(Written July 2001)
Sabrina Lidia Tersigni was born March 1, 2000 in
Brampton, Ontario, Canada. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces
and was 21 inches at 12.05 pm. She is my last baby of
4, she has two brothers and one sister.
Well, an hour later she was back...without Sabrina, and I
asked her what happened, she said the cardiologist
wanted to see me upstairs right away and she would be
going to the hospital for sickkids in Toronto...I
didn't think much of it but I was concerned she going
to the hospital...well 3 hours later I was kind of
numb when I could remember him saying "operation"
"life threatning"......"surgery"......next thing I
knew she was on her way in a ambulance and I was going
home without a baby. Well girls you know how you feel
the first week when you have a baby, put on top of that
going to the hospital everyday feeling like crap and
wondering if you have to plan to bury your child which
hasnn't ever been home yet. The day of the surgery I
kept upbeat but very nervous wondering what the future
might hold...lets just say it was the longest 7 hours
of my life....
On April 2, 2000 she was
discharged, it was the most happiest day of my life, I
got over knowing my daughter had HLHS left heart
hyplastic for the rest of her life but I do know she
is a survivor and she is now 15 months and hopefully has
great future ahead. To parents who have found out
your child has a heart defect, its not the end of the
world and your child can be helped, its not about your
little one going die its all about living life to the
fullest. Thank you for reading my story.
Copyright(c)2001-Melanie
2 Hours Old
Well my
pregnancy was much different from my first 3, I didn't
gain much with her, only 20 pounds but was I ever sick
with her. First i got gestational diabetes so I had to
prick my finger for 5 months straight to make sure my
blood sugar was not too high, which at the time would
go as high as 12, which was not good. On top of that I
had the worse case of nausea you could imagine, some
days I just wanted to go in a corner and not get up
till the day I went into labour. I had to get some
anti-nausea pills prescribed by the doctor. I was so
worried about this at first, because 30 years ago or
more they had that thylinomide scare with the deformed
children I thought this would happen, but my doctor
assured me it would be ok...it helped to take the edge
off.
5 Hours Old
Anyway I got through the pregnancy and I did have
her. Well the first day I was happy cause she was
rooming with me and they wanted me to go home, but I wanted
to stay another day, cause my son Anthony who is now 5 had
come down with jaundice when he was born so I asked
the nurse and doctor if I could stay, they hemmed
and hawed caused they were short of beds but said ok(I
was so glad I did this).....anyway I stayed an extra
day...so the day I got discharged I was all ready and
I got sabrina ready and my doctor came by checked her
out and said she was ok and we could go home, I called
my husband, Lorenzo, to come and pick us up...well the
nurse I had that day wanted to do one more check...so
she came by...well she was there for a while with her
stethescope and then she said to me she didn't like
how Sabrina was breathing and wanted her checked by
the cardiologist up on the next floor...well I
said sure and she would be back in a half hour.
a week after her first open heart surgery
anyway my darling daughter made it
through the surgery and had 9 different medicines hooked
up to her tiny body, it seemed so surreal cause she had
tubes coming out and going in, and liquid coming
out, for one weird second she reminded of a car getting
overhauled...
3 Days After Glenn Procedure
anyhow I just tried to be strong for
her...I remember going home at night, waiting for the
phone to ring telling me something bad happened
overnight......it never came...the next day I would go
to the hospital and the nurses would be telling me how
much she improved, but I was always waiting for the other
shoe to drop and wait for something awful to
happen, but you know for the whole month she was
there, she kept improving. Her cardiologist then told me
she had to have another surgery at 8 months and I thought "oh
God not another one" and then another when she is 2 or 3 years
old. At that point I just wanted her to come
home. 
Melanie
Tersigni.
Hearts of Hope United~
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