arriving atop the mater children's hospital in brisbane, we were directed to the ICU once again. it was such a frightening and stressful time. i instantly understood much more about the pain my parents had felt a few years earlier as they sat at their only son's bedside as he suffered, as well as about the fear they must have felt at the possibility of losing him.
we remained there in brisbane for a total of about a week and a half, and within that time levi received more pokes and prods than i care to recall, as they ran numerous tests trying to figure out what was going on with him. about halfway into our time there, my parents were scheduled to leave the country and go back home. they considered extending their stay, but finally made the hard decision to board their return flight from brisbane. we were granted a leave from the hospital in order to see them off at the airport --that was a hard goodbye -- and then headed back to our hospital room, which would now also include miriam's port-a-cot (aussie term for pack & play).
while in the hospital, they would not take levi off the oxygen, yet they would not send us home with it. while on the oxygen, he was not having the apnea episodes. when we finally decided to try venturing home, with nothing but a refresher in cpr and resuscitation under our belts, he had at least 3 more episodes during our 3 hour drive.
matt and i took shifts for the next while (i don't remember how long) -- one of us would be up through the day and the other through the night -- as we did not want to take our eyes off him. as time went on, we must have come to trust his heart monitor more and more (which he was hooked to for the first 2-3 months of his life), and slowly began to get more sleep. the last episode that we know of occurred when levi was about 3 weeks of age, which was actually not long after our return from brisbane. it's just that we lived in fear of it happening again for quite some time after that.
so many prayers were going up for levi throughout this time, and from both sides of the globe. that was an incredible feeling. we still don't know if it was just something that he suddenly stopped doing at 3 weeks, or if God miraculously healed him. the best explanation the doctors could give us was that he was born with an underdeveloped respiratory/neurological connection -- his brain wasn't always getting the message to his body to take the next breath. they also termed him a "near-SIDS" baby at one point.
the whole ordeal, in addition to being overseas and away from familiar family and friends, definitely took its toll on my emotional state for some time afterwards, but we thank God that levi is a strong, healthy boy and a vital part of our family. makes me all the more thankful for him. (God must have known we would be needing that kind of reminder some days...!) his life is truly a gift.
1 comment:
Val, thanks for sharing. I knew he had trouble the first few months of life, but I didn't know any of the details of his/your story.
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