Wednesday, August 25, 2010

First post.

What a journey.  Today marks 1 month that we have had precious Micah with us.  I was just thinking about what I was doing today one month ago, and boy am I glad I am out of the hospital with my beautiful boy.  We had a time in the hospital...labor was not what I expected...is it ever?!  I was not prepared for the c section that followed my 12 hours of labor.  That was crazy, but so worth it, and I would do it all over again 100 times with 100 times more pain.  Praise the Lord for an epidural though :)  Micah had some blood sugar issues in the hospital, and once those were worked out, they told us he had jaundice :(  again, so not what we expected.  So, after a night and part of the next day on the billy blanket, he was all good to go.  So, we thought.  A few days later, our amazing pediatrician asked us to go to the hosp. again because he was still looking a little yellow.  Wouldn't you know, he slept right through that heel prick.  I think he was used to the pricks in his foot.  He has had many in his short little life.  Once those levels came back okay, we were so relieved.  We were in the clear and good to go.  The next day (Micah was 9 days old) we got a call from our pediatrician's office that they had some lab results they wanted to talk to us about.  I forgot to mention that they called at 4:26.  Their phones shut off at 4:30.  I of course call at 4:30 and the phones are off...well, I certainly wasn't going to wait until the next day to find out what was up....had the hosp track down our dr, and they called me back.  Meanwhile, Roger just left to go get a haircut and pick up some groceries.  My mother in law and brother in law were here when they called me back.  They started to tell me about Micah's levels on his newborn screening test, and that 2 of them were elevated.  Big deal, right?  Well, as it turns out, it is a big deal, and they began to tell us that he has a genetic metabolic disorder called "PKU"  to this day, I can't even pronounce the actual name that those letters stand for.  Oh well, more things to worry about than that.  Immediately my mother in law called Roger and told him to get home quick. They were telling me all of these things and the things I heard was "his body isn't functioning properly" "it can be toxic to his brain" "mental retardation if left untreated" "can develop normal if placed on diet" "no meat for the rest of his life" "you will probably have to stop nursing" "no proteins ever"  "special formula" "very expensive formula he will need for the rest of his life"  all of this happened before Roger got home.  He gets home and I am still on the phone.  This time, I was directed to talk to a woman at Riley's children's hospital in Indy.  Riley's, really?  This must be serious.  They told us we needed to bring Micah to Indy asap and they wanted to recheck his levels to see if they has an accurate read the first time. We were convinced that God had already healed him.  We just knew in our hearts that this isn't what God wanted for Micah, or our family.  So, we came home that night to some great friends and family that gathered in our living room to pray.  We poured out our hearts to God, pleading with him that this wasn't true, and that he would do a miracle and amaze all of the dr's that told us this wasn't reversible.  We had to wait 2 days to get his levels back.  He went from a 6.7 to 24.  Normal range is 2-6.  Super high levels are in the 50's.  So, Micah's 24 was cause for concern.  I had to stop nursing, and immediately start him on that special formula that Roger and I left in the car.  We were convinced we were going to take it back to Indy because Micah was healed.  Needless to say, the next week or so was a mess.  Many, many tears and questions- why us?  Only 1 in 10,000 babies get this.  Neither Roger or I have ever heard of this before, and it does not run in our family, everyone was in shock and filled with questions.  Basically, both Roger and I have to be "carriers" of this.  We obviously are unaffected.  Micah, however got 1 gene from Roger that was active, and 1 gene from me that is active.  Our future children have a 1 in 4 chance of getting PKU, just like Micah had the same chance.  How could this perfect baby boy have this?  I admit, I was angry at God.  Still kind of am. I would wake up in the middle of the night, just balling thinking of Micah.I think of his life ahead of him, and my heart is so heavy.  How will kids treat him when he gets older?  What will he do when his buddies go out after a football game?  What will he have to enjoy?  How will birthday parties work?  Can we provide him with a seemingly "normal" childhood.  Do I have the energy and know how to cook all of these crazy recipes? If you know me, I don't cook from scratch unless its cookies.  So, this is very life changing for me also.  I still have lots of questions, and daily Roger and I are learning more and more about this.  I can say that it is getting easier. Because this is so rare, people really don't know what to say to us.  It's awesome to know that people are praying for us all over. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for praying for our family.  We know that we need to rely on Christ, and its hard to do that right now.  One thing, my amazing husband is a prayer warrior.  Praying for me and Micah, it is a blessing to have him to walk through this with.  Please continue to pray for us, we have a lot ahead of us.  Pray for Micah that his body would be healed....he is a Beiler and Beiler boys like their meat.  Bottom line, this is treatable.  In the grand scheme of things, it could be a lot worse.  God has entrusted us with this little one, and by His grace, we will do whatever we can to provide for him and love on him and take care of him the best we can.  We can do a special diet, we just praise the Lord for his life, and the blessing that he has been to us already.  Thank you Jesus for my boys.  I love them so much.

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful post! Thanks for sharing your heart and journey so far. We are praying for you guys and for little Micah. Love, Ashley, Joel, and Olivia

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  2. So glad you started a blog! My heart is heavy for you often but know as you said that God will be faithful to see you through this.

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  3. Thank you, dear friend, for sharing. We will be praying for your sweet little boy and for you and Roger. We love you dear! xoxoxo Tom and Jen Chamberlin

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  4. Thank you sara for your post. It was great to hear where you are at with this. I will definitely be continuing to think about you and to pray for you.

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  5. I'm praying for you, Roger and sweet Micah.

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  6. Thanks for your honesty in this, Sarah. I hear your heart and am one of the many who are praying for your family.

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  7. Hi sarah :)

    I just wanted to encourage you- I met a girl in college who has PKU and she said that on her diet she has been very healthy. She knew of the risks and understood everything she needed to do to stay healthy. I am sure that Micah will not be resentful that he has this disorder, but he will learn to manage it! Also, he will never know what it is like to eat meat so he won't miss it :) I don't know if that helps or not, but we're a vegetarian household by choice, so it can surely be done with some planning. It will definitely be an adjustment for you, but as with motherhood and so many other things, it will be transitional and a slow process of learning and re-learning. Just take it one day at a time, and one day you, Roger, and Micah will look back and think of it as second nature :)

    God Bless,
    Jacquelyn Buesch

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