Our Story of a Syndrome:Tears-- Part Five
When I walked into my house I always went straight into my room, dropped to the floor and sobbed and sobbed. My daughter Maggey would always come in and ask, "are you going cry again tonight?" I would always say, "yes." I love Rhyse just as much as I love you and I miss him. She would tell me she would "be there" for me, whatever I needed.
Rhyse's crib is in my
room. I think that made my heart bleed all the more. I got to the
point I could not look at the empty crib at the end of my bed anymore. It
just tore me up inside.
While Rhyse was in the
NICU he had two bone aspirations and two heart ultrasounds. The heart
ultrasounds did show two ASDs and cardiomyopathy. But the heart defects
were minor and merely needed to be monitored. It was the bone aspirations
that were critical in their findings. By the second bone aspiration the
doctors determined Leukemia was looking less likely and Noonans more likely as
the answer. Although his white blood cells continued to be sky high and
his platelets low, there was no evidence of Leukemia in his bone marrow.
But again, nothing was 100% ruled in or out. These findings gave us
a small breath a relief.
After many, many
platelet transfusions and being fed by ng tube, the overarching issue that rose
to the surface was feeding. Rhyse could receive his transfusion on an
out-patient basis. But Rhyse could not consume 50ml of breast milk in 15
minutes. That is the requirement for being released from the NICU. Every
time he failed the requirement the ng tube was put back in.
Before long Rhyse
figured out how to pull the ng tube out of his nose! As fast as the
nurses would get it fed in, he worked his little arms until he grabbed the tube
and yanked it out again. It was sort of a game, and the nurses were not
amused! I did find it amusing though! It was our first peek at
Rhyse's little personality coming to the surface!
So with each day
presenting feeding challenges, a lack of definitive answers, and Thanksgiving
fast approaching the days drug slowly on. Every day seemed like a week.
The world was going on its merry way all around me. But my world had
stopped on October 18th when this saga began.
Our parents and
brothers and sisters-in-law were a wonderful support system for us. They
did all they could to keep visiting and loving and encouraging us as best they
could. We knew they couldn't understand, but they helped us not feel so
alone in the endless journey.
On November 4th Jon
and I were sitting in our living room discussing how we were going to work out
the logistics of another week of NICU and kids school and Jon's job, as my
in-laws has gone home to Indiana and Rhyse still wasn't home. In
mid-discussion the phone rang. A nurse asked for me. The previous day we
had requested a meeting of all the doctors involved with Rhyse's care so that
we may get a better picture of what was going on in their minds and what the
next week would look like. But evidently someone had decided that Rhyse
was ready to go home that weekend, so the meeting did not need to occur!
The elation we felt
was palpable! We lit up with excitement, calling up all family members to
share the good news! Rhyse was coming home the next day!
Though Rhyse was
released on November 5th, 2011, we had miles of questions to be answered and
obstacles yet to be overcome. He was released without any official
diagnosis and insurance approval pending for the genetic testing that would
hopefully provide an answer. I say hopefully because even a genetic test,
we were told, may not reveal Noonans. Many of the Noonans genes had been
identified, but then many have not. He may show signs of clinical
Noonans, but we were praying for a genetic confirmation that would guide
Rhyse's specialists and us in the right direction for medical
management: and most importantly rule out Leukemia for good. Rhyse
was released with a JMML diganosis, but we were hopeful it was,
"Noonans related JMML." No one was sure.
Two days after Rhyse
was released I had to bring him back to hematology for a blood check and
subsequent transfusion. This process thrust me into the next phase of the
new journey.
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