A family needs your prayers

A friend of a friend of mine is the mom to four little ones: a daughter, who's around Leah's age, give or take; a son, who I believe is a bit older than Ethan, and two little twin boys, now 5 months old. This family has been on one hell of a ride already; and it continues to get more abysmal. My friend posted an intro, and then reposted blogs and bulletins from the mom herself, all of which are below.

For those of you who have been following the story of my friend Taylor and her twin boys, the ups and downs since August have been crazy. After 141 days in the NICU Tyson was sent home from the hospital. After 15 hours at home he had a fever from his immunizations and was sent back to the hospital. He's been back in the hospital for almost a week now and he is on hospital #3. Taylor got some really bad news today, and here is her blog post. Please pray for the family and for Tyson and please ask everyone you know to pray for them. I am completely shocked, as we all thought Tyson was doing great and he had been released and sent home because he was doing well. If you want to read the background info on Tyson, his twin brother, Cooper, and the other kids too, the link to her blog is http://blog.myspace.com/hunnybunny22

Thank you all for your prayers. I'm praying for a miracle, and peace for the family if that is not God's will....

Tyson needs your prayers...
Current mood: ?numb

I went in to see Ty today. I was in a good mood, excited for Tyson and Cooper to see each other. I get there and put the boys together and his pediatrician walks in. She said, "So can you tell me what the other hospitals have told you about Tyson's lungs?"

So I told her what they have told me, his lungs were damaged by the ventilator. Which caused his heart to work too hard and his blood vessels got stressed. The sildenafil is opening up his blood vessels to help the blood get from his heart to his lungs and vice versa. He's breathing better now and will probably have nothing more than asthma when he gets older.

She kinda nodded at that and blinked. Then took a breath and said, "Well its a little worse than that." She said that Tyson has sustained some chronic damage to his lungs that will never heal. The pulmonologist said that he will never breathe correctly, that he may need a trach tube put in and put on the ventilator for times during the day. She gave me three options and the only one that sticks out in my head is that if we just took him home now and loved on him and gave him comfort, he would pass away with in the year.

I was in utter shock! Going from one hospital saying, "He's cured! He's going home!" To another where they are saying, "He's scarred for life."

I was there by myself with the boys. I didnt know how to answer her. She said they dont need any immediate answers and they can set up a conference with me and Luke and all his docs (pedi, cardio, pulmo, etc).. I called Luke and we set that up for tomorrow morning at 1030am.

I cried. I cried some more. I held him, I cried some more. I prayed. I wished. I cried. Tyson sat there the whole time grinning at me. "Mommy, its ok!" I cried some more. Cooper fussed (my mom had gotten there right after I talked to Luke, and was holding Cooper). Ty heard him so he fussed too. I put them together, and they both smiled. I cried some more. Then I took pictures because they smiled so much and looked so cute, I had to savor the moment. Tyson made me feel better.

After a while, I drove home. Me and Cooper. I got lost. I got stuck in traffic. I cried some more. I prayed, I asked why, I asked what next, what do I do? I ask how do I do this? I asked for strength, I asked for faith. I asked for reason. I cried some more.

I got home and I'm too tired to be a mom right now. Annie talks to me all happy and smiley and I want to bawl and hold her and love on her because she is so healthy and happy and she doesnt know that she could lose her baby brother that she barely got to spend time with. I'm just spent and broken right now. I dont want to do it anymore.

Anyway, the meeting is tomorrow at 1030am. Please pray. Pray that the other tests they do reveal that he is fine, that he is healing, that he will be fine and wont need this long term care. Pray that he's healthy and happy and comfortable. Pray that we all have strength. Just pray.

I dont know when I will be on to let everyone know how it goes. Depends on what happens, how I feel afterwards. But I will eventually get to it.

Please pray.




Here is the bulletin Taylor sent out, which also includes photos of Tyson, and his twin brother Cooper.

Cooper and Tyson Sawyer were born at 3 months too soon. Cooper was 3lbs at birth, and Tyson was half that size at 1lb 6.8oz. Cooper was released from the hospital to his home after 54 days in the NICU. Tyson, however, was in the hospital for 141 before being released to home, then 13.5 hours later, was sent back to the hospital with a fever.

We all thought it was nothing, he was doing fine, and it looked like it was just a case of "we'll watch him just to be safe." The fever went away, all was fine, except he was having some small troubles breathing. So a lung doctor took a look at him.

