Medical History

Many of you have a time focused knowledge of Micah’s medical journey.  We have the privilege of having served and been ministered to by two wonderful churches; who have seen Micah through some very difficult times.  Mark was pastor at Harmony Baptist Church in Caldwell, TX and I was a middle school math and science teacher at Somerville Jr. High when Micah was born.
The elements surrounding Micah’s birth are extraordinary and I could fill a book on the impact of Micah’s birth on our lives as well as the lives of our family and friends, but that is a project for another day.  During the summer of Micah’s birth I was carpooling back and forth to College Station, Texas to Texas A&M University where I was working on yet another degree.  I was completing my course work for my elementary education teacher certification.  I was already an oddity to the students I was with in class.  This was my second summer with 18 and 19 year olds who looked at me as if I were their mother having been ten years older than many of them.  Not only was I old and married, I was grossly pregnant.  I remember, while taking my Elementary Art Appreciation class that summer we had to learn to play the recorder.  Well, maybe this is where Micah began to enjoy music.  However, when we would play in class Micah would become very active.  The other girls in class would just watch to see a foot or a knee contort my already huge belly.  On the first day of the second semester of summer school I came in to the house after an incredible painful thirty minute ride home from A&M in tears.  Mark called my gynecologist and we had to turn around and return a painful thirty minute to College Station.  I was indeed suffering from a rare abnormality in pregnancy called polyhydramnios.  This was the beginning of a long acquaintance with a host of medical professionals over the years.
By 26 week I was having terrible pain with pregnancy.  I was sent to Dr. Carpenter, a high-risk obstetrician. (I can’t believe I could still find his information) in Houston, TX.  Micah was born later that week on Friday, July 13, 1990 by emergency cesarean.
We arrived in Houston, TX on Thursday afternoon, July 12, 1990.  We met Dr. Carpenter in his office.  He preformed the most advanced ultrasound we had seen (nothing in comparison to today’s technology).  He confirmed the polyhydramnios and began to discuss birth weight, gestational age, and possible genetics complications.  Dr. Carpenter told us Micah was very large for his gestational age and if he went term he might be close to 11 pounds.  He also suggested a gigantism syndrome called Beckwith Wiedemann.  My due date was not until September 25, so he admitted me to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital where he told me I would remain until delivery.  Later that evening Dr. Carpenter, and what seemed like every gynecology resident in the Baylor Medical System (our first experience with a teaching hospital – its old hat to have an audience now) came to the ICU unit I was in.  He preformed a uterine decompression – which means he drained the excess amniotic fluid off of my uterus to relieve the stress on the baby and some of the pain for me.  Using a method much like an amniocentesis, the doctor drained almost two liters of fluid.  Unfortunately, it sent my system into shock and began stage three contraction.  The rush was on to stop my labor, I was placed on a fetal monitor, and after some hours I was resting comfortably.  Mark and our parents went on to a hotel.  Later in the night, Micah’s heart rate decreased several times.  It was a miserable night but again by morning things were a little better.  My parents and Mark’s parents had all been to visit.  About 9:45 a.m. that morning the fetal monitor began to sound and my room exploded with excitement.  Mark’s mom was asked to leave, Mark was pressed against the wall, my bed was pulled out, a catheter shoved in, and I was rolled down the hall to surgery.  The anesthesiologist asked me two questions, out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Carpenter run into the room, and I was out.  When I woke up I was being asked to touch Micah.  He was laying on a heater bed with umbilical cord IVs and several nurses and doctors working on him.  Micah was transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital which was just beyond a set of doors to the Neonatal ICU unit.  I was taken to the women’s floor at St. Luke’s and Mark was forced to make numerous life saving decisions on Micah’s behalf.  The artificial drug for surfactant was in the experimental stage and Texas Children’s Hospital was one of the locations where it was being used.  Mark agreed to have the drug tested on Micah because his lungs were not able to fully inflate.  Later, while we were still in the hospital, the USDA passed his drug for use and a Houston news station interviewed us for the segment.  We also found out later that at this stage many parents in our position choose to sign a do not resuscitate order – it makes me ill to think about the blessed life that would have been lost if we had been urged to sign one.  Micah spent two weeks in the NICU and we saw some amazing things while we were there.  Their were thirty beds in the NICU and it was always full.  The nurse-to-patient ratio was 1 to 1 or sometimes 1 to 2.  Only the parents and grandparents were allowed to visit.  With all of the babies, medical staff, and visitors the NICU was extremely busy and yet it was a very controlled environment.  Everyone was required to scrub and gown.  All of the procedures and surgeries were preformed at the infants bedside and the NICU was cleared of all visitors.
	Micah in the Neonatal ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital
Our stay in the NICU was an incredible experience.  We learned hands-on medical care for Micah and became experts on communicating with specialists in the various pediatric fields.