He weighed 2lbs. 6ozs. and was 14 1/2 inchs long.
Micheal was not breathing when he was born so they had to intubate him immediatly. He had bruises on his sholders and on his nose and eyes, he was very sick and had to be rushed by ambulance to St. Francis hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There he was moved to the N.I.C.U E.O.P.C where he would stay until his discharge date of September 1 1999. During his stay here he had quite a bit of problems, Micheal luckily didn't suffer from any brain bleeds like most preemies, but he was very early and very small. He had all kinds of lines and tubes running all over him and he got several infections through out his stay there also. His biggest fight started out to be a sever problem to a preemie, N.E.C he got very ill an luckly they caught it before it got out of control. Thus as a result of the N.E.C. Micheal's doctors later discovered that he had a blockage and adhession in his small bowel as this was discovered Micheal was schedualed for surgery the following day. Before the night was over Micheal had gone from a scheduled surgery to an emergency surgery due to his intestens swelling and fear of his intestins bursting. That day was July 28 1999, The pediatric surgeon did a laporatomy bowel resectioning with a possible stomma, on an preemie that weighed a little over five pounds before surgery. After surgery Micheal was so swelled that he weighed well over 8 pounds almost nine, this was called edemia you could lay your hand on his head and raise it back up and see an imprint of your hand for an example. Micheal did not require a stomma which was good because that would require another surgery later on that would give another chance for infection.
While in surgery Micheal became infected with a sepsis infection (this is an infection in the blood) accompanied by an staff infection so he became very ill. At this point the doctors and nurses were telling us he was knocking on heavens door and they would not let us leave for more the two hours for sleep and showers and food. As he got sicker we got more worried and the doctors consulted other doctors and it was decided to parilize him with pavolone to keep him from fighting so much and was cathiterized, he was on an occilatator and fluids. Several different kinds of anti-biotics and so swollen you couldn't open his eyes.
Micheal proved everyone wrong and lived and fought and pulled through it all. He got better after two weeks of fighting and being parilized he lived and made it. All the nurses came to love him and think of him as thier drama baby, as soon as Micheal got better and just when we thought we would take him home he would get sick again. Micheal now got another case of jaundice but this time it was the oppisite of what he had when he was born this time it was harder to fix. Micheal had an eleivated bilirubin count which caused him to turn a copper color, and also affected his liver and the way that it functioned. As Micheal started gaining weight we discovered this was a problem from the life saving drugs that were administered to him so the doctors agreed that we could take him home, and he would be seen on a daily basis on an out patient to have his bilirubin checked untill it was with-in normal range. In the end Micheal suffered from several PIC lines , a central venus line, tubes down his throat into his tummy for weeks at a time being on a resperator, and an occilator, almost a hand full of staff infections, serveral sepsis infections, one surgery, more blood transfusions then I can count on my hands and feet, haveing a few spinal taps, and a couple of biopsies.
In the end Micheal came home September 1 1999. That was the happiest day of my life. Now Micheal is 15 months old and is walking and talking and doing wonderful, acting just like a normal child and you wouldn't know it by looking at him but he has already fought off more demons then you can shake a stethiscope at!
