I had pre-eclampsia and my water broke so I was admitted to the hospital for a few days on antibiotics and steroids to strengthen the baby's premature lungs. During the night of January 7 I started having trouble breathing. I thought I had eaten too much hospital food (is that possible??). I waited til morning then casually told the nurse..."Ya know...I can't breathe..." At that point all hell broke loose. I was diagnosed with pulmonary edema and my lungs were filling with fluid. The doctors and nurses started flying around and on January 7, 1998 at 1:30 pm Sean William was born by emergency C-Section. He was 2lbs 11oz, 15" long and 8 weeks early.
He was admitted to the NICU and he did ok for being so small... He never even had to be intubated. However on January 12, 1998 the neonatal Dr. told us he was going downhill. One of his lungs was inflating but not deflating... it was blowing up like a balloon. He was transferred by ambulance to UNC Hospital NICU - where the frantic doctors tried to fix the problem without having to amputate his lung. They were just hours away from removing the lung when they tried intubating him. When they removed the breathing tube 2 days later, he started to breathe on his own...and the lung was inflating and deflating on its own! We had a few more ups and downs before we were out of the woods...
He was then transferred back to REX where he gradually gained enough weight and came home on February 21, 1998 at 4lbs 6oz.
I just hope that in my lifetime, I can carry out all the promises I made to God if only Sean could keep his lung...
Fortunately, I was able to stay home with him for the 1st year. I started a new job in December of 1998 and Sean started daycare. The first week there he came down with RSV and we rushed him to the ER. He was admitted to the PICU with pneumnonia and a collapsed lung. He stayed there for 1 week recovering and after I pleaded and cried to the Dr., we were allowed to come home on Christmas day 1998. Not a great way to spend the baby's 1st Christmas but Santa did find Sean at the hospital and he received many nice toys and a teddy bear!
Today he is a healthy, incredibly active 5 year old. In fact he almost never gets sick. We think he has antibodies to everything after what he went through in his early life!
He's looking forward to kindergarten in 2003. |
