[tri-med] Re: Great news!

Gary,
Congratulations on the new arrival and we pray for Ben a speedy recovery.  Best 
wishes to you and your family....


________________________________
From: "Comparetto, Gary M." <garycomp@xxxxxxxxx>
To: tri-med <tri-med@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 10:42:24 PM
Subject: [tri-med] Great news!

Hi,
We have great news - Elizabeth gave birth to baby Benjamin on Saturday evening 
at about 9:30PM!  He weighed 8lb 9oz and is 22 inches tall.

Benjamin began to have some difficulty keeping his body temperature and O2 
levels where they should be.  As a result, the doctors decided to place him in 
the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they can continuously monitor his 
health.  He had an echo-cardiogram performed on Sunday to determine if there 
are any defects in his heart that can be contributing to this condition.  
Benjamin has a number of signs that indicate he has Down's syndrome.  We had a 
chromosome test done on Sunday but won't have the results back for a couple of 
weeks. However, the doctors seem pretty sure that he has Down's syndrome and 
Elizabeth and I also have a strong feeling that Benjamin has Down's syndrome.

Elizabeth and I were a little surprised when the doctor's told us of Benjamin's 
symptoms and the initial diagnosis of Down's syndrome and a little sad, but we 
are so grateful that the Good Lord has given us this beautiful baby boy - he is 
precious!

As of about lunchtime today, Benjamin's O2 levels have improved significantly - 
he is just about ready to come off of external O2 - and his feeding is great 
(it's now at the normal level).  However, his blood work last evening indicated 
that he may have an infection.  As a result of this, another blood sample was 
taken, along with a spinal tap, in order to make sure about the infection and 
to determine if it was in the spine (this would be menangitus).  The best case 
scenario is that the results will come back in 2 days indicating that there was 
a false-positive in the previous results.  If this is the case, Benjamin will 
then likely be able to come home on Friday.  On the other side of the spectrum, 
if the results indicate that there is an infection and that it is menangitus, 
then this would require Benjamin to stay in the NICU an additional 14 days.  
Benjamin has some heart difficulties - this is common with Down's syndrome 
children - but nothing
 that would require immediat
e attention.  Benjamin looks great - he really is a beautiful baby (not that 
I'm biased!) - he's very alert when he's awake and he is beginning to nurse 
little by little.  All in all, things are looking very good for Benjamin.

I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks
Gary (and Elizabeth) parents of Daniel (19), Michael (18), Joshua (15), Rachel 
(13), John (11), Nathan (10), Esther (7), Stephen (T13 Mosaic, born 10/5/04), 
and Benjamin (preliminary diagnosis T21, born 1/24/09)




                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                      www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line
                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: