I can honestly say that I have never been more happy to see a year come and go! Worst year ever for several reasons but the biggie, of course, was the loss of my precious granddaughter, Charlee, at just 15 days old!! I had not had a grandbaby is 8 years and was so excited for her arrival. It was so much fun picking out and shopping for all of her outfits and bows! She came on June 24th and was just perfect in every way, as far as anyone knew. She had a bout of jaundice and had to stay a few extra days for that, but nothing out of the ordinary. I picked up her big brother and we headed to the hospital to see them home! We were all so excited!! I got to spend the next week or so with them at home and I am forever grateful for those days I was with her. It was such a special time and now looking back it was the best time! I got to know her, love her, take care of her and show her Nana’s love. I fell deeply in love with her, of course! On day 15 she became ill and Mommy and Daddy immediately took her to the doctor. The doc thought she may have a knotted intestine so he transferred her to Children’s in San Antonio. When they arrived at the hospital she was dehydrated from spitting up green bile so they went to put an IV in and she coded!! Her sugar was only 20 so they revived her and put her on a sugar drip and got her stable for surgery. They could not find anything to the eye wrong with her intestines but continued testing and then just 2 hours after her surgery she went septic!!! She also tested positive for salmonella poisoning!! You can only imagine our astonishment at the positive testing for salmonella. We immediately began to blame ourselves for anything that could have possibly put her in harms way of such a nasty germ! After coding 12 times we had to put it all in God’s hands and he took her home. I was there and so very thankful I was able to be there for my son and daughter in law, although I was not much help to them! I was numb, nothing…..my heart was probably flat lining as well!! I have never ever felt such a pain in my life!!
So long story short, we had to wait on autopsy results as we knew nothing except salmonella poisoning. Can you even imagine our confusion as we left the hospital without our healthy and beautiful baby girl that was just 15 days old?!?!?!? The autopsy revealed that she had a Metabolic Disorder, a chromosome missing that helps your body fight off toxins and fluids. Which chromosome and metabolic disorder, we did not know so now we had to wait on Genetic testing. Another long wait came and just last month, almost 6 months later we finally know that she had a very rare Genetic Disorder called Isovaleric Acidemia. Very rare disorder where the body is unable to properly break down protein in the body. It leads to abnormal buildup of acids in the body. So now we know why she tested positive for salmonella and why she went septic. There’s absolutely nothing anyone could have done to prevent this and as a matter of fact it was a blessing from above that we had her for 15 days! Most metabolic babies do not make it out of the womb alive!
The kids are still doing some genetic testing to see what the road holds for their future in having a baby. It’s of course in God’s hands and time will tell.
I’ve learned alot about myself during this tragedy. Always be thankful for every second you have with your loved ones and for the goodness sake….please have photos done with your kids and family! This is all anyone will have left after someone is gone! Thank GOD I was able to spend so much of the 15 days of Charlee’s life with her and take her newborn photos and get photos of all my grandbabies together. These are my most precious and prized photos I have EVER or will EVER take!!! I also learned to count your blessings folks! Find the good in all! It’s taken me 6 months to get to this point and lots of very low times! I’m not gonna sugar coat anything! This has been the toughest time of my life and I’m still working on it daily!
Let’s join together in this crazy world we are living in and find the good, count the blessings and take pictures! I will leave you with my most prized photos and in doing so hope you will never prolong photos because of any reason and “take the picture”!!!