Turns out he is a very very sick little boy. He has severe damage in his lungs from being on the ventilator for 71 days. We thought the damage wasnt so severe that it wouldnt heal, however, it looks like its worse than they thought.

Today, a doctor told me that he may need invasive procedures for life to keep him breathing and he may not live more than a year.

He's almost 5 months old, weighs a little less than 8lbs. He has a twin brother who is healthy and growing. He has a big brother and sister who ask every day for him to be home. He has a mommy and a daddy who ache every day to have him healthy and strong and happy and to live life. We pray and we pray. And we dont feel like its enough. Please pray for our little man. He wants to live, he wants to be a normal child, he wants to enjoy his brothers and sister and his family. He wants to grow up and learn what a little miracle he is and how many people loved and cared for him. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM!





Say a prayer, pass it on, feel free to visit my page for updates (in blogs), to send Tyson an email (link on page), or to just let us know where your prayers are coming from (send me a message). Let us know you stopped by. We cannot thank you all enough for the love, concern and of course, the prayers!

And the day began with a BANG!

Yesterday morning, as Alex and I were sitting in bed, stealing a moment to actually converse with each other, we heard a THUD.

That THUD is better known to most of you all as Ethan. Somehow, he managed to lower the side rail of the crib (uber-weirdness: when Alex went into Ethan's room not 15 minutes earlier to "plug" him back into his pacifier, the side rail was up), and then decided to climb out. Now, being that I can't carry his lead butt around anymore (due to the pregnancy) when I get him from the crib in the mornings, I lower the siderail, kneel next to the crib, and he monkeys out using me as though I were a fire pole. So, it's my fault he knows this.

But, the good news is that he hasn't tried it with the side rails being all the way up, as most kids eventually do try. (Leah never did try to climb out. She stayed in her crib until she was almost 3 years old, when we moved to our present home and got her a toddler bed for her new room.)

And, he's apparently learned his lesson. Last evening, as Alex was changing his diaper, Ethan decided he was done, flipped to his belly, and swung his legs over the side of the changing pad/dresser, and was prepared to slide down to the ground (he does this to get off beds, the couch, chairs, stairs, etc.). When his toes weren't finding any ground, he managed to swing his legs back up, and laid back down on the changing pad. We guess that he decided falling isn't any fun.

DC Craft Mafia's Crafts-a-cre Giveaway!

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Think Pink

We believe Leah has gotten her wish. We're pretty certain we are going to have another little girl. But, it's never guaranteed 'till it's out . . . Alex said that if it's not a girl, he better have one hell of a personality!

And speaking of births, Dad would have been 53 today.

Leah is pretty determined that this kid will be named Sally. After the Porche from CARS.

Value

You know, a health insurance policy isn't worth the paper it is printed on if no Doctor accepts it.

United Healthcare, I hope you pigs enjoy your stock prices. Because they will be falling, and falling fast, as fewer and fewer Docs participate in your network, and then, Employers will drop you like a hot potato when their employees can't get any coverage ANYWHERE. Sure, this is going to take a year or two more, but, it's coming.

On Heart-Attacks:

So, I apparently gave my husband and my boss a heart attack yesterday afternoon. I though, was having a little heart attack of my own. And grandmom, the one who actually has heart problems, seems to have made it through her procedure okay.

I've been batting a sinus infection. I also hadn't felt the little bugger move at all, to my recollection, as the day was approaching noon. So my head was pounding, I took some Tylenol, and laid down to see if I could feel the little bugger wiggle while I waited for the Tylenol to kick in so that I could leave for work. I promptly became dead to the world. Not too long thereafter, Alex was looking for me, and of course, couldn't reach me anywhere, even at work. So, he and my boss were quite a bit freaked.

Three hours later, after not being able to reach me, Alex comes home to me just sitting up in bed and getting oriented to my surroundings, and realizing, that I had fallen asleep and still hadn't felt the little bugger move. I touched base with everyone that I had missed during my nap, and then laid around to wait for a reassuring kick.

Around 4:50 the baby FINALLY moved, and didn't stop moving until well after 2 am when I fell asleep (naps are nice, but they always screw up my sleep for the night). Apparently, I wasn't the only one that was exhausted.

