The Tale of Two Preemies: Creating Awareness

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Creating Awareness

Guess what? It's that time of year again! Yep, passive breast cancer awareness status month! Whoo hoo! Aren't you excited? I thought we all learned our lesson with the faux pregnancy statuses, but apparently, it's back. Yes, it's something different this time, but really? When you fake leaving the country for months, how does that raise awareness again? I'm just not getting the connection. So you want breast cancer awareness, let me introduce you to my fraternity mate, Maryn.

Maryn is in her late 20s, married, and has 2 small children. She is preparing to say goodbye to them any day now. She fought the good fight. She never gave up. She always has positive thoughts, prayers to God, and thankfulness for each day she wakes up. Her strength and courage amazes me. This disease may claim her body, but not her spirit. If you want to create awareness of breast cancer, share her story and the stories of thousands of women whose families are robbed of wife, mother, sister, daughter, niece, cousin, and friend.

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.