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Cameron's Story
"Let's start during my pregnancy..."
I was about 12 weeks when my OB talked to me about going to have a down syndrome test done, said it was just routine so I went. A few weeks later the specialist contacted me and told me the test came back positive. I did what any new young mother would do, I broke down crying. My mom had to finish talking to the doc. As weeks went by I returned to the specialist to have an amnio done. He tried twice but couldn't get any fluid. It hurt so bad from the lack of fluid, I screamed out which upset my fiance and told them to stop, so all we had left to do was wait and expect the worst.
The last few weeks of my pregnancy were hell. My son slowy stopped moving and my OB did a kick test and he only kicked once in an hour. A week later my OB sent me for an ultrasound and it was good. The ultrasound tech said I needed to go to the hospital for observation, so before my mom asked the tech if it was just for observation, could we go eat first and of course they said yes. After we went to eat, we got to the hospital, sat outside by the front desk and I heard one of the residents say "this girl is going in for an emergency c-section", my heart dropped.
They put me in a wheelchair, took me up to labor and delivery where I was swarmed with surgeons pulling all my clothes off and my OB yelling at me for not going up there right away. So my mom went off on him saying it wasn't my fault and she explained everything. The OB called the imaging place and gave them some words. While all this was going on, my fiance was at work, I had the car and he had no ride. I was so upset that he wasn't gonna be there for the birth of our first child.
I got back to the operating room where they started the spinal and at that time they told me he made it and in he walked I teared up with happiness. So the surgery began and my son was born. He came out not crying at first and it scared me. After that I was put in recovery and they took my son to NICU where I couldn't see him for hours. They took me to my room and I wanted to see him so bad but he couldn't come out and I was still numb from the spinal.
It was about 5 hours and the meds wore off and I made myself stand to get in that wheelchair. I wasn't waiting any longer so the nurse and my fiance wheeled me to the NICU where I saw my baby hooked to so many things and a dome over his head for a little bit of oxygen. I held his hand and cried and at that moment no test result mattered but then in walks the neuro. doctor to explain that my son was discolored and they did an MRI where they found calcium deposits scattered in his brain. I didn't know what to say, I was a 19 year old mother being told there's something wrong with my child.
As days went by they tested blood platelet counts which were low, he had to be isolated from all the other babies which got people looking at us. But I didn't care, I wanted my baby to be alright. I was in the hospital for 3 days and my baby was for 2 weeks. I made trips up there every hour just to let him know mommy and daddy were always there. When he came home our journey began. We made routine visits to St. Louis and slowly found out that he was developmentally delayed, he was deaf, he has cerebral palsy and we still don't know what else is to come.
Our son will be two on August 7th, 2011 and we cherish every second with him because you never know what tomorrow brings with these problems. So he gave us a new look on life, cherish every day like it's your last and never give up because they can't. We love you, Cameron.
- Shared by his mother, Stephanie