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Remarkable Warrior Rinken, Brookings, SD (2026)

01/23/2026

Day 3 Update:

630 our nurse came in to try and draw labs and was again unsuccessful. This was also not a part of the plan we made last night. A little frustrating but she did good.

715 we ordered breakfast and the nurses came in for shift change. They put numbing cream on her hands so we can start the lab process.

Shortly after 8 we went to the procedure room for her labs. One poke this time it was good.

We went back to her room, ordered breakfast and got ready for the day.

We had several people coming in and out. Social worker, nurses, child life and more nurses.

I continued to work inbetween all the short 5 minute conversations.

Finally about 1030 her Doctors all came in. They were impressed with how well she looked, that she already has drank more today and all day yesterday and she was eating.

They agreed we could hit the road around 12-1230, and that we did. Grabbed some
Lunch and hit the road home.

We will have to go back next week Wednesday for labs and check up’s.

She’s super tired and crabby. We already sprayed her room down to clear out the “monsters” and she’s cuddled up on my lap.

It feels good to be home. Now to stay here!!!

Thank you all for reaching out. I truly hope this helps people understand a bit more about what our life looks like.

Much love.
Rink and Em

01/22/2026

Evening Update Day 2

Rinken woke up around 12:30. She wanted to watch some tv. Lunch was ordered, her standard macaroni and cheese with a side of mashed potatoes with extra beef gravy. She ate about 4 bites of macaroni and one of the mashed potatoes. She’s still not drinking. I’m trying everything I can think of. She’s just not thirsty.

After she was done eating she wanted to do some arts and crafts. I think they are going to turn out cute. Thanks Nana for the idea.

About 300 hit and she was ready to cuddle up and rest. I’m working away. Blessed that I can do both be here with her and work!

330 I got a call from the social worker. Checking in to see what we need and / or how he can help. It’s nice to be cared for by them!

Rinken rested for another two hours while I worked away. As long as she can see me she's chill. She did have a crazy moment where she was yelling and screaming and crying. She gets overly tired, scared, stir crazy and doesn't know how to express herself yet. We're working on that!

The Resident stopped by again. She apologized that it had taken her so long to get back to us. She explained how she was trying to get ahold of Rinken's heart transplant team. She loved how when she spoke to Adam she didn't even have to say Rinken's name, he knew exactly who she was. They discussed some of her test results. They are going to change the dose of one of her meds and we will repeat labs one week after we are discharged.

I need to take a second to say how AMAZING it is to have a complete TEAM of doctors who talk with each other and are all on the same page when it comes to Rinken and all the things going on with her. I have complete trust in all of them, and it's a good feeling.

I snuck out to grab some food for about an hour. It's good for both of us to have some time away from each other. I brought her back some left overs and I was her best friend again. We snuggled up. Then it was time for nurse switch.

We have the same nurse as last night which is always a HUGE blessing. We have already made a plan for labs tomorrow morning. I pray they continue to go as smooth as they did today!

It's now bed time. She's been on and off sleeping for about 45 mins now.

Thank you all for the messages and calls and everything! We get through this with this amazing army!

ALSO, Blunt & Blessed is LIVE now! Go and check it out. You won't be dissapointed!!!

Until tomorrow....Emily

01/21/2026

Day 2 Morning Update:
I woke up this morning at 545 to and go talk to nurse about labs. If we had them, what the plan was and to make sure it was done in the procedure room not her room. We do this because her room is a "Safe" zone so she can feel safe and secure here.

About 558 nurse came in while Rinken’s is was still sleeping to see if he can get labs through her iv. Fingers crossed it works. 615 the nurse leaves after trying to get blood from IV. Doesn’t work. No shocker there. Now we have to wait for labs. This will be not fun. We started our first movie for the day, Dog man.

About 620 the nurse back with numbing cream for upcoming labs. She did very good getting these three spots numbed up.

640 we head to the procedure room. I climb up on the bed and have her sit in my lap. I then throw my legs around her's so she can't move and I'm also able to help hold her arm. It took two pokes and one wrestling match but I'm one super proud mama!!! She did so so good. We were back to her room around 655 and took her morning meds.

710 start calling for breakfast. Resident comes in we chat some about the night and day so far. Still on hold for breakfast. 720 I'm able to order breakfast, the resident leaves and new nurses come in to do shift change.

