Meg is 20
Valentine's Day is something that happens to other people.
In our house, for the past 2 decades, February 14th has been associated with our daughter, Meg.
20 years ago, just a few minutes past midnight, she came into this world.
3 days later, while we were still trying to come to terms with the fact she had Down's Syndrome, we had to take her back to the hospital. She was struggling to feed. In fact she was barely waking up. She was shutting down to die.
At that point, the Down's seemed pathetically irrelevant. All we wanted was for our little girl to live.
2 weeks in the hospital, being fed through a tube, with Maggie constantly at her side, she recovered enough to come home again.
Still she struggled to feed and after a while the doctor thought he heard a heart murmer. Tests revealed a small hole in her heart.
At 5 months old, Meg had to have open heart surgery to repair it.
While her chest was open, and her heart was being bypassed by a machine pumping the blood around her system for her, they discovered not only did she have a small hole in her heart, she had several more. And a big one as well.
Much work was done.
2 weeks after that, she came home again, but this time she fed more easily and grew stronger.
Today, our baby is now 20 years old. Strong, healthy, and truly wonderful.
Happy Birthday Meg!
In our house, for the past 2 decades, February 14th has been associated with our daughter, Meg.
20 years ago, just a few minutes past midnight, she came into this world.
3 days later, while we were still trying to come to terms with the fact she had Down's Syndrome, we had to take her back to the hospital. She was struggling to feed. In fact she was barely waking up. She was shutting down to die.
At that point, the Down's seemed pathetically irrelevant. All we wanted was for our little girl to live.
2 weeks in the hospital, being fed through a tube, with Maggie constantly at her side, she recovered enough to come home again.
Still she struggled to feed and after a while the doctor thought he heard a heart murmer. Tests revealed a small hole in her heart.
At 5 months old, Meg had to have open heart surgery to repair it.
While her chest was open, and her heart was being bypassed by a machine pumping the blood around her system for her, they discovered not only did she have a small hole in her heart, she had several more. And a big one as well.
Much work was done.
2 weeks after that, she came home again, but this time she fed more easily and grew stronger.
Today, our baby is now 20 years old. Strong, healthy, and truly wonderful.
Happy Birthday Meg!
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