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Kirstie Proffitt |
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| Her name is Kirstie. Do not worry everyone gets it wrong, but no one forgets her. *L* She will be turning 18 yrs old the day after Thanksgiving this year. Let me tell you her story. She was my second pregnancy. The one I worked especially hard to have. You see, I had gone through three years of infertility testing before receiving surgery to remove scarring from my tubes. A year after that I got pregnant. I was, of course, ecstatic! The pregnancy went well. I was very healthy and so was she. The day before the due date I was having contractions, I had many Braxton-Hicks with the first daughter too. I went to the LD because they were getting stronger throughout the day. They monitored me for an hour and found that even though the contractions were questionable, I was only dilated to one. Later on in the evening, around midnight, my water broke. I was calm at that point. My husband and sister went to the hospital with me since they were both to be present at the birth. After getting to my room my husband went for a break as my sister and I got a visit from the resident. He said I was only still dilated to one. It would be a long night, I thought, even though my legs were shaking and I felt very cold. Like I was already post partum. I told my sister I thought something was wrong but her heartbeat was still very strong averaging 160 bpm. The doc came back into the room and started to check my progress once more when, all at the same time, her heartbeat went down to 60bpm and his hands were covered in blood. I remember screaming “no” repeatedly, as they prepped me for the emergency C-section. A nurse stood above me quietly whispering as she looked directly into my eyes “shhh...it will be ok.” I felt the betadine splash as I fell asleep from the anesthesia. I awoke sometime later, pulling the O2 mask away from my face. Everyone was there in the room as I heard the doctor say “...brain damage, liver damage, transfusions, intubated, kidney damage...” ...she was speaking to my husband as my sister was saying to me “you have another daughter.” She said I “have,” not “had.” My baby is alive. Can I now say that the rest of my stay in the hospital was a blur? I remember certain things. I did not know what name I wanted on the tombstone. I did not even know her weight. Do I even try to pump my breasts? The OBGYN said I could have more. When will I get to see her? What is vasa previa? Why did this happen to us? Even though I had her on November 28, 1990, I could not see her until Christmas Eve. She and I were both in quarantine, exposed to chickenpox. I had to settle for daily calls and Mom’s report, Polaroid’s, and tears. The docs told me that IF she lived because her kidneys were almost completely shut down, she would be institutionalized the rest of her days because her EEGs were garbled. I wanted to stick it out just a little longer. We brought her home in February. She still had some many things wrong with her. Through the years, she has amazed us. Sure, she was behind in walking, talking, sitting, standing, and eating. Nevertheless, she could laugh. She was ‘shiny’ all the time as her little body worked hard to recover. She went to preschool and regular school and does pretty well, well, sort of. Kirstie is now going on 18yrs. She has mild cerebral palsy with right hemiplegia, she has had a right heel cord lengthening at age 7yrs. and multiple hours of occupational and physical therapy. She has brain injury to her occipital and parietal lobes, which makes it hard for her to think clearly at times even though she is doing very well in school with mostly mainstream courses. She also has macular scarring to her retinas so she does not have much center vision. She is hard of hearing in her right ear. Most of all, her right kidney does not filter at all and her left is working at 26%. She is not doing dialysis or on a transplant list yet. Not until she is a stage 5 renal failure or 15%. We estimate that to be 3-4 years. Hopefully. She will not have her own family. She may never drive or have her own place. We do not know if she will be able to hold a job yet. However, she will graduate high school next year. In addition, she will always be...Shiny. ~ Carol Walker |
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