730 i take a quick shower and get ready. 810 breakfast. 820 resting in bed and working.

950 docs in we talk about the game plan for today. Slow IV fluids down a bit to hopefully get her to drink more. Another round of IV antibiotics and another round of antiviral meds. Possibly go home Thursday or Friday but too soon to think about that. They head out about 1000 and Im back to work.

1015 Rinken is sleeping and resting well now for an hour.

Child life was just in to see if we needed anything, give her a prize for this morning and check in.

This is us. I have my computer set up right next to her bed so I can work while I'm here. School got called off so busy sending notifications out to people about no Journey tonight.

Time to answer some questions.....
1. How can I help?
-- Prayers, messages, snaps, encouragement. These 4 walls are small, little things help make it better. We aren't asking for anything but what helps is: Gas Cards, Food Gift Cards, Walmart Cards, anything like this...things I can use to go get and bring to her to make it feel more like home and less like a depressing place to be.
2. Is she going to be ok?
-- The short answer is yes. The long answer is 5 years in the making. We go back to her Immunologist in three months. This is when we can apply for Infusions. We have to have 6 months proof that the three a week meds we take aren't working and we are still being hospitalized.
3. Why is this always happening?
-- Her body is just different. We are fighting to make it as normal as we can. Sometimes the fight is longer than we want, but we keep fighting.

Thanks again for reading and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Little things mean the world to us and you're helping even though you may not think so!

I will update again this evening when she goes to bed.

Love to All!
Em

01/21/2026

My post from last night:

Rinken was admitted to the hospital again today. I get many questions about our stay / journey so I'm going to try and do a much better job of event telling while we are here this time around.

Yesterday Rinken started to show some signs she may be getting sick. She starts to get super tired, crabby, says her head and tummy hurt and her eyes get big black circles around them. These are the first "watch" signs I look for.

This morning Rinken woke up and she was a tad bit warm. I took her temperature and she was normal so we proceeded to school with business as normal. I let her teacher know a head of time what was going on so she knew. We have to be a bit tricky with her because if she hears us talking about it then she's automatically sick, and smart! I dropped her off and headed back to work. At 9:00 I got a message from her teacher that she had a slight fever. We talked about it and made a plan. at about 9:45 I got another message that her fever was now over 100. I finished up my work meeting, packed up my work things and headed to get her from school.

We left school and stopped at home to get our things. I always have a blow up air mattress in the car and ready. I grabbed some clothes, our shower kit, some blankets and pillows, chargers and electronics and headed south.

We checked into the New Pediatric Emergency Room at Sanford in Sioux Falls around 12:45. Let me take a second to say WOW. This new place is top notch and just what South Dakota needed! Within a few minutes we were taken back to the new ER for Kids.

Child Life and her nurses got started right away. Then we saw our amazing doc. They have some of the best here too! We made our plan, typical standard things for her: labs, blood cultures, UA, urine culture, strep test and viral panel. Also throw in an x-ray for good measures.

Round one starts for trying to get an IV. They give her some meds to help her relax and then It's a wrestling match with 3 nurses, myself and then the person drawing the blood. Rinken wins, well sorta. Three pokes and no success.

Break time and while resting lets try x-ray. 5 of them because now she's so tired, and "drunk" from meds that we can't get her positioned right. Done.

Now time for a different relax med and round two for getting an IV. This time they called in the big guns. Our favorite PA came right in and boom we have an IV. Well, about 30 mins later this time.

Now it's time for Rinke to rest while we wait on lab work to start coming in. Once about half of them come back, our doc comes back in and surprise surprise we get a room. Plan of action is to get her up stairs and start some IV antibiotics.

We arrive in our new room in the castle about 4ish. Then we start the admission process. Questions and questions and more questions. Then the nurse leaves and the Resident comes in. New resident so we tell our story, however this time she already knew most of it which was AMAZING. We finish up with her and our Doctor comes in.

Doctor and I help talk over things with the Resident and we make our plan:
-- Rinken has pneumonia in her lower right lung.
-- Rinken has a few different viral things going on.
--IV antibiotics, IV antiviral medication, IV fluids all ordered.

