A Little History

Yesterday the kids and I drove to Ft Worth for the day. My sister and her kids went with us too. I can't count how many time we've made this day trip. We have to go there because Jacob has a Pedi Pulmonary Specialist at Cook Children's hospital. He has had this dr since he was 9 months old.

For a little background, when I was 28 weeks pregnant with Jacob I went into labor. This was my first baby and wasn't exactly sure what I was feeling, but at my last drs appt the dr had discussed some minor complications and advised me to stop working. I had just talked to my boss and asked if I could maybe just work part time. After our conversation I walked to my car and knew something wasn't right. I called the nurse and of course they told me to just go to labor and delivery. Upon arrival things went in a downward spiral very quickly. I called my husband and he immediately came up there and as things worsened, he started calling our families. At this time almost nine years ago the hospital was not equipped to handle a baby born this early. The contractions worsened and my cervix started changing. This created somewhat of a panic. They arranged to have me Care-Flighted (on the helicopter) to Harris Methodist in Ft Worth. I of course was in and out of it, I had several drugs and only remember bits and pieces. I know this was good because I don't remember feeling scared or frightened. We had family come in and pray over my and the baby. I can remember being taken across the street, it was very cold that night, and being loaded into the helicopter. There is no room in there for any family members so they had to drive there. My husband asked what to expect when they got there and the dr told them to expect for the baby to be born, he would be very small and probably very sick. It was an agonizing 4 hours for them. Meanwhile, I arrived at the hospital, they themselves started doing ultrasounds and administering meds and miraculously, everything that seemed so out of control, all of the sudden became under control. When my family arrived, the baby hadn't been born, and my contractions were slowing. I was given injections of steroids to help his lungs develop. I was moved into a room where I stayed on strict bedrest for a little over four weeks. I never really stopped contracting, and every so often they would become so regular they would have to give me more injections to stop them. Preston would come up every Thursday and stay until Sunday. He would then have to go back to work. Each week someone in the family would stay with me until Preston would come back, so I was never alone. We were even given a tour of the NICU to see the babies in there so we would know what to expect when he was born. It was all very surreal. We prayed every day and every day longer was an answered prayer. I finally made it to a point where I could come home. They knew if the baby was born then our local hospital could handle him medically. I was almost thirty-three weeks at this time and was able to come home! I had missed my baby shower (they had it anyway and video taped the whole thing. They then brought the cake and all of the gifts to me in Ft Worth and we opened them together. I went to the dr frequently and stayed on bedrest until 37 weeks. I then went in and did a stress test and it showed the Jacob was now not doing well and it was decided to go ahead and induce the next day. They did one last ultrasound to check his position and discovered that his stomach was the size of a 20 week old fetus. We were warned that he would be under five pounds and weren't sure what more to expect. I was induced on December 4, 1999 and was in labor for 14 hours. The monitor showed that Jacob was having a hard time during the labor and an emergency c-section was performed. He was born at 9:09. I don't remember him crying, all I know was they were having to work on him for what seemed like forever. I know from reading the reports that he failed the apgar test 4 times before he got the lowest passing score. He was having a hard time starting to breathe, but once they got him going he seemed great. He was 6 lbs! Another miracle.

If you've made it this far, the point of my story is coming soon. When Jacob was born he had severe problems with vomiting. Also when he was around 6 months old, he started getting sick. He would spike fevers over 105. He had this cough that was indescribable. I took him to the dr several times a week for what seemed like forever. He was thought to have Tuberculosis. When that was negative, they tested him for Cystic Fibrosis--not only once, but twice. This was a very scary time. Our pedi finally referred him to Cook's where we had his first appointment with his pulmonologist. When he was 9 months old he was diagnosed with having Pertussis (whooping cough)-and yes he was up to date on all of his vaccines. Once he was on a drug regimen, he started to improve some. He was also sent to a pedi GI dr for his vomiting. We met with this dr one time and in that meeting he proceeded to tell us that just by doing a physical examination he was pretty sure that Jacob had a genetic disease which was fatal. We needed to seek genetic counseling before having any more children, and once all of the tests were run and diagnosis confirmed, we would talk about what was next. Our world fell apart. We were sent home with this news to drive 4 hours in absolute hysteria. Between our pedi here and every test that came back negative it was decided the he did not have anything fatal. We found a new Gi dr at Scott and White who was absolutely wonderful. He put Jake on some more meds to keep his vomiting to a minimum and he eventually grew out of it. Jake also came down with RSV which affected his breathing even more. He was hospitalized again for a week over Christmas. Jacob could not crawl around the house without having an asthma attack. He couldn't run anywhere without having an asthma attack. The winter months were awful. Nighttime was awful. We went to Ft Worth every 6 months to keep his meds on track and monitor his lung function.

Yesterday we went to his appointment and he has been off all his meds for two months and has been symptom free the entire time. His lung function came back completely normal. I was able to leave her office and not make a follow up appointment! It is amazing the way God is at work in our lives. There were times we weren't sure of what Jacob's limitations would be in regards to sports and activities. Now he can do anything and everything. I KNOW God healed him.

ISN'T GOD WONDERFUL!

God is good.