Davin, born 2009
Becoming pregnant was a mix of emotions; tears, happiness, nerves, all wrapped into one. I did know that this would be a journey that my husband and I were so willing to take. Little did we know this would be one of the hardest journeys of our lives. My pregnancy was wonderful; hardly any morning sickness and I would feel his little kicks often.
I was induced at 38 weeks and was in labor for a short 6 hours. On my last push I remember the doctor saying "oh, he's a little guy". My heart stopped. Didn't he just say yesterday he looked around 6-7 pounds on the ultrasound? I turned to my mom as they checked him out over on the heating lamp. "Is everything ok?" I mouthed to her and she looked at me with a forced smile. I held him for a short time before they took my son to the NICU and my husband followed.
My world was spinning. What was going on with my little boy? An hour later my husband walked into the room followed by another woman. I gave him a curious look and he waved at me with the promise it would be ok. I would come to find out that this woman was our local Pediatric Cardiologist. She drew a picture of my son’s heart. I don't think I breathed once. She told us he had Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return and he required immediate surgery and finally added "If I was you, this is when I would cry" and I lost it.
Our son was medi-flighted to Lucille Packard in Palo Alto, CA. My husband and I weren’t able to follow on the flight so we drove down early the next morning. They wanted us to sleep, but how could we? I received the call at three in the morning that our son made it successfully out of surgery. It felt like the longest two weeks of our life but they finally thought our son was strong enough to be discharged. We felt the worst was behind us.
In March, we went in for a routine check up with the pediatric cardiologist when she found he had Pulmonary Stenosis. She believed it developed from the initial surgery and that we should schedule a cardiac catheterization at Lucille Packard. We were blind sided when they told us he would need another surgery to try and correct the stenosis. How could this be happening? Luckily, the surgery was quick and we were discharged in a week.
My weak little boy was getting stronger by the day and even forced a smile during recovery. This time we knew, it was behind us. In August we went in for yet another check up only to discover the stenosis had gotten worse. How could this be? Another cardiac cath and another surgery for Davin? Our strong boy was discharged only five days after his surgery and was stronger than ever.
In April of that same year, the weekend after Easter, I found out we were expecting another child. We were terrified. We prayed this child wouldn’t endure the same fight; we were scared we wouldn't be able to be there for Davin the way we should. We gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in December of that same year and ultimately made the decision to forego any further surgeries to correct the stenosis.
Davin has been surgery free for almost three years now. We have gotten to experience a true miracle. A beautiful boy who has fought so hard to stay in this world. I watched him learn to walk, determined to be like other children, talk and articulate his feelings, and love, unconditionally. We are so blessed by every step of this journey and have learned what a true hero looks like.
Story by Davin’s mom, Veronica - Nevada