My miracle is indeed my son.. first of all I was told that I would probably never be able to get pregnant and that if I ever did get pregnant then I probably would not be able to carry to full term. In the summer of 95 I was having alot of problems seeing straight... my eyes constantly hurt..I was getting headaches that would never go away, bright light hurt them. I was in pretty bad shape. Then one day my husband noticed a little lump shaped knot on my eyeball. Not in the tissues surrounding the eye.. but directly on the eye itself in the white part. He took me in to see the doctor.. I had nodgilur episcleritis..For the next three months our lives were totally disrupted.. I had to take medical leave from my job that I loved. I had to take one drop of steriod in my eye every 15 minutes..another one every hour and another one 4 times a day. I also had to take a pill or two along the way. There were days when my husband would come home and find me locked away in the closet cause any light caused me intense pain. He was my sight when I could not see.. my faith when I could not believe. There were many times I felt like I was being punished cause I had to wear an eyepatch in town if we had to go. I can remember people giving me funny looks or staring. My husband was the one thing that got me through that.
I went home for a visit with my family in Oct 95 for 2 weeks.. then I came home. I had to continue my doctor's appointments but I wanted to go home in case my sight was taken from me completely I could have one more look at where I grew up... I wanted to see my niece Chelsea LeAnn and my nephew Eddie Dale Junior (D.J.).. and I wanted to see the ballpark where I played softball for so many years of my life. I wanted to see everything and my husband allowed me to go against doctor's wishes. I really enjoyed going home and seeing everything that I had enjoyed growing up. My mother made my favorite foods.. and her famous yeast rolls.. I was in heaven.
In November they scheduled me for a series of tests and X-rays in Portsmouth VA. for the Monday after Thanksgiving so my hubby and I decided to go see his family for the holidays. We went there and I was extremly sick to my stomach. We all thought it was from nerves of the impending tests. We came home on Sunday night and left on Monday morning to go to Virginia. We were there for a few days. We got home and my hubby and I were talking about the fact that I was still having sickness (morning sickness at the time but we didn't know) so I went in to have a pregnancy test done just to be sure. Boy were we suprised when I got the result back that afternoon.. it was positive. I was on the pill all the time but apparently my medication had affected it. We were really concerned about the fact that I had so many test done recently.. but more concerned over the fact that I had a series of X-rays done to the pelvic/stomach area. We decided to wait and see what the doctor had to say about it all before we talked to anyone about it. I found out on the 4th of December so soon after having been through so many medical problems. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to carry due to what the doctor's told us so soon after we got married. We immediately made an appointment with the OB/GYN doctors. One doctor (name disclosed) told us and I quote.."you both should really consider aborting the baby.. afterall..you are both young and the chances of your child being deformed due to the X-rays are really high and that is totally devastating to young parents with the first child. It could be mentally damaging to you both. It would cause alot of stress and worry in your marriage. Think about what I said and get back to me on this." We went home and for the next four days we discussed options.. we discussed how we would feel and we both decided that it didn't matter.. we were going to have our baby.
We became the happy expected parents telling everyone.. looking at all the baby items we could look at. My husband had to tell all the family.. he was so excited he couldn't stand it. To look at him it was like looking at a kid at Christmas time when they got all the presents that they wanted. *smiles* I was working at a restuarant at the time due to the fact that I wanted to work but my eyes were still bothering me to the point where it hurt to continue my old job as an executive secretary. I really enjoyed working there.. I met alot of nice people and had alot of regular customers. On March 6, 1996 we had a problem arise. I was working the lunch shift and was getting done for the day.. I had one table left and only had one table left to clean. I cleared off the dishes and was making my way back to the dish area. It was a humid, rainy day that day and we were all being really careful on the ceramic tile in the kitchen area. Unfortunately they had taken up the mats that you walk on for added protection. My foot hit a wet spot and I fell. I landed directly on my tailbone in a L shaped fashion..90%. I was in extreme pain and my stomach was hurting so badly. I couldn't move at all.. my neck hurt and everything felt funny.. I felt as though I had a knife going in and out of my stomach. I was so scared that I was losing my baby. They rushed me to the Emergency Room but they were unable to do any X-rays because I was pregnant. I had a broken tailbone and they were positive I had lower back damage only nothing could be done. The baby's heartbeat was still strong but it sounded different this time. I had cervical strain in my neck and they sent me home with Demerol. We went straight to my OB/GYN doctor and the three of them checked me out and said that the baby was fine. I was sent to an orthopedic doctor for follow up and they wanted to watch me closely.
I went to physical therapy.. I did exercises..I had tons of doctors appointments. Everything was scheduled around what the doctor wanted to do next. For the first two weeks following my accident I did nothing except lay on the couch and my husband would help me to bed when he went to bed. I thought for sure that my baby would never make it. They had me on so many different pain killers and anti-inflamatory medications that I thought for sure something would happen. For the rest of my pregnancy after the first 3 weeks or so after my accident I started doing all the things that a normal pregnant women would do. The only thing different about me was the fact that I had to wear a back brace and go to doctors appointments 3 times a week. As I felt the life growing in my belly I knew that it was a miracle then that I had the chance to carrry this baby. The baby doctor's monitored me closely making sure that there were not going to be any complications with delivery. They told me that they would more than likely do a C-Section due to my back injuries. As I neared my third trimester I was huge.. later to find out there were two water bags and one placenta.. I was carrying identical twins. I was determined not to let my injuries keep me from enjoying my pregnancy. We moved in June while I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. I started throwing in a dart league every Wednesday night with my husband and another couple of my best friends. Jessica (my best friend and my son's godmother) and I went yard sale hopping.. we went almost every weekend. I was even in her wedding in June of 96..okay okay.. I looked like a huge grape walking down the aisle. The front part of my dress was about 9 inches off the ground and the back part was dragging the ground. It was quite a site to see. The dress was a size 26. I normally wore a size 10-12. Everything else was huge but the belly was just right. I went from a 30 inch waist to a 54 inch waist. I looked so funny. Dave (the groom and my son's godfather) joked about having to have a dolly to push me down the aisle. Funny guy he is.. haha. The next day I went into my first bought of preterm labor. The checked me out.. kept me for about 6 hours and sent me home.
The next 6 weeks or so I was constantly having labor pains and was not very comfortable. I could not wear alot of my maternity clothes at this time cause they were too tight. I was huge and walked like a duck.. waddle waddle waddle. My mother got here on my due date which was August 1, 1996. She was amazed that I was able to get up and down off the couches... so I had to tell her about the time I sat in my hubby's chair. Big Big Mistake!! I sat down there with the phone and the remote and couldn't get up to go to the bathroom. I had to call Jeffrey at work to have him come home. I never sat in that chair again.
On Saturday the 4th of August we went out to eat dinner with Dave and Jessica along with my mother. Then we headed to Wal-Mart to look around and just have a good ole' time. Then my labor started big time. Of course.. everyone is stopping us to ask when is she due.. my mother would reply.. 3 days ago. We couldn't locate my hubby and Dave. So we went to the front of the store to have him paged. The looks we got I will never forget.. classic indeed. They paged Jeffrey and by the time he got to the front of the store I had to go to the bathroom which was at the back of the store. Figures huh..LOL Well my sweet hubby walks me to the back of the store yelling at everyone to please move. I got back there...thinking that my water was going to break.. nothing happened.. a few drops and that is it. My mother was frantic. She couldn't stand to see me in pain. The doctors had instructed us to time the contractions and so we got back up to the front of the store..and of course we had to push our way up there a couple times. I walked back and forth while timing everything. Jessica was trying to calm Mom down... that was funny..both mom and Jess were walking by my side smoking cigarettes so fast they would light one and finish it and light another one. Both of them saying "it is going to be okay.. it is going to be okay.. it will be okay." I think that was more for them than for me. It was time to go to the hospital.. my hubby drove and once we got there they checked me and I was dialated to 1cm at that time. They kept me overnight for observation. The next morning they sent me home we went to Dave and Jessica's cause it was so close to the hospital. On Monday we had a doctor's appointment and they checked us out and said that we had not dialated any more..we were still sitting at 1. So we came to our house and started the wait.
Tuesday was pretty much the same thing...constant labor pains and tiredness. On Wednesday I got so tired of being in pain so my mom and I decided to mow the yard. We have an acre yard and a push mower. I would mow a strip and my mom would mow a strip.. my mom told me to go take a shower and she finished it up just as my husband was pulling in the driveway. He looked at me and shook his head and said, "Looks like it is going to be a long night. I am going to go take a shower and go to bed." My mother and I laughed about it. He took a shower and went to bed so my mom and I had dinner and I laid down on the couch and timed my contractions. At 9 pm they got really bad. We called the hospital and told them we were coming in. My husband drove like a maniac. We got to the hospital at 9:30 and I took 2 steps from the car when one water bag broke.
They got us all situated and signed in and up in labor and delivery.. they examined me and all was fine but I was only dialated to 1 still. They put me on the drip and they also gave me demerol for the pain. I had a really really rough time..Jessica and Dave came up to the hospital and never left. They stayed there and kept my hubby and mom company.. relieving them to go smoke. Dave and Jeff would go smoke and then Mom and Jessica would go smoke. I was in really bad pain at 12 and they decided to give me an epidural. It took the guy till 3 to get there to give it to me. They were going to go ahead and do the C-Section but they didn't take into consideration that due to my accident that my pelvic girdle was tilted and turned and he was in the birth canal and was pretty much stuck. So we had to do natural birth. They broke the water bag and he was finally born at 11:03 am the next morning. The other water bag was empty ...the baby was not alive. Apparently I lost it early on in the pregnancy. I was only dialated to 8 when I delivered. My son was 8 pounds and 5 ounces. He was 20 inches long and his head was 13.5 cm. He scored a 9.9 on his apgar test. The nurse's took him right away after we held him for a moment while the cord was cut.
Our family was complete..we were really happy. Our son made us happier than we had ever been. His first year of life was so eventful and glorious. He started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks of age. He started eating cereal at 2 weeks. He rolled over for the first time at a little over a month old. He started crawling at 5 months, was walking by 7 months and running by 10 months. He was off the bottle at 10 months and on regular table food. He was so much company for me. Always making me smile when I didn't feel like it. He was relatively happy and healthy. Little did we know what lay lurking around the corner... Read what happened on the Diabetic Page. After reading this you will understand why I feel like my son is my miracle. Remember..all kids are gifts from God.
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Last updated on April 15, 1999
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