Grandon's Story

(Grandon 5 Days Old)

~Grandon's Story~

Grandon's story starts before he was ever born. His name alone means many things not only for him, but for myself as well. His first name (Grandon) is the name of the missionary who baptized me into my church.

His middle name (Bruce) is after one of the most amazing persons that I've ever met, my step-dad. I'm so lucky to have him as a dad and to have him in my life. Bruce is my step-dad's middle name. My step-dad married my mom, a single mom with four kids, and not only loved my mother, but loved us. Not only did he just love us, he became our dad, he loved us as his own children, and is our dad. Words will never truly express the love, the respect, and the admiration that I have for him.

Grandon's story continues, when I was seven weeks pregnant,I thought I had miscarried my little boy. After we went to the hospital we found out that he was still there. Unfortunately this was just the beginning of the difficulties of my pregnancy. I had major morning sickness my first trimester. After I was hospitalized three times for dehydration, on my fourth hospitalization I was diagnosed with Hyperemesis gravidarum.

Hyperemesis gravidarum - is a severe form of morning sickness, with unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids.[1] Hyperemesis is considered a rare complication of pregnancy but, because nausea and vomiting during pregnancy exist on a continuum, there is often not a good diagnosis between common morning sickness and hyperemesis. Estimates of the percentage of pregnant women afflicted range from 0.3% to 2%. (Source, Wikipedia)

To control my hyperemesis my doctor prescribed me a medication called Zofran. Zofran is used mainly as an antiemetic to treat nausea and vomiting following chemotherapy. This was my wonder drug! With the Zofran I was finally able to eat and drink, something that I had taken for granted.

My second trimester went fairly well, my belly grew like it should, but towards the end of my second trimester I started to have Braxton Hicks contractions, when I was 30 weeks pregnant Grandon had dropped. I really didn't think much of it, and pretty much chalked it up to this is normal.
Everything was good till one morning I woke up to my water breaking. We went to the hospital which at that time my doctor told me that he was going to ship me off to another hospital that had a NICU, because we weren't 100% sure of my due date, we needed the NICU just in case Grandon's lungs weren't fully developed.
I got settled in my new delivery room, and on March 17th, 2006 at 6:04 P.M. Grandon Bruce Cox was born, he was six weeks early.

When Grandon was born he had many doctors around him to make sure his lungs were fine. After we found out that his lungs were fine, we still weren't allowed to hold him or see him. At this time it had been roughly 15 minutes since I'd given birth, and I still hadn't seen my baby, and no one was telling us anything. By this point I wasn't very happy, all I wanted was to hold and see my precious little boy.

Clayton kept asking "is everything OK?" No one would answer him. I looked over at my mom, and by the expression on her face I just knew something was wrong.

The doctors finally wrapped Grandon up, and let me hold him, I cried so many tears of joy I just couldn't believe how beautiful he was. The doctors proceeded to explain to us that Grandon was born with a rare birth defect called Amniotic Banding, most commonly know as ABS - Amniotic Band Syndrome.

Amniotic Band Syndrome - (ABS) is a set of congenital birth defects believed to be caused by entrapment of fetal parts (usually a limb or digits) in fibrous amniotic bands while in utero.

Grandon was very luck to have been born with a very mild case of ABS. The only parts of his body that was effected by the ABS was his fingers and toes. He had two surgeries within his first year of life, and a third one in his second year of life. Not one of his surgeries were easy on any of us, but we are so grateful that most of his birth defect was some what fixable with surgery. ABS has taken many lives of new born babies and toddlers. Fortunately, Grandon wasn't one of them.

Grandon is now a six year old little boy, who is just as normal as the next. His birth defect hasn't stop him from doing anything. He will need additional surgeries as he continues to grow. He is such a strong and brave kid. He has been a true blessing in our lives, and is full of love, laughter, and joy.

Because of his story and the remarkable little boy he is growing up to be, children are a blessing to us and everyone else around us, they deserve the best chance at life from the moment they are born. If you'd also like to learn more about this birth defect here are some links that you may go to.
*Please remember though that some of the pictures can be pretty graphic.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amniotic_band_syndrome
http://www.amnioticbandsyndrome.com/