Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The March

I got an email today from the March of Dimes. Did you know November is Prematurity Awareness Month? And Today is Prematurity Awareness Day? Did you know that on a worldwide scale the US scores a "D" on a premature preparedness scale. Indiana got a "D" on their report card. That is Pathetic. It scares me that 1 out of 8 infants is premature, but through modern medical miracles like those done by the March of Dimes, 1 out of 8 do not die.
A girlfriend of mine posted telling her story about her premature infant. And I'll just refresh your memory tonight with why I Support the March of Dimes.

Chris was born at 37 weeks, just at the threshold they begin to consider full term. I had pre-eclampsia so they had to induce. The induction didn't go so well, and they had to go in, Chris 'changed' direction, they had to do a C-section to go in and get him.



He didn't cry right away, he was a little low on oxygen so after a couple pictures, they sent him to the Special Care nursery. 12 hours later, they discovered his Imperferate Anus, they sent him to Riley Hospital for children, which has the Best NICU in the state, one of the top in the country. He spent his first Christmas in the NICU, having had surgery the day before to create his ostomy.



He ended up having three surgeries before 6 months old to correct his problem. He's still not 100%, but you can't tell that to look at him. If not for the advances made by the March of Dimes, and medical research, I KNOW Chris wouldn't be here today, and I'm not to sure if I would be either. Maybe they wouldn't have discovered I was having problems, maybe they wouldn't have been able to go in and gotten him. It's really scary to think about.

But then I look at him, and I am AMAZED a the Miracle that he is. I think of all these Miracle Babies, and I just Praise God.



Look at Christopher now!

1 comments:

Kathy said...

hooray for miracle babies!

Love the picture right after his birth - he's beautiful!