Peter, PJ, Pedro, Grand Master P, "the baby"...2nd born, joy of my life, thorn in my side! haha Peter has born on 9/11/01 (yup, THAT 9/11) and was basically dead. Apgars were 0. Zero. Nada. No breathing, no heartbeat, nothing. I had a partial placenta previa and they were 'allowing me' (gee thanks!) to labor...(**note: I will be writing the full story of his birth and life to date in the book that I'm writing...well, planning on writing when I get my ADD and general sloth under control)...anywho, after high frequency jet ventilation, nitric oxide and other techniques failed, he was put on ECMO which is a heart/lung bypass machine. They administered the blood thinner heparin with ECMO. (yes, this is the drug given to Dennis Quaid's twins in mass quantity) One possible side effect of the heparin and ECMO is brain bleeds. And, yes, Peter had them. They can occur in the 2 ventricles in the brain and are graded 1 - 4, with 4 being the most severe. On one side, he had a level 3 bleed and a level 4 on the other. Not.good.at.all. The level 4 info I googled (never, ever google during a life threatening crisis) said 'turn off life support'...grim. Luckily, I am married to an optimist...(story to be continued...)
Will be using this category to talk about therapies that have helped him, products that have been great, and those that have sucked...
And, just btw, this is not going to be a happy happy 'Welcome to Holland' blog. It is also not going to be a Debbie Downer dialogue. Just the truth and nothing but...