My Three Year Absence: A Series of Unforeseen Tragedies

First and foremost, I want to apologize for my lengthy absence. Especially to the readers that were or are subscribed to any of my stories. Sadly, they were all abandoned due to a series of tragic and/or life-altering events.

After being gone for nearly three years it feels almost strange to return to Mibba. The first thing I noticed was how many friends had moved on from the site. Though, I guess I should have expected to see some missing faces. It was still upsetting to they were gone.

I wanted to make this blog mainly to give any of my readers or friends that were left an explanation for my sudden and lengthy disappearance. I feel that I at least owe you all that.

It all began in the fall of October 2011. My then sixteen-year-old nephew was in a severe one person car accident. He lost control of his truck and slammed into a tree. In the process he was thrown from the vehicle which left him paralyzed and in ICU.

The last three years have been a long, hard journey to recovery for him. There have been ups and downs galore but he is a strong kid and I so very proud of him. The past few years have been chock-full of doctors, therapists, and specialists but he has come a long way from where he started.

In the beginning, we were told he would be a quadriplegic and never regain any feeling or movement from the chest down. I am happy to report he has proved all of his doctors wrong. He can and does use his hands and arms to push himself in his chair. It took a lot of physical therapy and hard work on his end but it was well worth it.

We were then told he would never feel anything from the waist down. In the past few months he has begun to feel sensations below the waist. He is still confined to his wheelchair and he still has a long road ahead of him but he will get there.

The second tragedy we experienced was particularly hard on me. Just eleven days after my nephew's accident I found out I was expecting my first child. We were so excited we could hardly breathe. Unfortunately, just five weeks later I had a miscarriage. It was two weeks to the day before Christmas and my heart was broken. I was barely over two months pregnant but it was and still is one of the hardest things I have ever had to endure.

Not only was it our first child but a child we had been struggling to conceive for over a year. It's still very hard for me to talk about. I will always love and mourn the loss of the baby I never got a chance to meet.

Two and half months later we received the first good news we had in quite some time. We were expecting again. Seeing the word pregnant on that little plastic stick was the most exciting yet terrifying thing all at once. We were more than happy we were getting another chance to bring a sweet little baby into the world. But we were also frightened of losing another child.

Our initial visit to the doctor did nothing to ease our minds. They performed an ultrasound and said our baby looked fine but his heartbeat was too slow. It was a mere 96 beats per minute. It should have been higher for a baby of six weeks and four days. The doctor advised us not to stress but how could we not? We were then told we would have to wait two weeks before we would be able to have another ultrasound to check for progression. Those two weeks were the longest two weeks of my life. Exactly fourteen days later we returned for the second ultrasound. To our relief the baby's heartbeat was 176 beats per minute and everything looked completely healthy.

We were happy for the next month but then I began to bleed and we feared we were losing our baby. I was rushed to the hospital scared and nervous for what they would say. Luckily, everything turned out fine even though the bleeding continued. I was put on bed rest where I stayed for the next four months.

On September 1, 2012 around 8:30 am I was rushed to labor and delivery with contractions. The doctor found that I was in active labor and I was admitted into the hospital. Immediately, I was hooked up to medications that would hopefully stop the contractions and administered medications that would help mature my baby's lungs if they couldn't.

Unfortunately, the medicine did very little and 80 hours later I was rushed to the operating room for an emergency c-section. At 4:16 pm on September 5, 2012 I gave birth to a beautiful, tiny little boy I like I to call Lyric. He was 27 weeks and four days. Nearly 13 weeks too early. He weighed 2 pounds and 11 ounces and measured out at 14 inches in length. He was so tiny and beautiful.

He was immediately placed in an isolette and wheeled off to the NICU. Eleven tiring and stressful weeks with more ups and downs than a roller coaster later we got to bring our sweet baby boy home. Because of his small size and issues while in the NICU he was sent home on an apnea monitor to ensure we would be alerted if he was to stop breathing.

While in the NICU he was diagnosed with severe Hemophilia A (a factor VIII deficiency). This means his blood is missing one of the proteins that makes it clot. He has to receive transfusions of a special medication for the rest of his life. On top of that, he was also diagnosed with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. This meant his lungs were scarred from the oxygen he had received while in the hospital.

Even though our baby was home he still required round the clock medications as well as a slew of doctors. We saw hematologists, pulmonalogists, surgeons, physical therapists, early intervention workers and more. Home visits with a therapist became routine as did x-rays, IV infusions, medical equipment, and emergency room visits.

At the age of 8 months he received his first three surgeries. He had a port placed so we would no longer have to give his medicine through an IV, a circumcision, and a hernia repair. The surgeries went great and we were able to go home after a few days.

In the following weeks a nurse came out to our home and taught me how to administer the medications through his port. It was terrifying but I learned quickly and after awhile it wasn't too bad. The next several months were less eventful with only a few minor emergency room visits and hospital stays.

October 2013 brought on a whole new obstacle for us. Lyric got extremely sick and we rushed him to the emergency room. By the time we got there his 102 degree fever had spiked and stayed between 103 degrees and 105 degrees. They admitted him immediately into the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and started him on IV medications.

A few days later we learned that a friend of ours had passed MRSA to him and it had infected his port. He was taken to surgery where they removed the port and placed PICC line. After 10 days we were finally able to come home. We had to administer strong antibiotics through the PICC line every 6 hours but it was worth it to have him home.

Another 10 days passed without issue and then we once again found ourselves back in the hospital. Lyric had ripped a hole in his PICC line and introduced bacteria into the line. After having the line removed and being watched for a few days we were sent home with oral antibiotics. The infection had luckily not been serious. Early December came and along with it another surgery. A new port was placed successfully and after 24 hours we were able to go home.

Since then things have calmed down drastically and Lyric is doing well with only minor bleeds. He's your average nonstop, never slows down, gets into mischief toddler but he is such a happy baby despite everything he has endured. I am so proud of him and I could not have asked for a better baby.

And there you have it. My crazy, wonderful, exciting, sometimes stressful life. I have a beautiful, intelligent, and wonderful son and I would not change a thing.

Last, but certainly not least, I am working on my stories again. I am pretty sure no one is going to read them since I abandoned them so long ago but it does not matter. I still want to finish them even if only for myself.

I am sorry this is super, super long but, like I said before, I felt I owed everyone an explanation for my long absence.

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May 5th, 2014 at 03:04pm