Luke, 2 hours old.

On June 24, 1998, I had my DR's app., they found protein in my urine, the DR checked my legs and said I wasn't swollen, my BP was high 140/98, he had me on Aldomet (b/p medication), so he sent me home and told me to be on bed rest for tonight, Saturday at 12am I woke up with a sharp pain on my left side, and had pain radiating down my left arm, I started vomiting, the pain was so intense I couldn't lay down, 1 am my husband took me to the hospital, after several ultrasounds and blood tests, they discovered I had Hellp (Hemolytic Elevated Liver Low Platelet), they told me that the only cure for Hellp was to deliver the baby. My husband notified all the family members and they made arrangements to come up, they gave me a plasma transfusion because my platelets were so low. Then they gave me steroids to help develop the baby's lungs, they said they would do a c-section at 6pm, they did more blood work than at 12 pm, they told me that they would have to do the c-section at 2pm, because my liver enzymes were elevated and they couldn't wait, they did an ultrasound of the baby and told me it was a boy and calculated the weight at 4lbs 11 oz, which was a good weight for 33rd week gestation. So at 1:30 p.m. June 27, 1998, they admitted me to surgery, my husband couldn't be in there with me because they put me to sleep. I woke up a couple hours later and the DR told me I had a son and he was doing fine, they took me to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit so I could see him, I couldn't really see because my contacts were out and the nurses were giving me their glasses so I could so, he was so tiny but he was mine and he had such blond hair. He weighed 4lbs 10 0z when he was born, 18 in long---they were off by an ounce. We named him Luke Cameron.

He was in the NICU for about a month, he was on the ventilator for 1 day, it was a struggle for him, he contracted Bronchial Pulmonary Dysplasia (lung disease) he was on oxygen forever it seemed, then one day the told us we could take him home, he went off oxygen and came home on a apnea/cardiac monitor, it beeped constantly it seemed, but a couple months later he was off of that. No one believes me when I tell them that Luke was a preemie. He's a happy healthy 28 lb 1 year old.

Luke at 1 year