Samuel is a super special kid. Two weeks ago, I had a total flash back of the day I delivered. Samuel was 2 weeks early, my labor and delivery was amazing, and here we had this sweet baby boy. Looking back I remember almost feeling like I was in a daze; yet, at the time I did not realize that really I was sick and fighting an infection. Within 45 minutes my sweet newborn baby was whisked away and taken to NICU to be evaluated. My sister who had been down this same road with her son noticed that he was grunting when he would breath.
Within 2 hours we were told that he was being admitted into the NICU and they were going to take some blood and see if they could determine if there was any infection. His breathing continued to get worse and it seemed that from that moment everything went downhill from there. In less than 24 hours I was told that I have a very sick baby and that he was in critical condition.
I had been to the doctor a couple days before my labor had begun because I thought that my fluid had been leaking. I knew in cases like these it is very dangerous because it is an open door for infection. They did a sonogram and said that my fluid level was ok so they were not concerned. Little did we know that during this time, my baby was getting very sick.
On day number 2 we were numb and not understanding what in the world was happening to us and to our baby. We were told that he had not been showing any signs of improvement and he actually had continued to decline. They had given him drugs to temporarily paralyze him because they needed his body at a complete state of rest. They felt his heart and lungs were working overtime and so they did not want any stimulation of his body at all. I was able to put one finger on him, but was not even to move my finger. The only emotion possible for me at that time was total dependence on God. It was because I believed in Him that I could get out of bed despite the intense pain that I was feeling.
We get to night 2 and we are told that our baby needed to be transported by ambulance to Egleston Children’s Hospital. We were told that there was a machine there called Ecmo. It is really used for a last resort procedure because it is very invasive. It is a heart and lung bypass. From what I understood at the time, they put a tube in the side of the neck and basically use this machine to work as your heart and lungs to give your heart and lungs time to rest and hopefully strengthen them. YUCK is right, but if it meant saving my baby’s life, we will take it.
The prepared him for the transport and my mom prepared to follow the ambulance and take Chris and I to the hospital. Of course my mom could not drive fast enough as the anxiety mounted in my entire body. We got there quite a bit after Samuel did and anxiously waited in the NICU waiting room for someone to come and give us an update…. This tall woman walks out. She has short hair and is wearing no make-up and really looks more like a man than a woman. Right off the bat, I was not feeling this great sense of compassion from her. She introduces herself and has us sit down. She sits in front of us with her legs spread and almost resting on her knees with her elbows, and begins to give us an update.
Samuel did not do very well during the transport. It was rough on his body, but we have him hooked up to the every machine imaginable, IV’s in place, etc and we have him stabilized for now. We will watch him through the night and make a decision about what is the next best step for him. She then looked me in the eye and said, “Your son can not get any more sick, or he WILL DIE!” My response, “What I am supposed to do with that information?”
She encouraged us to go home and get some rest and to call or come back early in the morning. I remember going home and falling apart and then crashing. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and found Chris calling radio stations asking if they would ask people to pray for our son. We could not ask too many to be standing in the gap for his life. We knew that it would only be the hand of God that saved our child.
We returned to the hospital the next morning to be greeted by an angel. We had a nurse that was assigned to watch Samuel 24/7. She was short with black hair and glasses and could not have been more gracious to me not only having a sick baby, but being a new mom as well. She had made him a name tag above his bed. It was one of those sweet babies that was made to look like a snail and had his name below it. Her words were, “Samuel can move as slow as a snail as long as he moves in the right direction.” She explained every machine and said that he was still very, very sick, but again stable.
At that moment, I knew that the more I appreciated each person the better care they will give my son. I tried to respect every wish they had and not to be demanding of anything. Every time we would leave the room I thanked them, let them know that we appreciated them, and asked them to pray for our baby.
Well, he not only made it, but made it without Ecmo. I believe with all my soul that God touched his life and healed him physically. We signed all kinds of waivers as some of the treatment could have some very severe side effects. To this day, we thank God for touching his body and love that he is still with us today and healthy as can be! As much as I am trying to handle this whole middle school thing, I know God has a great purpose for his life and cannot wait to see how God will use him!
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