First, let's start this off with a birthday wish for your Aunt Lolo!! Happy Birthday Laura, we love you.
This morning I was creating the monthly report at work, and remembering back to one year ago on this date, doing the exact same thing in the office, thinking that the mouning sickness was definitely the worst part of the pregnancy. Oh, how I was mistaken!!
That morning I received a phone call at work from Dr. Zacharias' office, telling me that the Dr. himself would be calling me shortly. How many times does a doctor call the patient himself? That's never a good sign, and it wasn't. Dr. Zacharias explained to me the test results from the Echo I had done earlier in the week were not good! The aortic valvular stenosis that I was born with just went from mild/moderate to Very Severe/Life Thretening. Would you be okay? Only God knew!
The next 2 months were filled with Doctors appointments weekly, sometimes even more often. Of course, I needed a second opinion, unfortunately, the results were the same. I became familiar with all three Maternal Fetal Medicine Dr.s, (hi-risk specialists). The emotional roller coaster was much like the new Verbolten ride at Busch Gardens, dark, fast, and I had no idea what was going to happen next. One of the appointments made was with Dr. Love, a charismatic big black man, who asked me to bring Chris along for the consult. I did, and I soon realized why he asked for Chris' presence. A word was spoken that day that changed everything. The roller coaster just dropped below me and I felt like I was floating on a bad dream. Dr. Love said I needed to heavily weigh the idea of ABORTION. He stated that it was very likely one of the two of us would not survive to the end. 'Would I be willing to leave your big sister, and your amazing Father behind without a mother and wife' he asked.
The next few weeks continued to be stressful despite being my favorite time of year. Christmas day was the start of our third trimester. Although I hadn't started showing any symptoms, all the doctors agreed that the third trimester was going to be the worst. I was on high alert for any signs of heart complications. Everyone around me was cautious as if walking on eggshells because I was so fragile.
I really tried to give it all to God, because this was much more than I could handle. Only God could keep my mind so calm and confident when the world around me was dredful with skeptisism.
The doctors decided it would be in our best interest to bring you into this world before I naturally started labor. On March 6, I went in for an Amniocentesis, to see if you were developed enough come out, you were not. We repeated the test one week later, and results showed that you were going to be okay. On the morning of March 16th I was admitted to Henrico Doctors Hospital about 5am. You and I both survived, thanks be to God!!
In the social world of Facebook, the messages just kept coming. The onset of love, support and prayers were absolutely amazing. I think there must have been thousands of people praying for you and me over the entire month of August. It was unreal the amount of times I heard "my smallgroup is praying for you" from someone I didn't even know. There were nurses that followed us through our hospital stay just to see if we were doing okay.
Although you spent about 10 days in the NICU, you were a fighter and pushed your way to health. On March 26th, we got to bring you home. What a joyous day that was.
So, what about the heart issue? Well, that was obviously not a problem during the delivery like the doomsday doctors thought it would be. Fortunately, Dr. Chiwon Hahn, a very well respected heart surgeon met me while I was in the hospital with you. It was decided that we would wait 6 weeks, and then I would go back to the hospital for the open heart surgery. That was May 8th, and again God had us in his hands. I came right back home on May 13th (Mothers Day) with my new heart valve, and double bypass. What a blessing to come home to my family of four and the rest of the village and know that God wasn't quite done with me.
Gray Cooper Hollomon, now that you've been around 6 months, I just want to say welcome to this world. I am eternally grateful for you and your sister in my life. I am so blessed.
