INSPIRATIONAL

God's Healing Hands @ work

“There is a problem with your baby”. These are words any parent would not want to hear but they were spoken to us by our baby’s doctor 3 days after she was born. You see, my baby was diagnosed with jaundice-NOT the ‘normal jaundice’ but the abnormal type. This type, according to our doctor is caused by several factors, the worst of which is blood incompatibility between the parents which was the case in my daughter.

            I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl through caesarian operation February 23, 2003, six days short of my own  birthday. We named her Dana Kye Mishael. She was a big, plump baby weighing 7 ¾ lbs. and measured at 54 cm. Three days after her birth, she was observed to be of the yellowish tint instead of the normal pinkish color of a newborn babe. After several blood tests, we found out that the bilirubin level in her blood and liver was high and getting higher by the day. (Bilirubin is the pigment that causes the yellowing of the skin when the liver cannot break it down yet. If levels go too high, brain damage can happen.) Dana’s was at a level where the standard phototherapy was not sufficient anymore. This eventually led my then 5-day old baby to undergo blood transfusion.

             Wrapped in coiled tubes under an incubator-like apparatus with a bandage over her eyes, she was attended to by her doctor and 2 nurses in a procedure which lasted for about 5 hours. A 1-liter bottle of softdrink almost full with her blood is now just a faint memory of her ordeal. Dana stayed in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit for further observation while I had to be discharged. Going back home without a baby in my arms was really a sad, sad experience. She was finally allowed to go home 8 days after, and it was chaotic, to say the least, but it was glorious!

 What we have gone through as a family when she was born was difficult but the LORD was and is with us all throughout. Dana is now a very active, smart and lovely 5-year old and is really a blessing from the Lord, even with her never-ending “WHYs?”.

                                                                                                                   -Sis SJ Pacis