Alexandrea was born at 26 weeks on August 6, 2006. We are foster
parents, and we were called to take "Ali" on October 12, 2006. We were
able to go and see her for the first time on October 13, 2006. She had
just come out of recovery for getting her trach placed. We spent the
next week at her bedside everyday.
On October 21, 2006 as I
was sitting at her bedside, the Neonatologist asked me to come and talk
to him. He was requesting the birth parents to come in and advising
them to take Ali off the vent. They diagnosed her with Cerebral
Atrophy and said that she would not survive, and if she did she would
be a vegetable. The birth parents came in a refused to take her off
the vent. THANK GOD! Alexandrea gave us great scares. She sat'd 30% for 24 hours
and coded 15 times. On October 23, 2006, after days of praying, Ali
started showing signs of getting better. Within a few days, she was
awake, and eating a bottle. PRAISE GOD!
We spent another 3 months
in NICU before being transferred to PICU. She stayed in PICU for 4
months before coming home on April 3, 2007. We had many scares
throughout the first few weeks home. Week 4, she ended up with
pneumonia and entered Peds ICU. Again... doctors did not give her any
hope to survive, and yet again, she surprised everyone of them.
Jump
ahead to the present..... Ali will turn 3 in August (2009). She was
booted out of OT and PT because she is developmentally on target. She
still attends FT to help with communication. She signs about 150 words
and learning more everyday. We are looking into a communication device to make things easier on her for when she starts school.
We are currently working on
getting her trach out. It is not working.... she has stenosis and
after reconstructive surgery (April 27, 2009), two dialations (May 21, and 28) and now putting the stint
back in (June 3, 2009), they are hoping to have a big enough airway for her to be able
to talk when we are done. We will do 2 more dialations and if they do
not work then we are going to give her a break and try again in a year
or two.
On another note... we finalized Ali's adoption on January 9, 2009.
If you have questions, email me at carlyqkitty@yahoo.com
