Rylan the Miracle Baby... (Part 4- A NEW HOPE)

I've been writing for the past few days and explaining each day of our baby Rylan's life and the struggles we faced. Before I start on Friday the 29th, I just had to tell you that I am sitting in our TV room and Rylan is laying next to me, pacifier in mouth, and fighting sleep. Marci and Will are both sacked out on the couches behind me and obviously, I'm writing. Today, I'm going to pick up on the day after the worst day of my life. I hate to use a Star Wars theme, but Friday the 29th saw a New Hope that we needed badly.

I woke up about 6:00 AM on Friday the 29th. I saw Marci and her mom already awake and they told me that they had little to no sleep. I remember thinking to myself how this was supposed to be Rylan's birthday. I also pondered if all of this would have happened had he been delivered today. I'll never know the answer to that, and I guess it really doesn't matter because it was not in the cards.

Dr. Knight came in about 7:30. His hair was a mess, his clothes were too, and I figured he'd probably been here all night. I later found out that he had indeed been up all night in the NICU, by Rylan's crib. He had been checking and evaluating him, and also planning his course of action.

Dr. Knight started to explain how Rylan had taken 10 years off his life and how he was sorry it happened. We asked what was next and he told us that he wanted to test Rylan for damage from the trauma. He had an ultrasound of the head set up to check for swelling, and EEG to check brain activity, possibly an Echo Cardiogram to look at his heart. We dreaded this round of tests, but most of all, we were sad to here that his work week was ending and he would be handing Rylan over to Dr. Bonafacio that would take great care of him. We hugged him and thanked him before he left.

So, we waited... and waited... At about 11, my Mother-in-Law and I walked to the NICU and met Dr. Bonafacio. She was a very pleasant person to talk to and I could tell she was very compassionate. She told me all of what Dr. Knight had told me with one exception: She said they would probably attempt to redo the scope tomorrow. I almost fell in the floor when she told me this, so I told her that we had some real reservations and would want to talk more in depth about it when the time comes.

Why we were there, Rylan had an episode. All the sudden, his heart rate changed, and his oxygen saturation bottomed out. There were alarms going off and nurses rushing everywhere. I stood there in shock, as the nurses began working on him. It was like something out of the show ER and I was terrified that I was about to watch my son crash on the table. When the Dr. made it to the table, she instructed the nurses to suction Rylan. When this was done, all of his vitals returned to normal. When all was well, Nana and I ducked out the door.

We started hearing back from the tests at about 2:00 PM. The brain ultrasound came back negative for swelling, then the EEG came back normal, and finally, we heard that the Echo came back normal as well. We also got a confirmation that his blood gases were great and that his levels of other "Stuff" was much improved from this morning.

We had alot of visitors and lots of prayers were said on this day. I heard from folks all over the country that had heard and were praying for us daily. We could feel the prayers and they were helping us get through. One thing that really touched me was the fact that my boss had a special Mass held in Rylan's honor for healing. He told me the mass was attended by over 200 people, including every child from K-8 at the Catholic school next door, and that it was very good. I do not know much about mass, but I was humbled by the fact that an entire Church and school paused to pray for the healing of our child.

During our last visit of the evening, Marci placed a small index card in Rylan's crib that said the following:

"Rylan, We Love You! Keep fighting and stay strong! Always remember... THANK YOU THAT JESUS BORE OUR SINS IN HIS BODY ON THE TREE AND THAT BY HIS WOUNDS (STRIPES) RYLAN WILL BE HEALED - 1 Peter 2:24"

And that's where we left it for the duration of his stay. His nurses said they would read it to him whenever they were attending to him. We were blessed by a NICU staff of spiritual Christians.

Friday night, we slept a little better and woke up Saturday with an optimistic outlook. We went down to see Rylan at 8:30 and found ourselves at rock bottom again........... That's where I'll pick up tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED