This abundent life courtesy of our Lord and Savior ~ Jesus Christ

What’s Wrong With this Picture?

 What’s Wrong With this Picture?  Our Home  No Responses »
Feb 192013
 

                                                                                                                                                                     

Hint:

  Either one baby is

very very big

or one is

very very small.

 

 

"Big baby"

Can you believe that there is a 17 month age difference between them??

 

Meadow at 4 months is 18 lbs.

{ The girl is HUGE }

Thaddeus at 21 months is 25 lbs.

OIY!

 

After consulting growth charts

( I found a growth chart for children with Down Syndrome for Thaddeus)

 it would appear that :

Meadow is at the 75th percentile for height and 98th percentile for weight.

Thaddeus  is at the 35th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight.

 

 

 

 

A ‘Lemon Law’ for Babies??

 A ‘Lemon Law’ for Babies??  Down Syndrome  No Responses »
Jan 172013
 

 

 

This story just grieved my heart so much.

What a shame that human life is treated so callously.

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/03/despite_abuse_from_critics_par.html

 

In a nutshell: Ariel and Deborah Levy sued and won a 2.9 million dollar “Wrongful Birth” lawsuit because they were not able to abort their Down Syndrome daughter due to a botched prenatal screening.

 

Wrongful birth is a medical malpractice claim brought by the parents of a child born with birth defects, alleging that negligent treatment or advice deprived them of the opportunity to avoid conception or terminate the pregnancy.

Our beautiful Thaddeus has Downs Syndrome. I can’t imagine NOT having him ~ much less ever thinking “had known about this beforehand – I would have terminated”.

 

Our happy boy!

 

 

These parents fully admit (it’s the backbone of their case) that had the testing showed their daughters’ condition that they would have aborted.

 

Wait… aborted is such a benign word. Let’s use a word that’s a bit more frank…

They would have murdered her.

But… they love her very very much.

BUT…. they sued the doctor for WRONGFUL BIRTH.

Ummmm…. Is it just me, or is the hypocrisy overwhelming?

I am complete baffled by the thought process. IF they love her so much, they should be on their knees thanking God for the wrong test results. Because of those wrong results they have a daughter that ~ if they will accept her differences~ bring them much joy.

They claim they need the money in order to properly care for her. That argument is wrong on so many levels and certainly doesn’t validate their stand. Unless your child has severe ongoing medical issues or you opt to enroll in expensive extra therapies, raising  your DS child is not going to cost anywhere near millions of dollars. Minus medical issues that may arise, a child with Down Syndrome need not cost any more then any other child.

I see it as greedily taking advantage of a situation. First of all, genetic prescreenings are NOT 100% accurate. Medicine is not an exact science and no doctor can give you an absolute anything. Second of all, there are a myriad of conditions that genetic testing does not diagnose.

I can understand suing a doctor/hospital if their actions or negligence CAUSED something to happen to your child but in this case there is nothing that the doctor could have done to lessen or prevent the condition.

The only thing that could have been prevented is the parents having to deal with the condition.

Many people with limited finances manage to raise a child with a “disability” (for lack of a better word) to be happy productive adults. Not only that, but in the case of Downs Syndrome, unless there is severe mental retardation, the child can be raised to be semi or even fully self sufficient.

If your DS child IS severely retarded… well, what if your child had been born that way without any other conditions? It happens.

 

The best things you can give your child, regardless of whether or not they have a condition, may cost you time, energy and patience …. not money.

 

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:13-16

 

9 Days Ago the Earth Stood Still

 9 Days Ago the Earth Stood Still  Down Syndrome  No Responses »
May 252012
 

 

Ok, so that’s overly dramatic… although it did feel like my heart stood still for a moment.

One month ago I took Thaddeus to the pediatrician … it was simply to check out something funny his tummy had started doing the weekend before.

The whole thing was routine… he appears to be a fine healthy boy. Have no idea why his stomach is doing this, but bring him back if he appears to be in distress. Then I started asking questions. Since I had driven an hour to get there and actually had a professional’s ear … it was a long list of questions. She was very gracious about it and afterwards was telling me to make an appointment for his one year check up on my way out.

But I just had to ask about one more thing. I asked about -and she checked- his soft spot, which is still quite large.
She told me to wait … she was going to go get the doctor.

 

The doctor came in, looked him over, and then started talking about testing.

So, I and four kids rushed to the labs to get blood work done… which that experience alone is a whole story in of itself. Oiy.

 

Then we waited.

Then we fussed.

To call or not to call the doctor for results?

How soon is too soon to call?

How often should we call?

Thaddeus had his one year checkup coming soon and surely they would call us if the results were bad, right?

I finally spoke to one of the nurses on the phone and she gave me the news that the results were negative… everything was fine.

 

We were relieved and not really surprised.

 

So, on the 16th James stayed home with the children while I took Thaddeus for his one year checkup. The doctor gave him an exam, then sat down at his computer and began questioning me about his milestones. As I gave an affirmative to all the questions, on a few of them he would turn around and say “Really?” with a dubious tone and look. As I’d only met this doctor on one prior occasion, I thought it was strange but didn’t think too much of it.

When he was done with the milestones he then moved on to the test results. I of course was feeling quite confidant. We already knew what the results were –
so listening to them was just a formality.

  

“The thyroid test came back negative, that’s a good thing”

I just nodded and smiled.

“The genetics test however {as he’s turning to face me} show that Thaddeus has down syndrome”

  

 

THAT’S when the earth  my heart stood still.

  
Apparently when I had called all of the results we not in.

 

The doctor was a very nice man; however, judging by the way he was speaking I think he mistook my shock. My shock came simply from not expecting to hear this news after thinking that we had received a good report from the test. Because, just as we were not really surprised by hearing that he DIDN’T have down syndrome…

 

We were equally not really surprised by hearing he DID have it.

 

So, what do you do when you hear that your child has this? If you’re me, you take the baby and run the three errands on your list. Two places you just sit in the car for a while then leave because it’s just not worth trying to go in. Then you do the grocery shopping that you really need to do because you live so far out of town. You wander dazed in the store and take way longer then you should because you just can’t focus or find anything even though you know where everything is. Oh, and you bury your phone at the bottom of your purse so that hopefully if your husband texts you … you won’t hear it because you don’t want to be in a position where your tempted to lie and say everything went well because

this is news that has to be shared in person.

To be continued……

Coming up: Why it took us a year to find out our son has down syndrome.