Susan's Story |
Our Preemie Miracle Child
In retrospect this last 18 months has been quite the ride. My son was premature and suffered many complications. Here is my story....
I was 26 weeks pregnant and had suffered a few false labours. One day the pains seemed a wee-bit worse and I had an extreme amount of pressure pushing down. Upon visiting the bathroom, I noticed I was bleeding. I called my Dr. and met her at the hospital. I was taken down for an urgent U/S because we thought that my placenta may be pulling away. Luckily there was no sign of that. The bleeding slowed down later that evening and I returned home with the promise to come back if the pain got worse.
I continued to have false labour 2 to 3 times a day for the next week. Then during one of them my water began to slowly leak. Again I was off to the hospital. By the time I got there I had amniotic fluid pouring out. The nurse asked if it could be urine and I said no, as a matter of fact I had left a long puddle just walking from the bed to the toilet. My Doctor recommended that I go via ambulance to Toronto. It's easier to transport the babies inside rather then outside! I arrived in Toronto just before midnight. My contractions were 4 minutes apart the entire way. The contractions were not really painful but the nurse decided to give me a shot of Morphine to stop my labour! This worked well except that it made me very itchy and I spent 30 minutes scrubbing myself with soap and water. The next morning they moved me to the antenatal floor. That afternoon the contraction started again. This time I opted for Demerol as I did not want the itchiness! It worked, no contractions until the next morning at 5 am. Once they started I let the nurse know and they connected a monitor to me and then all we could do was wait.
At 9 am my husband called to say he was going home. I told him that wasn't a good idea. He arrived at the hospital about 11 a.m. By the time he got to the hospital the contractions were really starting to smart. I was chewing a soft pliable ball to control my tension. The Doctor came in to check me and said that nothing had changed and that the contractions would stop soon. She returned 2 hours later to find me very agitated and in a lot of pain. Again she checked me and told me it was not real labour as nothing was changing. She ordered a shot of Morphine to stop my labour. I just wanted the pain to stop. I started counting the minutes waiting for some relief. Fifteen minutes later I was in even more pain. I had no idea how close the contractions were but I was trying not to make my roommate deaf. At one point my husband went to get a nurse. He explained that the contractions were on top of one another. She rushed in, took one look at me and called the other nurses. They were trying to get the resident to come check me, but she was refusing. She figured I was just overreacting. Finally after 5 minutes they dragged her in and she checked me-6 cm dilated and fully effaced. You should have seen the look on her face. The nurses threw up my bed rails and started to transport me to L&D. Just outside the bedroom door I felt a lot of pressure. About 30 seconds later I felt the urge to push. With my husband behind me the cart went zooming down the hall and into the delivery room. One nurse had the nerve to tell me that she would get me an epidural. Yeah right! Within a minute I was pushing. Nurses were flying around and I had about 10 people present for the delivery. In the end my son was born flat except he had a heartbeat of less that 60 bpm. They rushed him away. An hour passed before I saw him again. It was the longest hour of my life. I didn't know if he was dead or alive...
The longest hour of my life and the only ones experiencing it were me and my husband. He was much more worried then I. He just kept saying "Maybe he's dead." I knew they would have told us by now if our son had died. The reason it had taken so long was they needed to stabilize him to get him out of immediate danger. The nurse brought in a drink and I was unable to bring the glass to my lips. I was shaking so badly partly from nerves and partly from the infection inside that had brought my temp. to 102. After what seemed like hours the nurse came in and said that they were taking me to my room. I just went along with it. Then we turned down the hall and I asked where we were going. The nurse responded, "to see your baby first". Wow.....What a relief , He was alive! When we first saw him my husband couldn't stop staring. I knew what to expect but he didn't. He was so small under all the tubes. I held his hand and he felt totally limp. The Doctor said he weighed 900 grams 2 lbs. Even. Then off to my room to tell the world that my son Lucas had arrived, Alive! But we didn't know for how long.
I saw Lucas in the NICU the first night. I was taken aback by all the machines and alarms. But he was there laying in an extra hot isolette. He was naked and had a cotton ball on his penis to catch the urine. He had many lines running into him and was on a vent. He'd had a rough ride. All night I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about him, but I didn't want to disturb the nurses, silly me. The NICU is always open and ready for parents 24 hours a day this was something I was glad for later.
The next morning I saw the neonatologist. He said that Lucas was very sick when he was born and that was a big concern. Also his kidneys were not working well yet. The next 24-48 hours was a critical time. So the waiting game started. His kidneys picked up and at 3 days he had progressed so well that they took him off the vent. One evening during one of our routine calls to check on our son's condition my husband asked for the nurse but the doctor came on instead. He explained that Lucas had "complications" and that we needed to be there at 8 a.m. in the morning for a meeting. My husband was dumb-founded and did not ask any questions. All we knew was he had suffered a severe bleed in his brain. He got off the phone and we dropped my daughter off and left for the city. How could we wait not knowing the outcome? We arrived at the NICU at 12:30 am and found my son looking exactly the same. Still breathing on his own. The nurse came right over to tell us the doctor was on his way. He explained that they routinely do U/S of babies heads a week after birth to check for bleeds. Many small preemies have Grade 1's in fact they don't usually tell the parents. Some have grade 2's and some even have a grade 3. But only a few have a grade 4 like Lucas. In fact, they divide grade 4 into 3 categories mild, moderate and severe. Lucas was said to have a moderate to severe. Not the worst that the hospital has ever seen but one of the worst. In fact, they were so surprised to see it as he showed no sign of problems which sometimes happens when a baby that small has such a big bleed. But he did well. In the meeting we were told that Lucas would probably have motor problems as mild as weakness (like that from a stroke in an adult), to as severe as being a quad. But we wouldn't know until he was at least 3 months corrected. (that's from his due date) The scare of our lives quickly became manageable as our son was going to make it. We had initially thought that he was going to die from the complications.
Two days after that he was put back on the vent. I was so upset that I cried and cried during the next 5 weeks. Lucas progressed to CPAP (a machine which blows into the lungs constantly but the baby does breathe himself this just makes it easier). But boy he loved that CPAP. We tried weaning him about 10 times to no avail. As a last ditch attempt, we put him on nasal-prongs and it worked! I was so happy my baby could finally move closer to home.
The day finally came and I anxiously waited for the phone call telling me they were on their way. At noon I had to call and see what was taking so long. The nurse told me Lucas was unable to come. She said he was sick and he had back-to-back apnea spells. I started crying. I had waited 6 weeks to have him home. I was shaking so bad I could barely hang up the phone. I left immediately for Toronto. I had to know the whole truth. When I got there I was informed, by the Neonatologist, that Lucas' U/S of his head had showed his ventricles were getting large and that he would probably need to be transferred across the street to Sick Children's to have a shunt put in. I asked when and he said they would repeat the U/S in 1 week. I asked to have him transferred. I would rather have him closer to home for the 1 week. The doctor agreed and my son was transferred the next day. After another five weeks of hospitalization and a great amount of coaxing my son came home Dec 23rd.
My boy is turning 2 on Oct. 11th. He is small, 20 lbs, but he has done amazingly well with his motor skills. He was slow at first but now he is right on track. He has a few problems such as weight gain, speech delays, and asthma (which could send him to the hospital very quickly). He goes from a cold to pneumonia in a matter of days. In spite of all this he is a very happy child. My little miracle!
To all you Moms and Dads with little ones, work hard and stimulate them. That's the only reason Lucas has done so well. To the medical community who says 4th degree bleeds = Cerebral Palsy I disagree! I have the medical proof, do you?
Thank you for letting me share my story with you.
