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Reincarnated

2K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  BabyGirl77 
#1 ·
LOL So I used to be very active around these lands, but life happened. Had a rough spell, happy to tell anyone who asks, come meet me in chat some time and we'll talk. Anyway, through the heck that I've endured the past year or so I had to take down my tanks due to no time, but now I'm itching to set one up again. Plus I missed all the amazing people I met here. So as a re-introduction, hey I'm Summer, now 29 with three kiddos, 4 dogs, and a husband. Looking forward to plotting and planning a new start in the aquatic world. I used to hang around here in the chat room all the time with a big group of awesome folks, sad to see its sort of died out, so we should change that. Come chat :)
 
#3 ·
How am I supposed to bribe people into chat with out a story to tell??! haha kidding. Sure, give me a minute to type it all out.
 
#5 ·
So, last July I found out I was pregnant...kind of a surprise as I didnt think I could have any more kids, but we were thrilled. When I hit 8 weeks and they did the usual blood work it was discovered that I had at some point in one of my previous pregnancies, been exposed to RH+ blood. I am RH- and despite having the rhogam shot that is supposed to prevent it from happening, I became sensitized with Anti-D. These are basically antibodies that are on the surface of red blood cells. Since I'm RH- I do NOT have these, and so when I was exposed my body then viewed it as a threat. So when I got pregnant again, and the baby was RH+ my body viewed HIM as a threat as well and attacked his blood cells. I had to have very careful monitoring through out the pregnancy, and at 17 weeks they had to transfuse blood to teh baby while in utero. They gave him blood this way again at 19, 22, 25, 27, and 29 weeks. They also had to transfuse platelets because he was lacking those as well. Several times through out the pregnancy the baby developed hydrops because of this condition (Basically as my body killed his blood he became anemic, and his tiny system had to work in over drive) Hydrops means fluid around the heart. It can very easily kill an unborn baby. Each time he developed hydrops they transfused him blood and we'd buy ourselves another week or two. At 31 weeks though he was very very anemic, and had severe hydrops again. He was very sick inside me....so the doctors had to make the last ditch effort to deliver him early. So they did, and he was a fighter. He spent 28 days in the NICU and had 8 transfusions while there before coming home, and having to have a blood transfusion roughly every two weeks until he was just about 6 months old. He is now 9 months old, perfectly healthy and happy. We are still sort of in recovery mode after a year of this. The hospital that did the transfusions to him in utero, and where he was delivered was 2 hours from home, which meant a lot of travelling and being away from my older kids and husband while hospitilized and while he was in the NICU, and a lot of going back and forth for transfusions once he was home too. It's been a very long road for every one here, but we are tough and made it through.
 
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#7 ·
Insurance covered most of the transfusions. When I was about 29 weeks they decided to try a product called IVIG on me, I was supposed to have it weekly, but they ended up delivering him. Anyway, insurance considered it "not medically neccisary" and wont cover it. It was 36,000. Totals before insurance for all pregnancy related things, transfusions, hospital stays, then the NICU, his after care, transfusions etc. total well over a million dollars. Thank goodness for insurance.
 
#10 ·
Here's some pics. One from when he first came home, one from just a few days ago. His name is Dawson
 

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#11 ·
I'm not positive [MENTION=153762]big b[/MENTION] but judging from your join date I'd guess not.
 
#13 ·
Nope, mid January. The first pic is of him with boxer shorts and boxer gloves
 
#17 ·
lol of course!!
 
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