Thursday, February 17, 2011

Our Story

***I'm writing this post in the hopes of inspiring anyone and everyone to become a "Mircale Maker" for the Children's Hospital of Denver. Just $15 a month helps kids like Jillian. You can call :1-800-458-KIDS (5437) to donate ANY amount or go to their website www.alice1059.com . You can also text MIRACLE to 27722 to donate $10 instantly.


Thanks to Children's hospital our oldest son has a younger brother and a younger sister. Thanks to Children's hospital we can hold and hug all three of our kids.  Two of our three kids would not be alive today, if not for Children's Hospital.
Our oldest son Oliver was born in February of 2007, a healthy, perfect  baby boy. Fifteen months later, in May of 2008 our second son Athan was born. Shortly after birth we found out he had a heart condition that required surgery ASAP. He was trasported to Children's and had surgery at 5 days old and was home only 5 days later. While we were in the hospital with him, we talked so many times about how amazing this place is. It is so sad that a place like that has to exist, but we are so thankful that it does.
When Athan was about 18 months old we decided to try for one more baby. Fast forward to September of 2010- I was 23 weeks pregnant and we knew from a previous ultrasound that this baby was a girl- baby Jillian. Our family was going to be complete! But, the doctors came back with less than good news for us. "This baby has a heart problem," was the doctors exact words. Our world was turned upside down, once again. Three days later, we were in the Children's Hospital Cardiology clinic, somewhere we were already familiar with, thanks to Athan's condition. There, they did an echo on Jilly's heart in utero- which in itself is amazing- and diagnosed Jillian with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. This condition is absolutely fatal if not treated.
Jillian was delivered at Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital in Denver on December 15th, 2010 and transported to Children's at three days old. She was only 5 pounds and 15 ounces when she was born, so surgery was a big risk for her. Becasue of her size, we were told to expect to be in the hospital for at least six to eight weeks after surgery. At six days old she underwent eight hours of open heart surgery, performed by the same surgeon that did Athan's surgery. We knew she was in great hands. She did well during surgery and we began the recovery process.
While in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) I am convinced that we had the absolute best doctors and nurses possible. At Children's they don't just take care of their patients, they take care of families too.
By some miracle, Jillian was discharged from the hospital just 2 weeks and 3 days after surgery. She has been home now for almost 6 weeks and besides some feeding issues is doing well. We are expecting her second surgery to be in the next couple of months. We are not incredibly excited about putting her through another surgery, but are so incredibly comforted knowing that she will be cared for at such an amazing hospital.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, what a journey!! So glad that Jillian's hospital stay was short. Praying for a smooth transition into the Glenn. I know how you feel about not wanting to "voluntarily" put her through all that again! But I will tell you it is SOOO nice to have it over with. I'll keep checkin in every now and then. Praying for you guys!
    Tawni (Kaelyn's mom)

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