A Quick View of Harris'
First Year...
When the
Mama had to deliver Harris due to Pre-eclampsia/HELLP we had a lot to
worry about. The ultrasounds showed he was very small and he had pretty
much stopped growing for a month. Would he be developed to 22 weeks as
his size showed or would he have the organ development of the 27 weeker
he was. Thankfully, when they pulled him out of the Mama he cried! He
was developed farther along than his size showed. He started out just
under 15 ounces, but by his second day he dropped down to 13 ounces. It
is normal for newborns to lose a couple ounces, but for Harris it made
things that much more critical. The first 48 hours seemed to last an
eternity.
He did well for about 6 days and then a hole formed in his bowels
spilling fecal matter throughout his abdomen. He was Life Flighted to U
of MI for surgery. The boy was fighting but getting very weak. He
survived the surgery, then the hard stuff began. 4 different occasions
doctors told us he was dying and to get ready for it. We wouldn’t
believe it at all. It hurt to hear and tons of tears were shed,
especially by the Mama, but we were determined to NEVER give up on our
son. We stayed in Ann Arbor for 2 days and then had to return to Battle
Creek with plans of returning a day later…that night call #1 came: "You
need to come back as soon as you can because Harris probably won’t make
it through the night." We flew as fast as we could down that highway to
get to him, crying and praying the entire way.
When we arrived he was in a bad way. His heart rate was up to 211 beats
a minute, his blood pressure was very low, his blood oxygen level was
falling fast…it looked hopeless, then I touched him. As soon as the Mama
put her hand on his teeny tiny forehead and gently spoke to him, "hey
honey, mama’s here; I love you…" his heart rate instantly dropped to
160’s, his blood pressure came up to a better rate, and his oxygen level
came up!
That
was when we realized just what is meant by holding someone’s life in
your hands. One of us or the both of us were with Harris everyday for
hours. While in Ann Arbor we were with him 12-16 hours a day. He
developed terrible fungal and bacterial infections that almost killed
him, and at one point the doctors thought he had either collapsed his
lungs or developed Pneumonia and was dying – of course, he made it
through!
Harris underwent 6 surgeries during his first few months of life; was on
the ventilator to breathe from 3/28/00 to 7/20/00. He was on supportive
oxygen with a nasal cannula from 7/20/00 to 3/06/01. He came home on
10/3/00 on lots of meds, breathing treatments, and oxygen. The meds and
breathing treatments had to be given around the clock, feedings every 3
hours with a bottle/mama/N.G. tube; he was on the oxygen all the time
and would turn blue almost immediately if he took off his oxygen…We had
to continually check his cannula placement and oxygen tanks. Very little
sleep….. But worth it for Harris to be home.
Slowly but surely Harris showed signs of improvement. He finally came
off of all his medications in December. Life seemed a bit more normal.
A big day was when Harris finally completely got off the oxygen support
on 3/6/01! No more tubes to trip over!
His
first birthday was a few weeks later on 3/28/01. At this point he is
considered to be between 5 to 6 months developmentally and improving
daily. The Doctors say he will catch up to other children by the time he
is 3 to 5 years old. Amazingly, after all that Harris has been through
he is expected to have no lasting effects from his prematurity. A few
years down the road and no one will be able to tell this ordeal ever
happened.
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the property of Jonathan & Carri Johnson unless otherwise noted and cannot
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link to our site please contact
thepapa@ourmiracleboy.net
© 2000 Jonathan and Carri
Johnson
