Our Kids - Elijah

Elijah Carey Palmer turned our family of 4 into a perfect family of 5 on June 30, 2006. Elijah is a happy 15 month old little boy. He loves to play and go for stroller rides. To look at him you would never know that he only has half of his heart, that he hates to eat. Elijah was diagnosed in Utero with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of his heart did not develop and grow.

I remember the day so clear just like it was yesterday. Jason and I had gone in for the "big" exciting ultrasound. We were going to find out the sex of the baby and see how big and healthy our "baby-to-be" was. We did find out that we were having a baby boy, and he was growing, but healthy was another story. That day our lives forever changed. We were not having a healthy baby, in fact we were expecting a very sick baby. They told us that our beautiful child would be born with a life threatening heart condition...HLHS. The doctor that told us was very harsh telling us we only had a week or so to decide if we planned to "terminate" our son, which was not an option for us. God gave us this child and He had a "plan" for us and this child, so we decided to learn everything we could and do whatever it took to fight for our baby.

Needless to say, the rest of my pregnancy was so difficult for both of us. I had a very difficult time after Elijah was diagnosed. I knew that once he arrived he would be very critical. He was okay during pregnancy because I was breathing for him, but once he had to start breathing on his own the roller coaster ride would begin. I knew that he would have to undergo a series of open heart surgeries to help re-route blood and help the right side of his heart kind of "take over" what the left side couldn't do. Jason and I, nor our families were really prepared for the path we had chosen. We had no regrets, but no one can prepare you for what was to come for our child no matter how hard they try. No matter how much you try to educate yourself. No matter how many times you tour the PCTU unit at the hospital and how many babies you see that have just underwent the same surgery that your child is soon going to face.

Elijah underwent his first surgery, the Norwood, at just 10 days old. He was in the hospital for 33 days. It was the most difficult thing that we, as parents had ever had to face. We had great support from family and I think that is the only way we made it through. Elijah was very touch and go for a while, right up to his chest closure. The first attempt failed, he couldn't handle it. His pressures all dropped. Everything just went crazy. They took him again 2 days later to attempt it again. They got it done, but warned me that he wasn't handling it again and the risk of having to re-open it was very great. I sat there alone (it was Jason's first day back to work) and watched Elijah fight for every inch of his life and at a point I was told that he wasn't doing well at all, that he was very sick. They were talking about re-opening and he miraculously turned around and things were okay. After that it went as smooth as possible.

The next 4 months were very hard. We didn't sleep much, and when we did it was in shifts so that we always had eyes on the baby. He struggled with feeding, vomiting, blue spells, and many other things. He had his second surgery, the Hemi-Fontan on November 2, 2006 after having to be rushed in to the ER several times due to his oxygen saturations drastically drop down into the 40 % range. Recovery after surgery 2 was much quicker. Elijah came home after just 8 days. He had some major headaches from the change in blood flow, but we got him through it by managing with pain meds.

Now close to a year later, he is here. Our little miracle boy. He brings us so much joy. We still battle feeding issues, GI issues, Neuro issues, low muscle tone, developmental delays, and the newest issue is an unknown kidney problem that we are waiting to learn more about, but he is here with us every day blessing our lives. We do have a third surgery coming up in the next year or so, but we aren't dwelling on that. We are just enjoying the precious gift that God gave us. Every second of every battle we have gone through with Elijah is appreciated. We aren't sure of God's plan for Elijah, but we are thankful that we were included in that plan. He is a great kid and as I said before, if we don't tell people, they never even know. He is a normal little boy other than his half a heart and what an amazing love that half a heart holds!