Happy 18th Birthday Dillon!!!

Wow...I can't believe my third child is 18!!! My little "miracle" baby. Well all 4 of my children are miracles but Dillon is definitely up there. According to the nurses we both had about 2 more minutes and we probably wouldn't have made it. I will try and condense this story especially for those who already know it!

On the morning of April 15, 1992 I woke up and went to the bathroom and thought that my water broke. What seemed like 10 minutes had passed, I realized that it wasn't my water and that it was blood. My placenta had ruptured away and Dillon was getting no oxygen or blood supply, not to mention I was hemorrhaging to death! I phoned Mark who in turn pretty much yelled at me to phone 911! I phoned 911 and by then had sat down and was feeling much better and told them not to come and that I would wait for my husband to come home? (duh! shock I think). The ambulance arrived and my husband who was 45 minutes away at work showed up in 20 minutes (the poor car never ran the same again). I was rushed to the hospital (45 minutes away) where many nurses were running around and putting IVs in, catheters in, etc. and I was holding the fetal monitor on my belly when suddenly there was no heart beat! Mark's face went as white as a sheet and he ran out in the hall yelling at the surgeon!! I was rushed into the OR where I had an emergency c-section under a general anesthetic and didn't know what I was going to wake up to? Within an hour of his delivery (all 5 pounds of him), they detected the heart problem (nothing to do with the placenta, happened at conception). He was then shipped to Sick Kid's in Ottawa. The next few days are pretty much a blur to me (thanks to the Morphine drip). I finally got to see my son 3 days later when I got a day pass from the hospital. He was so tiny and blue and the medication they had him on made his bones hurt if he was moved or touched. I never saw his eyes open until he was almost 2 weeks old. I got to take him home when he was almost 3 weeks old. What a strange feeling, leaving the hospital without your baby?

He has since undergone 3 open heart surgeries, numerous cardiac catheterizations and has received, donor valves, pig valves, mesh wire (he calls it chicken wire), and now he has the main artery from a cow in him (as he likes to say, he has the whole farm). He will still have to undergo more surgeries in his life but for now he is doing great!!!

Where has the time gone?

♥Happy 18th Birthday Dillon♥

Until next time xxoo Debbie♥