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Mom…my baby is blind.

26 Jan

“I cannot forget my mother. She is my bridge. When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.” -Renita Weems

I think the hardest phone call I have ever had to make was the one I made to my mother, telling her that Oli was blind. I don’t even remember the details of that conversation but, I remember thinking…

I can’t believe I’m telling her this.

I can’t believe that I have to tell her that I will not be able to give her granddaughter the kind of life that she gave me.

My mom LOVES her grandchildren! ( Notice the capitalization and exclamation mark. This means that sometimes I think she loves them more than me.)

I can’t even imagine what she was thinking when I whispered those 5 words into the phone that day.

Mom, my baby is blind.

I could hardly even speak the words. I didn’t want to speak them. If I said those words to someone outside my hospital room, that would solidify it. That would make it real. I didn’t want it to be real.

I was crying uncontrollably and I just wanted my mom to do what she always does when I am hurting.

I wanted her to make it go away.

I wanted her to stand up for me, yell at someone for me, tell me how unfair this all was.

I wanted her to say that she would fix this for me.

But, she couldn’t make it go away this time.

This is the one time my mom didn’t offer to fix it for me.

She just cried with me. She told me how sorry she was that this had happened.

And then she told me that it would be hard but, I would get through it.

My mom’s heart was broken that day.

She loves me and my children like her life depends on it and I know that if she could have bargained with the devil for Oli’s eyesight she would have done it. If she could have fixed it somehow, she would have. She would have fixed it so that I didn’t have to feel this unbearable heartache.

But she didn’t offer me a lie that day.

She didn’t offer to do something that she knew she could never make happen.

Moms can’t always fix things for their children, even when their hearts are shattering to pieces before them.

My mom showed me that day how hard it really is to be a mother. I love her immensely for the things that she unknowingly taught me that day. Things that I now know are the honest gifts of a mother to a child.

She has never lied to me when she knows something is going to hurt.

Never promised me things she knew I will never have.

And she has never tried to fix something for me when it is not truly broken.

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Never going to be the same…

26 Jan

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” -Joseph Campbell

We drove baby Oli home on a warm sunny day.

I was trying my hardest to be upbeat for my son despite my inner turmoil. I was sitting in the back seat with Kekoa, listening to his favorite nursery rhyme CD.

As we were driving past the desert mountain bike trails that Seth and I used to ride, I am reminded again of another life. Another person that I’m having a harder and harder time connecting with.

I feel like I am floating away.

Leaving behind the person I was. My life, that used to make perfect sense to me, now I can no longer recognize. I am being consumed by despair of the unknown.

I look at Seth in the review mirror.

Our lives are never going to be the same.

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A medieval torture tactic

26 Jan

“I liked things better when I didn’t understand them.” -Bill Waterson

So that’s what I did. I just took her home. I didn’t have a battle plan or an army and I certainly didn’t have a force field. I had the only things I could offer her at the time. I had an infinite amount of stubbornness, a heart bursting with love and two eyes that I would share with this little girl for the rest of my life.

An enormous amount of weight settled on my shoulders that day as I strapped this tiny person into her car seat. I could feel the weight threatening to suffocate me.

Before I left the hospital, my sister in law, gave me a website. It was for an organization called ican. International children’s anophthalmia and microphthalmia network. www.anophthalmia.org I did not know that this information would become a life line when I began my adventure into the unknown.

I did know that no one in that hospital had ever really seen a child born with this condition. The only person they could direct me to was a pediatric ophthalmologist.

So before I left the hospital I googled ican. It was full of people,terms and images that were so foreign to me, I had a hard time comprehending what they were saying.

I didn’t know what an Ocularist was. This was a profession? I had never heard of it. Of course, I had never heard of a baby born without eyes either.

So I googled ocularist. Apparently he was some sort of artist that made these things called conformers.

I googled conformers and was overwhelmed by what I read. An ocularist makes, and then forces these conformers into the eyes of anophthalmic and microphthalmic children in order for the eyes to stretch big enough to wear painted prosthetic eyes. At the time, this sounded like some kind of medieval torture tactic.

What? This sounds barbaric! Wasn’t there some kind of new technology for these children? Something not so painful?

We would have to do this every month for years in order for her to wear prosthetic eyes. And it might not even work. Her eyes might never stretch enough to wear prosthetic eyes.

It said that we would need to start this process as soon as possible to give her eye sockets and eye lids the best chance of stretching. Then I read on another web site that if I didn’t do this to her, her face might cave in. (Untrue, but I didn’t know that until talking with other parents.)

I had to turn off the computer. I grabbed Oli’s little pink newborn blanket, buried my face in it and just cried. I cried for myself, I cried for her, I cried for Kekoa and Seth. I cried like I have never cried before. I did not want to do this. I did not want to have to put this little baby through procedures that would hurt her.

What kind of a mother volunteers her baby for pain?

But, I didn’t want her face to be deformed either.

I cried harder.

And then I picked her up and whispered “I’m sorry” again.

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And then….they just let me take her home.

25 Jan

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” -Robert Frost

Now I have answers to most of those questions.

No. She would never see her daddy’s face. But, she would see how beautiful his soul is every time he holds her close to his heart. Every time he fiercely protects his baby girl.

Her brain appeared to be normal but, they would have to do a MRI to be sure. This would not tell me anything about her cognitive function, however. I did not realize back then that the words “her brain appears to be normal structurally” did not mean she would have normal cognition. It turned out to be a blessing that I did not know that then.

Her kidneys were anatomically normal. Except for some extra fluid in them called hydronephrosis and something called vesicoureteral reflux.

What the heck is that?

Pertaining to her story, it was pretty insignificant. She ended up just having a few procedures and was required to take medication so she wouldn’t get a kidney infection. Although the procedure called a VCUG, to test for the reflux, was traumatic for her it was probably more traumatic for me. She eventually grew out of it by the age of 3.

The hearing screen result was a little hairy. The first screen they ran was normal in one ear and abnormal in the other the first time they did it.

You can imagine my reaction when the hearing screen person told us the results. I will never forget the look on her face as she tried to be as gentle as possible explaining that they would have to test her again.

She knew that Oli was blind and I could tell that she wanted nothing more than to tell me my baby would be able to hear me. She could see the look on my face as I silently pleaded with her to tell me the test was normal.

Please let her hearing be okay.

“We will have to run the test again tomorrow. This does happen sometimes. Sometimes we run the test too early after delivery and there is still fluid in the baby’s ears.” she told me as gently as possible.

She came back the next day and tested Oli again.

The results were normal.

She did hear all of my expressions of love.

She did hear me when I repeated “I am so sorry” over and over again.

She heard me when I vowed to do absolutely everything in my power to ensure she had the best life possible.

And then the nurse came in and told me I could take her home.

Just like any other baby. They told me to just take her home.

What was I supposed to do with her next?

They were going to let me just walk right out of the hospital with her?

Were they crazy?

I needed a few more days!

I need to prepare.

I needed a battle plan, an army of soldiers to protect her from the world.

I needed to erect some kind of force field around her.

Wasn’t there some sort of pamphlet they were supposed to give me providing detailed instructions?

Wasn’t someone going to tell me what the next step was?

I was absolutely terrified.

The hospital staff just assumed that I would know what to do?

Why?

Just because I was a NICU nurse?

I was not NOT a nurse at that point. I was a new mother and I needed support. I needed to know there was a path that I was supposed to follow. I wanted someone to direct me and tell me where to go.

I will let you in on a sad little secret of the special needs world. Most people do not tell us where to go for help. Nobody provides us with a list of all the services that our childrn can benefit from. The services our children are entitled to. I guess they think that when we get the diagnosis we automatically absorb this information through osmosis. By being in close proximity to other special needs parents.

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Would she ever see a sunset?

25 Jan

“Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did – that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that – a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside it’s chest.” -Debra Ginsberg

The next day the doctors performed a few tests on Oli. One was a CT of her face to determine if she had any eyes or any abnormalities of her brain. Another was an ultrasound of her pelvis to determine if her kidneys were present and normal. And the last was a hearing screen.

It was so hard watching the nurse wheel my baby out of my room that Saturday morning. I knew in just a few hours the results of those tests would be delivered to me and would determine her life, quality of life, or her death. I couldn’t think about the outcome of those tests anymore but, I couldn’t not think about them either.

Would she be able to see her handsome daddy’s face, admire a sunrise in the mountains, or see a sunset over the ocean in her daddy’s beautiful Hawaii?

Or would she spend her life in darkness.

Was her brain normal?

Or would she spend her life confined to a bed, unable to ever care for herself and perform daily activities.

What about her kidneys?

Would they be missing or badly deformed and non-functioning?

Would she spend her life attached to a dialysis machine multiple times a week for hours at a time?

Would I be forced to administer numerous medications with harmful side effects in order to keep her alive?

Was she able to hear her sweet brothers voice when he called her his “bee-bee” and kissed her head?

Was she able to hear how many times I had whispered “I love you” into her ear?

Did she hear how many times I told her I was sorry that this had happened to her?

Did she hear me tell her that I would have offered God anything if He would allow me to trade places with her?

Did she hear me tell her that I wished it had been me that had been born blind and not her?

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I didn’t want to pick her up.

24 Jan

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” -Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

I, however, was not so willing to accept my destiny. I wanted to fight it, change it, punish it, scream at it, plead with it, bargain with it….Anything but, accept it.

I was left alone at the hospital with Oli when Seth had to go and drop Kekoa off back with his Grandma. She was sleeping peacefully in her little clear plastic bassinet beside my bed. I turned on the TV for a little distraction. This turned out to be a very bad idea.

I started watching the new mommy/baby show that is on the hospital channel. I guess I felt like torturing myself for a little while. Watching all those cute babies and learning about their development. They were smiling and cooing at the camera. Their big eyes filled with the wonderment of the new world they’ve just been introduced to.

Would my daughter ever smile at a camera and coo like a normal baby?

Would she even live long enough to achieve this level of development?

These were the earth shattering questions that I felt the need to ponder at this moment. Watching all those beautiful babies I started looking at my own beautiful tiny baby girl. Beautiful but, different.

And then I was afraid of her.

This little 6 pound peanut. I was suddenly afraid of her. How could I possibly take her home and care for her? How could I teach her? I had never even met a blind person before.
I looked back up at the television monitor and wished with all of my heart that I could just reach through that screen and grab one of those babies. I wanted to replace her with one of them. One I wasn’t afraid of. I looked at her again.

I didn’t want to pick her up.

But, then I did pick her up. Because that’s what mothers do. We pick up our children and love them. Even when they don’t fit into our perfect little box of what we thought we wanted. We pick them up and love them because they are our babies.

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Destiny

24 Jan

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” -Helen Keller

Destiny is a funny thing. There are times in my life where I have hated it and refused to believe in it and there are times that I have witnessed it’s amazing power. Destiny is a strong word. I do not say this lightly when I tell you that Kekoa was destined to be Oliana’s big brother.

This is the story about my 1st miracle. What better way for a miracle to arrive than in the form of a little, 18 month old boy named Kekoa.

The day that the doctor gave us the awful news about Oliana’s eyes was no doubt one of the most painful experiences of my life. It was absolutely devastating to my husband and I as well as our families. It was devastating to everyone except one little boy. One little bright light that happened to come to visit me that day to meet his new baby sister.

I had just finished telling Seth that our baby was going to be blind. Kekoa was wandering around the hospital room playing with his favorite cars and periodically watching the cartoons I had on the TV. After the tears were dried up and Seth and I had composed ourselves, I ask Kekoa if he wants to meet his new sister. We had been practicing for months with a tiny toy doll and he was very excited to show us just exactly how gentle he could be.

Seth picks him up so he can have a better view of her lying in the bassinet. He asks Kekoa if he wants to give her a kiss. He slowly nods his head yes and says “bee-bee”. Seth leans down and Kekoa gives his sister the sweetest little kiss on the top of her head. He then asks to be put down on the floor. Seth puts him down on the ground and…..

He starts walking around the room with his eyes closed and his little chubby baby hands out in front of him.

He is pretending to be blind.

Somehow this little boy, a baby really, has this whole thing figured out in 20 minutes. Tears that had been dry just a few minutes ago immediately race down my cheeks. How does he know?

He then opens his eyes, turns around and looks at his 2 astonished parents. He just looks at us like, “Yeah. So she’s blind. See I can do it. It’s no big deal.”

I will forever love my son for the millions of gifts he has given me as his mother. However, the memory of him walking that room with his eyes closed with be forever imprinted in my mind as one of the things I love the most. It was the moment I realized that Kekoa was more than willing to accept his destiny.

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He began to cry.

23 Jan

When I think of that moment I don’t even know what to say.

It still makes my heart race and my eyes tear up when I remember him looking down at me lying in that bed with our baby girl next to me. I’m sure I looked like a complete mess. I had been crying and panicking. Wondering when I was going to wake up from this nightmare.

