The prompt asked for the birth of a child and I wrote about Billy but how can I leave out my two younger kids?
Heidi was sort of our miracle child. When Billy was about six months old, I finally persuaded Rich to go to the doctor and get his cold checked out. He'd been sick for months, snored so loudly people could hear him from different rooms and, scariest of all, his heart was beating so hard it would shake the bed.
The doctor sent Rich for an X-ray and we were stunned to learn that his heart was very enlarged. When we went to the hospital so he could have a scan done of his hear, Rich collapsed and was admitted. He was in the hospital all week while the doctors stabilized him and tried to figure out what was going on. Why had a young man developed heart failure like that? He was only 27 years old! After he was released, he was referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The news was even bleaker than we realized. Not only did Rich have cardiomyopathy (an enlarged heart) and congestive heart failure, he also had an aneurysm in his aorta! If the surgeon didn't operate, Rich would die. While we were there having tests run on Rich, a geneticist came in and said he believed Rich had Marfan Syndrome. There was a 50-50 chance our children would have it too. Could anything else go wrong?
Rich had the surgery on December 26 and survived. The surgeon had to replace his aortic valve and made a graft back to his heart. The doctor used a mechanical valve and if the room was very quiet, you could hear Rich ticking like a watch. Unfortunately, the surgery didn't seem to help much. The doctor implied the prognosis was not good and when I called him later to ask him, he told me Rich had a survival average of about five years.
I was stunned. I was also pregnant with Heidi. My family doctor had suggested I not tell Rich yet because he was still recovering from surgery and the news might depress him. How could I not tell him, though?
I was glad to see that instead of being depressed, Rich was overwhelmed with joy. The news gave him hope, he said.
My pregnancy wasn't very eventful except for stress and the fact that Heidi stayed breech almost to the end. Ellen, the midwife, had me practically standing on my head to encourage the baby to flip...and finally she did.
About a month before I was due, we went back to Hopkins for a follow up with the surgeon. He did a physical exam, muttering that he couldn't believe it. It sort of scared us and he said, no, no, this was good. He then sent Rich for X-rays and then confirmed it must have been a miracle--Rich's heart was smaller and the prognosis now was very good!
Not long after that, I went into a cleaning frenzy. At the same time, Billy developed a painful ear infection and we had to take him to the doctor. I had to hold him upright in my arms so that he could sleep. We were watching the Olympics and it was close to midnight when I realized I was in labor. Luckily my cousin was home and able to come and watch Billy for us.
We got to the hospital around half past midnight. I was astounded to learn that I was already 7 cm dilated! Heidi was the easiest delivery of the three kids. I could have had a party in the birthing room. We continued to watch the Olympics during the breaks between my contractions. At around 3:06 in the morning, Heidi was born. Our baby of miracles--the miracle of birth and the miracle of Rich's heart.
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