Morton Salt

We had the big family party on Saturday. The one where my mom's entire side of the family gets together to celebrate Christmas. My mom's cousin, his wife, and their two kids came up from Tennessee. That was cool, 'cause the last time they were up was 1999 or 2000 or something like that.

Evidence we are all related: the adult gift game, which usually does end up with a fair share of "adult gifts", ended up with two PIMP "steins", one of which we brought, and one of which Alex couldn't refuse to bring home when it was revealed that there were two in the game. Our other loot included Keg Pong, which I just might be able to play in about two years, and custom made Santa-mooning wrapping paper. I shared some of that with my younger cousin. She's going to display it on her bedroom door. HEH HEH HEH.

The not so coolness of the weekend is that my husband's grandmom ended up in the hospital with cardiac woes. She was transferred from the County Hospital (not a bad hosp) to the #1 local hospital, and they're doing a few things today (surgical) to hopefully correct the issue. Granted, they still have to figure out exactly what is going on anyway. I made my husband go see her last night (rather, I drug him there). He HATES hospitals (granted, this worked to my advantage when I told him I wanted to do a birth center birth with our last kid) and his terrified about losing his grandmom. The issues grandmom has going on are serious, but one wouldn't be inclined to think of them as fatal, until one factors in the notion that she's 85. At that age, treatment, complications from treatment, or secondary infections that one could be exposed to in the hospital are usually almost as bad if not worse than whatever the issue itself is.

I have to laugh, though. Her son, who's a good 30-35 years younger than her, had the same procedure done within the past few years. For him, it was an outpatient thing. He went home the same day--he's totally fine. Grandmom was quite beside herself to learn that she isn't going home today, they they'll be holding onto her while she recovers. To her credit, she does not realize she's EIGHTY-FIVE. And, honestly, that's the best thing for her.

Expunge the Sinuses!!!!

On that whole getting healthy thing: before I start working again, after baby # 3 is done with the boobs, I need to get a few things done. The wisdom teeth will need to go, my deviated septum will need to be evened out, and possibly, depending on how the sinuses keep acting, they'll need a good surgical cleaning of sorts. Oh, then there's also the no more baby surgery, and, getting far enough along in allergy shots that I'm onto the maintence part of the series before I have to be employed again. When those things start, you need to dedicate 1.5 hours a visit, x3 visits a week to get them done. Who has that time?? Our health insurance is going to hate on us. Big time.

Next Friday, the 12th, we'll figure out what's going on with this baby. If I have placenta previa, to the extent that it occludes the Os by 100% and it's looking like I'll have to be on bedrest for the last month or two of the pregancy (and, have a c-section, ick), I think I am going to have to opt out of classes for the spring semester, which SUCKS. But, I am just going to have to take things as they're handed to me at this rate. Really, what else is there to do?

I've begun knitting. For something "artsy" it's incredibly mechanical, and technical, and I like it. I'm just working on my first square now, which Leah is loving, so I think I just may keep it going and make it into a little scarf for her. The frugal part of me says to practice my stiches, pull it all out, and do it again . . . the part of me that needs to be validated by a physical representation of my labor says to give it to the kid and not destory all that work (even if it is my first go at it and shoddy on the whole). Don't we all just need a little validation, sometimes?

For all you knitters out there--I'm apparently true to my German heritage and prefer to knit continential style. Though it IS quite easy to drop stiches that way.

laid so low

It's not often I get started on a pity party. And I'm not even sure that pity party is the right term, 'cause I don't seek pity . . . it's just all this New Year's crap is making me reflect on the past year . . . and wow, it's been a shit year.

Yes, I usually don't look at things this pessimistically, and I usually function under the modus of being thankful for what I do have.

But I don't feel like that today. I feel crappy. I feel outright shitty. So I am going to wallow for a few measly paragraphs, and then hopefully, move on with my day. So, if you don't want to hear me kvetching like an entitled little suburbanite teen, stop reading.

I've warned you.

--kvetching removed because many of our prayers have been answered.--

So 2006, GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE!!!!

I pray for healing in the New Year. I need my husband to get his head on straight. I need him to figure out the money woes. I'll not be working soon--I'll have the time to give the necessary attention to healing our home, to making sure we're healthier. And maybe, just maybe, we can go to a museum or take a walk in the park and just enjoy ourselves. No drama. Just peace.