(For the next week while I'm away from the computer enjoying the wilderness that is Alaska, I'll be sharing posts that led to the miracle baby boy we call Elias. I'll be writing live again on August 1st. Until then please enjoy these glimpses into the past few years.)
May 1, 2004: Today a nutritionist came to review Elias's chart and after a few minutes she stopped and said, "Were you in the other room in the back corner a while ago?" I told her we were there for seven weeks. She couldn’t believe he was the same baby and then told me: "I didn't think he was going to make it."
It’s the first time I heard those particular words spoken out loud. The morning Elias arrived the doctor told me she didn’t know if he would survive and that in itself was enough to cripple me for a while. But hearing someone from the medical profession admit that she didn’t think he would make it reminded me how lucky, how blessed, how miraculous, Elias, Nick and I are.
By being born between 24 and 25 weeks his chance of survival is around 50/50 and that is just being born, not including being breeched, stuck in the birth canal, emergency c-section, no heart rate or breath, an apgar score of zero, a level three brain hemorrhage, heart surgery to close a valve, and finally brain surgery to insert a reservoir. Not to mention chronic lung disease, a handful of blood transfusions and spinal taps, calcium deficiency, anemia and the list goes on. In a book we have about preemie babies I’ve only been able to skip a few pages in the chapter of common problems.
But with it all, he is now lying about twenty feet away from me breathing on his own with support from a nasal canula, he’s working his way towards triple his birth weight, the bleeding in his brain has stopped, the clots are resolving and the trapped fluid seems to be escaping.
And so now I am able
to get stressed out about breast feeding which in the big scheme of his life is
a very small issue. Tonight, I am overwhelmed with the miracle of Elias Everett
Elias is so beautiful!
Posted by: European | July 29, 2006 at 02:19 PM
You are amazing Christy, you truly are. As I read through your blog and your NICU stories, they hit so close to home that it brings tears to my eyes and goosebumps on my skin. You are able to put a voice and put words to feelings and experiences that I still cannot bring myself to fully talk about. My son came home on April 1st of this year. He spent 78 long and terrifying days in the NICU. I so admire your courage, and the peace that you have within you. I am still struggling to find my peace with what happened to my son (whose middle name is also Everett!!) Thank you for you openess and your honesty in all of your writings, it is a form of therapy for me.
Posted by: Stacy | August 02, 2006 at 07:51 PM