After a night of contractions and some bleeding on Easter night, I went to the hospital. It was 3:30 a.m., on April 13th, 2009. I was admitted to the hospital because I was steadily having contractions and 4 cm dilated. I was given Magnesium Sulfate to stop the contractions, a steroid shot in case Aidyn’s lungs were not fully formed and had an Amniocentesis to rule out an infection in my amniotic fluid. The nurse was scheduled to give me another steroid shot the next morning, but we learned from the Amniocentesis results that Aidyn’s lungs had fully formed. Also, there was no infection. So, no one could figure out why I had preterm labor. By now, around 9:00 a.m., I was between 7 – 8 cm dilated; my obstetrician said I would be having Aidyn later in the day. I handled my labor extremely well, so well, the nurse had a hard time knowing how close I was to giving birth. I decided on not using any medication (which I later wished I had when the doctor gave me pitocin). Aidyn was born at 6:03 p.m. on April 14th. His Apgar scores were very good, 8 and 9. I was surprised he did not need any assistance. Aidyn progressed well each day with his bottle feeds. No more IV at almost day 3.
On the night he turned 3 days old, Aidyn took an unexpected turn. On Saturday, at 3:54 a.m., the doctor called saying Aidyn had blood in his stool and was being put on antibiotics. Then, at 5:49 a.m., we were called again. This time he was being put on a ventilator because he had apnea three times. We headed to the hospital with fear. When we arrived, our hearts sank when we saw Aidyn with a breathing tube in his mouth, another tube to collect fluid and gas from his stomach, leads and IV’s in his little limbs. His stomach was distended and getting hard. The veins were very prominent on his abdomen. H e was listless. The doctor showed us an x-ray of Aidyn’s abdomen, showing us the infection of his intestine. We hoped the antibiotics would work and he’d get to eat again after a week. Hours passed and Aidyn’s stomach looked bad. It appeared he developed a bruise on his abdomen, but it was worse, his intestines perforated. He would have to go into surgery. The surgeon presumed Aidyn had
necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). She didn’t know what she would find, hopefully little damage. Aidyn was scheduled for surgery at 1:00 p.m.
After about 2 hours, the surgeon came to us. She didn’t look optimistic. There was devastating news. She told us Aidyn did have NEC and she had to remove most of Aidyn’s small intestine, leaving only about 18 – 20 cm left (there’s about 220 cm in a baby). She painted a grim picture for us, he could die peacefully or he could get a small bowel transplant. With the small bowel transplant, he would also need a liver transplant since it would fail from being on the
TPN for a long period of time, up to a year or more. She talked about what a rough road it would be to opt for the transplant; it was hard on families and had seen it break up relationships. It was the worse day we ever had. We grieved for a few days, there was a choice we had to make, let Aidyn go or fight for him. We didn’t want him in anymore pain, yet we couldn’t just let him go. The surgeon left Aidyn’s wound open so she could explore and clean out his abdomen a couple days later. A day after surgery, Aidyn had a Broviac put in for his TPN.
Five days old. Not knowing Aidyn's fate, Alyssa visits Aidyn for the first time, after child visitor restrictions have been lifted in the NICU.
Aidyn had developed a rash on his left side a day after the surgeon was supposed to do the second surgery, (she was too tired the previous day to do the surgery). Aidyn was back in surgery on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. The surgeon found more damage. She removed a little more small bowel, his ileum and less than one forth of his big colon. His prognosis was the same.
Despite Aidyn's condition, we decided to take the more difficult road and give our son a chance. He has overcome more than we could ever imagine for ourselves. Aidyn gives us strength everyday. We love him.
