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Open Your Minds #50: Surviving Premature Birth: My Story (By Ronee' Le-Anne Reaux, aged 11) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Friday, June 18, 2004
Rated "G" by the Author.
A young girl who weighed 1 pound and 3 ounces at the time of her birth nearly 11 1/2 years ago shares her story.
I am a survivor.
I was born three months too early, weighing just one pound and three ounces; and according to my mom, and also my doctors, I was said to be a very sick baby. I had a lot of breathing problems, and I died nearly three to six times.
I was born the second of twins, and my twin weighed only 2 pounds, but I was the smaller, sicker one. I was not breathing when I was born, and I had to be revived and then intubated (having a tube put into my mouth and down my throat, to my lungs), so I could breathe. I really don't remember it (maybe that is a GOOD thing??), but I have seen pictures of me when I was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), and I look pretty ghastly, to say the least: tubes in everywhere, off in color (I looked more like a tiny, shriveled up lobster than a baby), and not taking up much room on the bed/incubator. I was wired for sound, and looking back at those pictures, it's a wonder I even LIVED. I had several surgeries on my stomach (I had problems with my intestines getting infected, and they had to take part of my intestines out and temporarily put a colostomy in until my intestines could heal; I forget what it was I had, but I guess it must have been pretty serious!), and I also had a tube put into my side, when one of my lungs collapsed; so I was looking pretty shaky there for a while. (I still have the scars on my belly, and also the scars on my chest and side from the tubes I had in me even today, as testiment to my earlier than normal birth.)
When I was well (and big) enough to come home, I came home on monitors and on oxygen because I was susceptible to breathing problems, and it was several years before I could get off the oxygen completely (but still wear it now, primarily at night; but hopefully, within a year or so, this will change, and I will be off of it COMPLETELY!). I am also smaller than normal: at the age of eleven, nearly 11 and 1/2, I look more like eight or nine; I am little for my age, and my being born premature certainly did NOT help matters any!
Thank GOD I don't have any learning problems on account of my being born premature (or any physical problems, or any mental ones either, for that matter!); many premature infants do have problems, but I was one of the lucky ones, even though I weighed less than a pound and a half at birth. But there are smaller babies now surviving (I recently heard of a little boy somewhere who weighed only as much as a can of SODA--12 ounces!--when he was born--and HE LIVED!). I am just glad I was born when I was or else, had I been born long ago, I wouldn't have a chance or even a prayer!
Some people who are born premature are born with physical or mental damage, but I escaped that (HOW, I do NOT know, but I DID!), and I am pretty healthy (all things considering!), and I can thank my Heavenly Father for THAT! I am a Living Testimony that premature infants, even very premature ones, CAN live and do well in life!
P.S.: The feet prints on my story aren't mine; but the feet are those of a premature infant. The feet prints of a regular, "full term", baby are a lot bigger. I was a lot smaller than six or seven pounds, so you can only imagine how little my prints musta' been!
i love the opening line: i am a survivor. we all are, but those that have been born too soon and live are truly miracle children. as we are. :) THANK GOD He gave us life. :)
I am a survivor.
