| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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We found out we were pregnant in January of ’99. We were scared, as we have had 4 miscarriages in 2 ˝ years. We saw a doctor immediately who said that the cause if the prior miscarriages may be a lack of Pegistrone. They prescribed a medication for Erin to use. Upon a follow up visit, it was discovered that Erin had a cyst on her ovaries. The cyst, they found, was producing the Pegistrone she was lacking with the previous pregnancies. This was miracle one. Everything went fine, with just the usual pregnancy problems until July 13th. Erin went into pre-term labor. At this point, she was only 28 weeks along. The doctors were able to ease the labor, and restore all of her nutrients she was missing. They said she was dehydrated, and that was what caused the problems. A week later, Erin noticed she had passed a little blood overnight. This was Monday, July 19th. She had a regular appointment with her OB doctor. She called and asked about the blood. The OB told her to go directly to Labor & Delivery. We went directly there, and they tested her blood that she had passed and also did a UA. They could not find a cause for the blood, but said her protein was up, so they wanted her to stay there a while and get an IV that should take the protein down. They were very busy that day, so Erin and I just waited in the L & D room for hours. We got there at 1, and around 7 the doctor came in and told us that they were transferring Erin to another hospital, because the one we were at were not set up for babies that young. They had noticed, just starting in the last hour we were there (Doctor was too busy, we were not supposed to be there that late), they noticed Erin was still having contractions. Erin could not feel them. The problem with the contractions was that it slowed down the baby’s heartbeat because she could not tolerate the contractions. This was miracle number two, had the doctor not been so busy that day, we would have gone home, and Erin’s contractions would have started back up and we would not even know it. They rushed Erin to St. Luke’s of Kansas City. The doctor there (incidentally the one that delivered Hayley), did an ultra sound and found that Erin had a blood clot in the sac with the baby. Also, the doctor told us that the baby was only developed to the 26th week, and Erin was in the 29th week of pregnancy. They wanted to give Erin 48 hours of steroid treatment to allow the baby to grow a little faster. She told us that Erin was to be hospitalized until she had no bleeding for seven days, and was able to get her blood pressure down. They put her on magnesium sulfate to reduce her labor, as it was having averse effects on the baby. Tuesday went fine, and on Tuesday night, we were visited by the Nursery Doctor. She told us that tomorrow they would be taking her off the magnesium and watch what happened. She told us that Erin might go into labor, and they would either stop it or help her have the baby. But, since Erin was only in her 29th week and the baby had only developed to the 26th week, we should expect some complications. The baby’s lungs may not be fully developed and able to function on her own we were told, and her heart may not be completely functional. It may be entirely possible that the baby would have to be on life support for the first few months of her life. The next morning, Wednesday July 21st, they took Erin off of the Magnesium. By noon, no problems had developed. Erin wanted to take a shower, so they wanted to monitor the baby’s heart beat for a while before she did. They also were concerned because Erin was still experiencing high blood pressure. A nurse came in to try to stimulate the baby to get her to wake up so they could see what her heart rate was when she was awake. It did not work, they tried again with no success. Her blood pressure, in the mean time had gotten worse. Before we knew what was going on, a doctor came in and said "Congratulations, Erin you just bought yourself an induction. Your blood pressure was over 110 twice in six hours, and you have swollen up like a balloon since just this morning. We are going to put a gel on your cervix that will loosen it up some, and then repeat that in middle of the night. At 7 tomorrow morning, we will start a petosin drip that will induce labor". They put the gel on her cervix, and not ten minutes later, Erin had a serious contraction. It did not go away. The baby’s heart rate dropped to non-existent. They could not find it with the monitor they had been using. Next thing we knew there were 4 doctors and a dozen nurses in the room. They used a sonogram, found the baby and saw that her heart beat had dropped to near nothing. They called the OR and told them to prepare for surgery, then rolled my wife out of the room. They told me they would let me know what happened. I was standing there in the hospital room filled with bloody gloves and bloody towels and broken needles, not knowing what was happening to my girls. I think I was the most scared at that moment than ever before in my life. I actually started crying. I called my mom and asked her to pray with me. That was miracle number three because I have not done that since I was in high school and living with them. I went outside and had a cigarette, because I had no idea what else to do. My brother and is new wife had come in to town to visit Erin in the hospital, but they were down on the Plaza. My mother-in-law was on her way, but would not be there for another twenty minutes. When I finished the cigarette and came back to the room, the cleaning crew was there and asked me to remove all of our personal effects. Finally, a nurse came in and took me to the recovery room where they would bring my wife after the cesarean. On my way into the room, I was met by the doctor who had delivered our new baby daughter. He said "Congratulations, you have a beautiful baby girl. Her heart beat is very strong, and her lungs are fully developed. She has good color and she is just fine and in no need of any type of life support. She has gotten the best possible start". I asked about my wife, and was told she was just fine, they were just closing her up. That was miracle number four. I called my mom to update her. While I was on the phone with her, a nurse came in and asked if I wanted to see my girl. I followed her to the Intensive Care Nursery. There, on the table was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. A tiny little girl, completely developed, looking, to me at the time, smaller than any doll Hayley had. She opened her eyes and looked straight at me with her big, beautiful brown eyes, and I still swear I saw her smile at me. I was looking at the most perfect creature on this planet, I knew I was. She started crying, and the nurses said that the cry was a sign of very healthy lungs. Our daughter was going to be just fine. Miracle Five. They took two Polaroid pictures and told me to take them to Erin. I went back to the recovery room with the pictures in my hands and tears in my eyes. I did not care who saw me crying. I saw my wife, laying on the bed still under the effects of the anesthesia. I showed her the pictures, and all I could do was tell her that she made the most beautiful babies in the world. She said "No More!!!"…….. We were going to name her Mikayla Eileen Hixon, but after all of this, we changed it to Mikayla Grace. I am not actively involved with religion as I was, but I knew that it was by the Grace of God that my daughter was here. And, my wife. Maybe this event has happened a million times before. Maybe this was no big deal, but to me and Erin and our families, it was a miracle. These days all we see on the news and in newspapers and magazines is bad news, kids shooting and getting shot in school, presidents in trouble for not being faithful and lying to America, murders, suicides, drunk driving, drugs, aids, war, plane crashes, and the like. But rarely do we see any good news. I think the doctors and nurses, from the one at the first hospital we went to on Monday, Elizabeth, to the nurses who cared for Erin while she was in the hospital, to the ones in the operating room, and the ones now watching our daughter in the Nursery, they are miracle workers. They may do the same thing day in and day out for a million mothers and babies, but that does not mean that they do not perform miracles on a daily basis. |
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