Posted by kim on November 17, 2011
Worldwide, 13 million babies are born preterm each year and one million of those die each year as a result of their early birth. Today (November 17th, 2011) is the first-ever World Prematurity Day, part of the March of Dime’s Prematurity Awareness Month, to honor these premature infants and raise awareness about the importance of striving to give every baby a healthy start in life.
So today, I not only praise the March of Dimes for helping my preemie twins, Macy and Mallory, survive almost eighteen years ago, but I also praise my preemie twins themselves for the fine young ladies they have turned out to be. Read our story.
Macy recently attended the FCCLA Cluster Meeting in Minneapolis and was so excited to tell me that one of the presentations at the convention was the March of Dimes talking about World Prematurity Day. I am hoping she decides to do a Star Project on being a preemie and share her miraculous story.
Posted by kim on November 13, 2011
Almost all premature infants suffer some sort of developmental delays, as did my twin daughters who were born at 27 weeks gestational age. I know that the paperwork associated with receiving assistance and help is also overwhelming when having a preemie baby, but I highly suggest that parents look into receiving aid from their local public school systems. My son went to a private parochial school at the time, so I felt justified using “my tax dollars” from the public school system.
We had speech therapists, physical therapists and occupational therapists start coming out to our house before the twins were even one year old. And it didn’t cost us a dime. Once the girls turned three years of age, the school provided transportation to take the girls to an Education Service Unit school setting.
I also enrolled the girls in a regular preschool on opposite days, and let me tell you, I loved having a couple hours break from all the hustle bustle! And besides the twins attending two different preschools, we also worked on preschool worksheets at home as I was bound and determined to get my girls up to par.
The twins are now juniors in high school and still receive special assistance in school, but they are truly my miracle babies!
Posted by kim on October 3, 2011
If you read the story of my preemie twins, you will know that Macy had gallstones (yes, a 6 pound baby had gallstones). Back in 1994, Moctanin was the drug of choice for adults (not children, and especially not babies) to break up gallstones. Moctanin was to be administered slowly over time (again in ADULTS). Well, the nurse gave my daughter an adult dose with one push of a syringe! Macy coded. It took the doctors and residents over 45 minutes to revive her (I read this later in the hospital records). The doctors prepared us that Macy would probably not live through the night. When we saw her, she was gray and lifeless and bleeding out of every orifice (eyes, ears, drainage tubes, etc).
A million questions ran through my mind. Did the pharmacist that dispensed Moctanin warn the doctor and staff of Unsafe Drugs side effects? Why did they think an adult medicine would work on a baby? And why didn’t they decrease the dose? And why wasn’t it administered properly? And why was my least favorite resident (he wore a huge turban and spoke very poor English) assigned to Macy’s care?
Moctanin was eventually taken off the market, and Macy lived to tell her story, bless her heart!
