My Dear sweet McKenna turns 6 years old tomorrow! I can't even believe it. For those of you who does not know McKenna's story I would love to share it with you.
When I was 33 weeks pregnant my water broke (well it didn't really brake it kinda sprang a leak...I know GROSS) I was admitted to the hospital for the first time on October 2nd. They gave me medicine to stop any labor I was having and put me on bed rest. Later that day I had an ultrasound done to make sure her lungs were developed in case I would go into labor. As the technician was scanning my belly to I remember her saying something so vividly..."I can't see her lungs the bowels are in the way". Me being young and naive I didn't give it a second thought, until the doctor came in and was talking to me about the baby. He said that there was a problem with McKenna's bowels they were larger than normal. He said it could be nothing but he would like me to go to University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics for a more detailed ultrasound done and worst case scenario she will have to have surgery after she was born. I was in the hospital here in Burlington for 6 days and Oct. 8th Dad, Shawna, Terry, and I went to IA city to have the ultrasound done. When they were doing the ultrasound they said that they would really like to do an amniocentesis done because with these kind of birth DEFECTS (I hate that word! God does NOT create any DEFECTS!) it is common with Downs Syndrome. After thinking & praying about it we decided to have the test done. Let me tell you that was so scary! After that was all done and over with I was READY to go HOME! Then the nurse comes in and says "It will be a while till your room is ready" WHAY?!? Did you say room. She said "Yeah you will be staying here till you have the baby because she will need surgery after she is born!" I felt like someone just punched me in the gut! I was not prepared to stay. I tought that I was just coming to have a test done get a few ultrasound pics of the baby and go home. STAY? No Way! But that is what I did. I stayed in a hospital room as my family went home to prepare for my lengthy stay. I mean I was looking at a possible 6 week hospital stay! Not fun! I was a mess crying, worried, mad, everything all balled into one. I didn't know what to do I didn't want to be there...not by myself. All of a sudden I felt God say "Pray Jenna, read My word & trust in Me" So I got the Gideions Bible out of the top drawer and I read. I can't remeber what I read but I know I was starting to feel alittle better so I prayed "Lord I don't want to be here but I know it is the best thing for McKenna. Please help me go through this" And he did by giving me LABOR PAINS!!! That's right I went into Labor and they decided that they were not going to try to stop it since her lungs looked fine. So at 1am I called Terry and the answering machine picks up and I am talking into the machine begging Terry to wake up! The poor thing answers the phone and he just got to sleep only 30 min. before. I said well I hope you are awake enough to come to IA City I'm in labor. He said "What? I will be there as soon as I can" And at 11:54am on Oct. 9th McKenna Leigh Lowe enterd the world and stole everyones heart from the very first second! The doctors wisked her away I only got to see her for an breif moment. After everything had setteled down another doctor came in Dr. John Lawrence I felt peace the very first time I saw him he told Terry & I that he was going to be McKenna's surgeon. That is the most terrifing thing to here your baby who is only 8 hours old has a surgeon! He explned everything to us and of course we had to sign those consent forms...you know the ones where in case of death the hospital would not be liable or something like that. Death? What? That is not an opiton here not when my baby is at stake. It seemed like FORVEVR for the surgery was done Terry & I busied ourselves with paper work or anything to keep our minds off of what we might have to face. Hours later Dr. Lawrence came in and said the surgery went GREAT and McKenna is doing just fine!!! We can breath now! Her diagnosis...Jujunal Atrisia (not sure on the spelling but you get the gist of it) that is where the large intestine and the small intestine are not connected. Dr. Lawrence connected them together and now all we do is let her belly heal and wait for her to poop! And that is what we did we waited...and waited....and waited (and prayed I couldn't tell you how many prayers went up to God on our behalf but I do know we felt everyone of them!) when McKenna didn't poop Dr. Lawrence said that they would have to do exploritory surgery to see what happened. So here we were at the same spot we were weeks ago. They did Surgery #2 and determined that scar tissue had grown and blocked the bowel off again. so the took some of her bowel out and put it together again. So we "Stayed the Course" and waited again for her to poop. and guess what SHE DID!