He walked over to the bed with a panicked look of his own.

He knew.

He knew something was wrong with our baby. I could see it written all over his face. I was suddenly glad that I looked a wreck. At least the first words out of my mouth didn’t have to be…
“Sit down. I have some terrible news about the baby.”

Nope. I just looked at his face and blurted it out. “She’s blind Seth. They say she doesn’t have any eyes. Or if she does have eyes they’re really small and they probably don’t work. She’s blind. Our baby is blind.”

He put Kekoa down on the ground and did what any father would do.

He began to cry.

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Mother’s Day Weekend

23 Jan

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin

After the doctor left my hospital room that day I felt pain like I have never felt pain before. I started questioning things that I have never questioned before and I began to ask the obvious question, “What the hell just happened to me?”

In a mere 10 minutes my entire life had changed.

The worst thing was, I had to be the one to tell my husband. He didn’t even know yet. I had to tell this poor guy, who wanted nothing more than to give his children anything and everything in this life, that there were going to be things he wouldn’t be able to give his daughter.

I was going to have to break his heart like it had never been broken before. Damn that doctor for leaving me with this responsibility!!

As it was, though, I couldn’t really think of anyone else who should tell him. I surely didn’t want that doctor to come back in here with his emotionless tone and his slightly bored attitude. I didn’t want that guy telling him that all his wonderful dreams of showing his daughter the beauties of Desert Mountains and Hawaiian sunsets were never going to happen.

I had to be strong for him.

I had to pretend that I knew we were going to get through this. And I was going to have to do it soon because he had just walked through the hospital room door. He walked in holding my beautiful baby boy and an armful of balloons and flowers.

Because…it was Mother’s Day weekend.

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What did he just tell me?

22 Jan

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Seth left the next afternoon to go pick up my son Kekoa (he was 18 months old) from his Grandma’s house where he had been staying. The pediatrician, who was supposed to come and look at Oli in the morning, still had not shown up. A little while after Seth left, the doctor walked through the door.

“I’m just here to take a look at your baby.”

I sit up in the hospital bed anxiously awaiting his assurance that everything is fine. “Ok. I’m kind of worried about her eyes because she hasn’t opened them yet. I think they’re just swollen, you know because I had been in pre term labor awhile and I’m sure that stressed her out and probably caused some swelling, but I’m sure she’ll open them soon. Maybe later today or tomorrow. Do you think? I’m sure there’s nothing wrong. They’re just swollen. Right?”

He just looks at me like he’s mildly bored and somewhat irritated because I am rambling at this point. I tend to ramble and talk really fast when I’m nervous.

“Are you going to look at her eyes?” I ask. I am quickly losing patience with his non-committal attitude.

He is looking everywhere else besides her eyes. Her feet, legs, tummy, arms, nose, mouth. Taking his sweet time at it too, I must say. I just wanted to scream at him “TELL ME NOTHING IS WRONG WITH HER EYES YOU BIG JERK!!”

Finally he tries to open her eyes. Oli starts screaming her head off like he is trying to rip her eyelids apart. Which is essentially exactly what he was doing because they were literally fused together. After trying this for a minute he puts the blanket back over her, straightens up, looks at me and says,

“Well, I think she has either really small eyes, or no eyes at all and she will be completely blind. Microphthalmia is what it is called. Do you have any questions?”

My mouth is now gaping open, tears are pooling in my eyes, and I’m looking back at him with a mixture of astonishment and offence. Do I have any questions? Well let me see… I guess I have two. Where did you get your medical license and where do you live so I can come rip your heart out while you are sleeping. Like you just ripped out mine.

Did I have any questions? What a dumb question. Of course I had questions but, at that point I couldn’t even remember my own name let alone think of a way to put together a question out of the millions of thoughts racing through my head.

“I don’t know. Have you ever seen this before?”

“Once. 15 years ago. A little boy that had Fraisers Syndrome. We’ll have to check her kidneys. She might not have any kidneys.” He answers with a blank, emotionless expression.

Again I am staring at him with my mouth open. Did he just say what I think he said? No kidneys? That means death right? I mean, I am a nurse and I’m pretty sure no kidneys means death. Did he just tell me she might die?

“Ok then. I’ll order some tests and we’ll let you know.”

With that he promptly walked out of my hospital room leaving me alone with my new baby that I now thought might die.

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