Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A Precious Gift to Our Family

This is Brennan's Oma who was lying on the bed with her grandson. He was a very smiley baby and loved to coo face to face especially with his mama. 7/1995
Keenan who is 7 and a half here in holding his 6 week old baby brother, the Brenster!!!
On the left is Riley fast asleep at 4 and Brennan was close to 3/4 months. Their profiles were identical. June 1995
Brennie with the leads super glued to his head. This was for a 6 hour EEG study. He face was swollen from IV fluids. Doesn't he look so teeny? My sweet boy with the disintegrating brain(we weren't aware of that fact yet.)

9 comments:

Flutterby said...

I am reading this and my heart just beaks for you. I remember how I felt those 16 years ago when my baby boy was laying in a bed much like the one in the picture, with IV hoses and all manner of things hooked up to him and his problem was nothing near as serious as your precious one's. It's almost worse having a medical background because I just always *knew* I could be doing something "better" or less painful. An IV nurse got the worst end of me on that issue one night; she couldn't get him hooked up and kept trying and trying over and over everywhere and I finally reached across the table, grabbed her wrist and said very calmly, but forcefully "If you put that needle anywhere near him one more time there is not going to be enough left of you for even your own mother to identify." The whole room froze. I let go of her and picked up my son while two other nurses took her out of the room. When the y came back, I put him down and asked "Ok now which one of you is going to do this right?" I don't think any of them wanted to try with me standing there but one finally did, and got it first stick, in his head. And then she taped a styrofoam cup over it so he couldn't mess with it. I have pictures of him with that cup on his head and it was just one little thing that made us laugh a bit at such a difficult time.

Crazed Nitwit said...

I think you acted appropriately in the situation. They are so little. I have alway been a medical junkie so I knew more than the average parent. That's a good and a bad thing.

What kind of nursing did/do you do?

If I rock this year I'll be starting nursing school in Aug 08 or March 09. The application is due before I'll have grades for A&P2(taking second time), Chem 102(ochem) and statistics. IF I don't get in then I go for a psych degree and try to be a psychiatric social worker...

Flutterby said...

Cardiac tech with lots of side stuff; IV and phlebotomy and an internship with an EEG tech. (Never EVER saw anyone use superglue before though... there are far easier adhesives to use for that) Two huge things I learned in school: 1: If you don't get a good stick the first 2 or three tries, chances are you will not get it at all because you get too frustrated. Learn when to give it up and hand off to someone else if at all possible. 2: NEVER let a Doctor draw your blood, stick an IV, or give you a shot. Cause most of them suck at those mundane things, lol. My grandsons mom is a neonatal ICU nurse. She loves it. I am not sure I could do that.

Crazed Nitwit said...

My friend who guided us in the beginning has been an NICU nirse for 22 years. She was a huge help the first few days with jargon and test results. Now I can read most test reults myself.

It seemed like super glue on his head. When they used a solvent his skin would have an open sore. He had up to 5 ince time.

It's bad enough they let the residents give the lumbar punctures. ACK! I know who the caring medical professionals are.

Summer said...

That last picture breaks my heart.

shauna said...

Those first few pictures are just adorable, especially seeing the bond between Brennan and your other sons. And I agree with summer--that last picture just breaks my heart.

Crazed Nitwit said...

I was too determined to be broken hearted at this point. I wanted to know what was causing the seizures and other, later symptoms,and somewhere in the back of my head I knew he was going to die. I think what really broke my heart was the fact every child we could conceive would have a 25% chance of having this disease. We could not have any more children. This is what finally completely ripped the last shreds of my heart that were left from knowing my infant would die.

Anonymous said...

The pictures are so beautiful, I love the smile, I love the sleeping one...he looks so healthy. The last one is so sad. He is still so beautiful, but I wish he did not have to go through that. It really does hurt my heart, you must have felt so helpless. (((HUG)))

louann said...

I agree the pictures are so beautiful. My heart breaks everytime I would read stories of Brennan.