This site is under construction so please be patient while my mommy learns what to do..Thank you
Hi my name is Aaron
My story begins on September 26, 1997 when mommy and daddy found out they were having me; you see they were trying for SO long to have me (3.5 years I think) and finally the doctor gave mommy these little pills called Clomid and well on mommy's first month with them they got ME!! Boy were they excited!! They told everybody!!

I was having so much fun!! Then one day mommy went to the doctor and he said mommy had PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) and had to go to the hospital. Ok..I have to admit I got a little scared then but I knew mommy would take care of me. Mommy was only 23 weeks along and even I knew that was too early for me to make an appearance so the doctor put mommy in bed and told her she had to stay there until JUNE!! Whew that's a long time. A week later she got sicker and they had to transfer her to a bigger hospital that had a NICU (newborn intensive care unit) because the doctor knew I was coming early. They were able to keep me grounded for another 3 weeks. YEAH!! They say that is what saved my life (but mommy and daddy know it was the man upstairs:-) )

I was born on March 6, 1998 at 27 weeks weighing in at a big 1 lb 2 oz and 11.5" long. Mommy's blood pressure didn't allow her to give me all the food I needed so I had what they call IUGR (intrauterine growth retardation) so I was the size of a 23 week baby but I was a fighter!!!
Click on the baby to see some of my first photos
This is when all the fun started!! I cruised through my honeymoon period. The docs told mommy and daddy that most babies do great the first week and then start to get sick and of course I have to follow everyone else. On my 8th day I got really sick. I think it was called staph aurias. That is an infection on the skin and they think I got it in my belly button since I had IV lines there. Well they took those out and then I started to feel better...but being on the ventilator really started to take a toll on my lungs and I was diagnosed with a condition called Bronchopulmonary Dysplaysia (BPD). It is very common in preemies who have to be on the vent. It is caused by the little aviolas in my lungs being damaged from the forced air on the vent. I will outgrow it but I have to be carefully watched for a little while.
I then went through my ups and downs. My abdomenal wall is thin so I got 2 bilateral ingunal hernias real early (and boy can they hurt..one is the size of an egg!!) but lucky for me I didn't have NEC (a condiion in which the bowel perforates). I had stage 3 pre-threshold ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) and I had to have laser surgery in both my eyes. I was MAD!! I had just got to nasal cannula when they did my surgery and intubated me again!! I fought until they took that darn tube out!! I WON!! It seemed to be smooth sailing from there. They kept me in the hospital 2 weeks past my due date because I wasn't gaining weight like they wanted when all I wanted was to go home!!!
Click on the babies to see some special photos
Finally on June 26th they sprung me!! Mommy and daddy were so scared. You see I weighed only 3 lbs 6 oz!! But mommy and daddy were willing to take me home. I came home on oxygen because of my BPD, an apnea monitor and a nebulizer. I had 7 different medicines that had to be given at specific times (even 4am!!). Everyone was so excited!! Nanny and Papa met me at home so help us get settled. I liked being home!! I did really well for the first 2 days and then the call came from the NICU. I had been exposed to chicken pox the day I left the NICU!! They wanted mommy and daddy to bring me in to give me a shot to helpme fight the pox if I had them so we packed me up. Everyone commented on how great I looked!! They gave me my shots (2 because my legs were so small it couldn't hold all the medicine) and we went home. Well my body didn't like the shot!! I really scared mommy and daddy. You see I don't have apnea..I have NEVER quit breathing but that night I was trying really hard! Mommy says I was collapsing in her arms I was having a lot of low heart rate and apnea alarms so at 3 am they took me to the ER.
I ended up back on CPAP because I was having a lot of trouble breathing. The nurses and doctors pushed mommy and daddy out the door because they had hardly slept since I came home. They told my parents I would only be there for a few days. They got me feeling better and back on nasal cannula. Then one day I was breathing fast so the nurse didn't want to give me my bottle!! I loved my bottle so I fought but they gave me a feed tube anyway. We don't know what happened next but I got really sick very fast and they had to call in the big dogs and I was intubated AGAIN!! but this time I was really sick and they didn't know if I was going to make it. (FYI..mommy believes I aspirated (that is were you swallow something in your lungs) but no one would confirm it) I felt bad for mommy..she walked in as they were intubating me and she ran out crying. They sat around for 3 hours before they could see me because I was being watched so closely.

It didn't help that my Grandma Fay (daddy's mommy) went to heaven 2 days before all of this. Lucky for me she came to see me on the Sunday before and the nurse let her hold and feed me. Mommy and daddy were at their wits end. The day Grammy's showing started I decided to start bronchospasms and had desaturations (a drop in the percentage of oxygen in your blood) all the way to 16!! The only way I would come up was to be manually bagged by the nurses. I only liked certain nurses to care for me. When I was touched it hurt so I would clamp on my breathing tube (I was being a rebel from the start).
I stayed intubated for a while. The doctors were afraid I would fail off of the ventilator. Finally they decided the extubate me anyway and I did GREAT!! I was so much happier except they put that darn CPAP back on me!! but I worked my way back to nasal cannula and 6 weeks later I got to go home again!! This time weighing 5 lbs 14 oz!! I have been home since!!

I still go back every 4 weeks for weight checks, Synagis shots and oxygen checks but I am home where I BELONG!!!!
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