Next up is the nurse. She comes in and starts to get her IV things going. RINKEN HATES THIS. We are learning she says, "it hurts" and cry's when in reality, she's scared of the unknown. We are now working on this with her.

In between things, I work as much as I can...

Now it's rest time. Food is ordered, I run down and get my vehicle from ER to Castle and settle in. By 7:10ish she's finally passed out and I go to the family lounge to start working.

It's exhausting. But I will continue to do it over and over and over.

Most questions / comments / message we get are: How can I help? What do you need? Is she going to be ok? Why is this always happening? I will address all of these in the morning as I'm so tired I need some sleep.

Thank you for reading this far.....I know it's long but it just is a small glimpse of what we do on our stays.

I'll post more tomorrow......

Em

12/09/2025

https://vimeo.com/912048574
The password is: FreeHeartSisters

Here goes nothing.....
Hey Family and Friends!!
As you all know by now, Rinken had a Heart Transplant in August of 2022. During this time we met an amazing film-writer, Chris Phillips who asked if he could document our journey. He had a vision and our families fit it perfect.
Many many hours of filming, interviewing, editing, crying, laughing and loving the documentary, Heart Sisters, was made.
This is raw. This is real. This is graphic. This was our life.
I invite you to take an hour out of your day and take a glimpse of what life was like for us.
One thing that we want with the making of this film is simple. Donations Save Lives.
Enjoy, reflect, and share.
Emily and Rinken

10/17/2025

Night 3 Update:
We really need prayers for eating and drinking. We order food, take a few bites and are done. We had lots of testing done on the Liver today…..and 4 nasty pokes for blood. We are cuddled up for the night praying for eating lots of food tomorrow.

We love you all!

10/16/2025

Rinken Updated:
First of all, thank you all for the calls, texts, snaps, messages, rides and prayers. It takes a tribe and I’m so blessed by ours! We got settled in after our flight, iv, meds, and lab draws and fell asleep around 3am. We talked with her Doctor around 11. We are so blessed the doctor we will have this week is her Primary Care Doctor. She knows Rinken and it makes everything so much easier. Today has been a rest day. She’s (let’s get real we’ve) slept the majority of the day. Her cough is nasty and she just wants snuggles. Tomorrow we will start seeing all of her specialty doctors to make sure we leave no stone unturned.

Everyone keeps asking how they can help. Well we will more than likely be in the hospital a few more days. Sunday is her birthday and she was looking forward to having a big birthday party and celebrating her. That won’t happen now. So if you’d kindly send her a card in the mail to shower her with love it would me the world to me!!!

1344 3rd St - Brookings SD 57006 is our address.

Again. I can’t express how much easier this is when I have people like you in my corner!!!

I’ll update more tomorrow evening.

All out love!

Em and Rink

10/14/2025

Rinken Update:

Her appointment went really good. She has a condition called SAD: Specific Antibody Deficiency. With this she will take an antibiotic 3 times a week for 2-3 years. He will continue to check in on her. It won’t be fully effective for about 3 months. We should know between 3-6 months If this is working / helping. If it doesn’t help then we will need to do infusions. So praying this is the answer!!

We are home sick today with a fever. Praying it’s short lived and no hospitalizations!!!

God is Good!

10/08/2025

Update: We are back in Brookings! Since she’s been fever free for over 24 hours as well as no throwing up. It has been decided that we need to see the Allergist to start our next process of healing Miss Rinken. We weren’t suppose see him until late November. I rescheduled and we will see him Thursday morning at 7:30 am! Please pray for us to have smooth time the next 36 hours and for finally some answered prayers!

Em and Rink

10/06/2025

We arrived at the Sanford ER at 12 today. It’s been a long day. While we have been waiting to see the doctor…(twice in 6 hours nurses 3 times total) I received a message from Rinken’s Allergy Doctor. She’s been diagnosed with SAD. Aka crappy immune system. We are awaiting going to the castle to start meds and or infusions to hopefully get going on the right track! This is a VERY shortened story but it tells the main parts. Currently she’s sitting at 99.9 temp and O2 is right at 89.

As always prayers are so welcomed !!!!!!

Remarkable Warrior Rinken

01/23/2026

01/22/2026

01/21/2026

01/21/2026

12/09/2025

10/17/2025

10/16/2025

10/14/2025

10/08/2025

10/06/2025

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