Benefit Post for Children's Hospital

**1 comment = 10 cents for Children's Hospital. Even if you don't read this, comment!!** (no limit to how many times you can leave a comment either)

Chase was born on a chilly December day, 2 years ago next week. Within hours of his birth, he began seizing. We were expecting a healthy, full-term baby, and what we got was far from that. It sent a shockwave through my entire system - my newborn baby was fighting for his life.

You can find bits of Chase's story throughout my blog:
NICU: First 24 Hours (sadly never blogged the following days...)
The Update Post
Share Your Story for Children's Hospital of Alabama
The Cement Roof

The summary:
It was soon discovered Chase was seizing from extra blood on the brain (a grade 3 or 4 bleed), the pressure caused seizures, and his bleed was severe. Unsure of how to treat him, the local hospital put Chase on seizure medication, intubated him (as the medication surpressed his breathing to the point where he could no longer do it unassisted) and placed him under "do not stiumlate" protocol.

For me, this meant that I could only look at my hours-old son. No touching. No talking. Absolutely nothing except prayer from a distance.

Because Chase's condition was so incredibly rare (we are talking in the one in several million range) for a full-term and otherwise healthy baby, he was soon taken via helicopter to Children's Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.

It was there I felt Chase had a chance.

He was removed from his "no stimulation" orders, placed on less medication, eventually extubated, and a few days later, Chase had an angiogram to find a "cause". His nurses were amazing. Everyone understood our situation, tried to be as accomidating as possible (it was Christmas and we were from out-of-town), guided us through difficult decisions and made extra efforts to respect our wishes.

In short, Children's Hospital saved Chase's life.

The level of medical care combined with their compassion and experience far beyond that of a "regular" hospital became the perfect combination.

The aftercare we've receieved has been amazing. Nurses on call for any issue, quick response time during problematic episodes and speedy appointments with specialists.

Chase has managed to absorb all of the blood without ever being shunted. He has no (known) neurological damage. He is developing completely "normal". We are stunned.

So to benefit Children's Hospital of Alabama, Michael and I have decided to raise a little cash. We are opening  comments for the day and each comment made on this post will equal 10 cents. (Sadly, I've turned on the capcha due to bots on this site, silly bots). You can leave as many as you'd like. Also, you can retweet this (Twitter.com):

Benefit post for @ChildrensALA from @themomjob. Each RT earns 10 cents. http://themomjob.net

If you'd like to donate to Children's Hospital with your money (hehehe), I have added a "Donations" PayPal Button in the right column near the top of this page.

Thanks to BirmminghamMommy.com for featuring this benefit post! And obviously, thank you to Children's Hospital for our amazing son, Chase.