be in the hospital for probably at least 5 days, with recovery probably at 6 weeks. The one thing with this, is that the surgery will have to be at Gillette (where all her other ones have been at Children’s), but this is because that’s where they have all the instruments needed for this type of surgery. A lot of the same anesthesia doctors and other types of doctors cover at both places, the main differences will be the nurses and the building….

Her surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3rd at noon. How long the surgery will take, we don’t know now. It will all depend on what the dye study of the joint shows them.

So this week is getting all the pre-op appointments in and getting everybody ready for next week. My sister has graciously accepted the job of taking care of Anthony while Emma is in the hospital. John, Robin and I will be at the hospital for the surgery. Once I know more, I will let you know too.

Your prayers are appreciated as we go through this reconstruction surgery for Emma’s hip.

Thanks, Grandma Carol

 

Update on Emma and family

Things have been moving so fast, I haven’t had time to send an update. I am thankful to say things have been going fairly well and smoothly – just fast paced!

Since Emma’s birthday, Robin had not been feeling well and was sick most of her pregnancy. So that meant Grandma helping out with Emma more. Emma got a baby brother (Anthony Russell) on September 7, 2014. So then that meant more work for all and kept all of us going. We are blessed that Anthony is happy and healthy.

In February, 2015, Robin lost her dad and that meant several trips to Georgia for her, John and Anthony. Emma had to stay home with Grandma and the nurses.

In March, 2015, John and Robin started the process to buy their own house. So with the sorting, packing and moving, that kept us all busy for the next couple of months. They bought a house that was already equipped with a ramp, so that made it easy to transition Emma. They were in possession of the house for Emma’s birthday, so they had the party at the new house (without furniture, etc.). So it was a picnic with card tables and chairs. They had some update work to be done in the house and moved the end of June.

Emma has had a few minor trips to the ER for temps, but nothing that required hospitalization until the 14th of September when she was having upper respiratory issues, coughing and then spiked a temp. With all the issues she was having, the admitted her on Monday and she wasn’t discharged until Thursday. The results were the adenovirus (which is a viral virus with cold symptoms, high temps and respiratory issues), a urinary tract infection and then also cdiff (a bowel infection which causes diarrhea).

Of course, then Anthony got this virus as well as cutting teeth, so we had two sick kids on our hands. Of course, then the rest of the family followed with the colds and respiratory issues as well. Everyone is on the mend, but still have some issues.

On September 26th, John was in his best friend’s wedding (Tom and Jess), so we took advantage of everyone being dressed up and had a family picture taken. So here is the most current Kissock family photo.

Now hopefully everyone can settle in and unpack and enjoy life at a little slower pace.

Grandma Carol

 

Happy 7th Birthday Emma!

Emma celebrates her golden birthday today.  She had a party yesterday with family and friends.  It is an amazing blessing that Emma is 7.  Who would have guessed 6 years ago that Emma would be here today.  Emma has amazed us all and has overcome many obstacles in her 7 years.  We thank the Lord for all his blessings and we thank you for all your prayers and support. 

 

Emma is now at home!

Emma went home Saturday afternoon.  She was finally smiling and willing to sit in bed and play,  Here is a picture of grandma’s girls before we left the hospital.