I apologize for not having posted sooner. Things get hectic when you are unexpectedly gone for a week and illness strikes upon your return. The Gatti girls are temporarily camped out at their grandparents' house, not due to their illness, but to their daddy's illness. Ryan has been struck with an awful bug that the rest of us are trying to avoid while giving him some much needed rest.
We returned home on Sunday from Dallas. I will do my best to inform you from the technical to the layman's lingo. Official terminology on the discharge papers is as follows: severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy with secondary infantile spasms, hypsarhythmia with intractable seizures, and severe developmental delay. Translation - before and after her birth Rebecca suffered from a lack of oxygen to her brain for an extended period of time. This resulted in a significant injury to her brain, which has resulted in a loss of structure to her brain overall and in critical areas, as well as a lack of appropriate brain growth. Her brain also has not developed much, if any, myelin sheath, which typically occurs by 6 months of age. This is what allows the electronic impulses to travel and allow the brain to communicate effectively with the rest of the body. Rebecca is now over 5 months old. This has resulted in a disorganized pattern of electronic impulses in her brain and the development of infantile spasms. This makes it difficult to differentiate what is seizures and what is involuntary muscle movement. In the neurologist's words - "The EEG could not look any worse." The pattern is typically associated with profound delays, which is what they predict for Rebecca. In their words, she may never sit up or crawl or do many basic things. Also, her seizure activity is likely to continue, and the medical professionals hope only to be able to make the level of activity to make it manageable for Rebecca. The delays are already evident. At one point, she was looking at us and tracking, but even these basic skills are no longer present. She is currently functioning as a baby of less than 1 month of age. However, the neurologists were surprised at the amount of brain matter left given her history, and she has done things that are unexpected. She has gained weight and tolerated feedings well.
To dismiss rumors - she is not in danger of dying. At one point in the hospital her seizures were severe and not stopping in spite of medication. During this time she received a great deal of medication that placed her at-risk to stop breathing as they loaded her and rescued her with several medications. This risk has passed.
The good news - Rebecca remains in God's hands. Only He knows what He has planned for her life. Someone who loves Rebecca very much reminded the doctors (who were telling us that everything happens for a reason) that everyone has two main purposes in life: to love/serve God and to take as many people with you to heaven as possible. Rebecca is already fulfilling her purpose. If she or her sisters have touched your life in a special way, please leave a comment that I can share with them to help them gain a more complete understanding of the true purpose of living. If you do not want me to post it, then I will keep it personal and strictly for the girls eyes upon request. Thank you for your continued prayer and support.
4 comments:
Our prayers are with you. Your clarity of focus on God is an inspiration to us all. Today http://www.biblegatway.com took me to Is 55 - below is an excerpt that affirms your wisdom...
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Susan,
I was very glad to see that you had a blog. You have some beautiful pictures of Rebecca and the girls posted. I added your site to my favorites list so I can check on your family. I wanted to give you a website I use from In Touch Ministries: www.intouch.org It even has an audio version on the site for the times when your hands aren't free! It has always encouraged me. God's word is the living word-relevant throughout time. I hope it will encourage you. Know that you are thought of and prayed for by us.
Unconditional love can be hard at times, however, ya'll have accomplished it. Some would be angry at God or at themselves or at other misplaced places and ya'll have triumphed over all of these things. I will continue to pray for ya'll and for God's will to be done. Miracles happen every day...you just need to be in tune with God to recognize them....I'm so glad that ya'll are in tune.
Your family has so touched each of us. Michael and I love you guys and have kept you in our hearts and on our minds since the night we got the call that you had gone in for your delivery. Rebecca has brought so many people together, petitioning God for his perfect will to be done. I personally have been totally blown away by the strength each of you have shown. The girls are precious, and the insight they shared on Rebecca's birth announcement was truly beautiful. The strength, faith, and graceful way you have both dealt with things have been such a testimony.
You wanted to know if sweet Rebecca has touched our lives. She truly has. My children have become real prayer warriors on her behalf. If we say our prayer at mealtime and fail to mention her, they both chime in after the amen to ask God to please be with baby Rebecca. They other night Zoe said she needed to go ahead and go to bed because she had four prayers that she has started saying. When I asked her what they were she said she had to say her "Now I lay me down", a prayer for "Baby Rebecca", a prayer for Paw-Paw and one for her school. I absolutely love to listen in on the prayers of my children. So yes, Rebecca is doing her part to help further Gods work, she has helped my children develop a strong prayer life. Through that they are learning to talk with God and more importantly to take things straight to him and then have the faith to wait on and then accept his answer.
You guys are so about loving on other people and taking care of everyone else, please let us love on you for awhile and help to take care of your family. We all want to do so much for you but may not know what we can do. Please, if we could ever do anything that could help you guys along the way, please don't hesitate to call on us. We would count it a privilege to try to bless you like you have blessed us countless times.
We love you and pray that you will continue to feel the gentle hands of God holding you,
The Palmers(Crystal,Michael,Payton and Zoe)
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