Do you have a life-changing moment you are thankful you endured?
I am beyond thankful that my daughter Grace lived through the accident that occurred when we were packing up from this above-pictured beach vacation.
Here's the rest of the story. My older brother was upstairs with the kids. We were downstairs packing up. All the sudden, I heard what sounded like labored breathing. Urgently, I cried out to my husband, "Someone's choking." I ran up the stairs and saw my brother giving Grace the hymlic. I reached for her, grabbed her, and did the same. I told my SIL to call 911. I flipped her over to look at her, and she was blue. I asked Matt, if we should give her a traceotomy. He said firmly, "No!" I put her under my arm, facing out and ran down the two flights of stairs in our beach house rental. As I reached the driveway, I could see the policeman getting out of his car and walking up the drive. I ran to him, with Grace outstretched in my arms. I was trusting this man with my heart, my joy, and one of my greatest loves.
The policeman dropped to one knee and lay Grace over it with her chest pressing on his leg, and her head pointing toward the ground. As I dropped to my knees, I saw my younger brother walking down the drive of the house across from us. I knew he might judge me for what I was about to do, but I didn't care. I prayed on my knees through tears, "God please save my baby, please save Grace!"
The next thing I remember is the policeman had turned Grace over and said, "She's breathing." "Thank you God filled my mind!" And I took her back into my arms. I'm not really sure when the ambulance arrived, but I climbed inside with Grace in my arms.
We were seen quickly at the ER. They x-rayed Grace's small body. The doctor's reported that they did not see anything on the x-rays. By this time, Matt had joined with William. I believe. Actually, I was all consumed with Grace for the next 2.5 weeks. All my thoughts of this time include Grace, along with my Mom telling me that everyone was praying for Grace.
Since we had arrived back in Raleigh, Saturday afternoon, I realized that Grace didn't sound right when she lay down flat or crawled on the ground. She almost went into constant wheezing or a croupy sounding cough. I slept with her in the bed, craddled in my arm nook so that she was propped up.
When I woke on Sunday morning, I called the Pediatrician and she told me to meet her at the hospital. I took Grace to the hospital. They ran a swallow test. She drank barium from a bottle, so that her swallowing was visible on a screen. The doctor thought she had seen something, but discounted it after a few more views. We were sent home.
I took her in on Tuesday because she clearly wasn't herself. She was not able to breath while crawling or lying on her back. I was somewhat shamed by my Doctor, a female. She asked if "I wasn't just feeling guilty because I wasn't there when it happened?" She tried to convince me it was spontaneous croup. I persisted, so she sent me to an ENT doctor. She said the only way they could determine if anything was in there causing the breathing obstruction was to put her under and scope her. She said, "If it was my daughter, I wouldn't scope her."
Matt and I took Grace to the ENT doctor the next day, Wednesday. The first thing the doctor said was pretty much verbatum what her Pediatrician had said to me the day before, "We can scope her, but if it was my daughter, I wouldn't do it." He said that he would like to see her in a week.
We took her back the next Wednesday, and there had really been no change in Grace's symptoms. I was still sleeping with Grace in the bed, tucked next to my body and propped up, so that she could breath without wheezing. The ENT doctor checked Grace out, and said he'd like to see her back in a week, if she wasn't better.
The following Tuesday night, prior to the third follow up with the ENT, my husband and I talked. I told him that I wanted to have Grace scoped, and that I would tell the doctor the next day at the appointment. He agreed with me.
That Wednesday, the ENT doctor arranged for me to go to the hospital after Grace's doctors visit. I had to fill out the paperwork for her procedure, which would be the next day, at the same hospital. This same ENT doctor was going to perform the procedure. Grace would receive anesthesia for the procedure and a small camera would be threaded down her airway and into her lungs. This would allow him to see if there was an obstruction.
This procedure actually occurred the next day on a Thursday, 2.5 weeks after Grace had initially choked. Following the procedure, we were approached by the doctor in the waiting room. He was carrying a small tupperware, like the kind you leave a restaurant with leftovers inside. He approached us and said, "She was a bad girl, and it's a MIRACLE that she is alive. She asperated a small piece of plastic that completely blocked her airway. I took a picture of it in Grace's trachea when I was retrieving it. It's also a MIRACLE that Grace lived with it in her body for 2.5 weeks. It had settled in Grace's bronchea branch at the top of her lungs. Every time Grace would lie down or try to play, the piece would move up and block the opening." My instincts had been right. There was something inside of Grace that needed to be removed.
A few hours later, we got to take Grace home with us. Grace returned to her normal activities of chasing her brother around and sleeping on her own. She did incure a few more choking incidents, while eating certain foods, but I was able to get them up.
God helped us to endure this event, and gave us Grace as the gift.
Ephesians 2: 8-9
"For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast."
I am incredibly thankful that God gave me Grace
and continues to give me
Grace, "unmeritied favor of God."
Praise God for Grace.
I do not deserve, nor can I earn all the blessings
I have been blessed with
It's Fri- YAY! Celebrate & Give Thanks!
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