I'd like to announce and share an extremely special Thanksgiving
In March of this year my wife and I took a huge step toward starting
a family. She became pregnant after 7 months of trying. Her due
date was to be November 22nd.
Now that the background is established, I must continue this note
with bad news, but I will bring it around full circle and you will
understand why this Thanksgiving is so special and why my wife
Aprille and I have so much to be thankful for.
About 9 weeks ago we were given some incredibly awful news that came
as the result of ultrasound testing and an amniocentesis performed at
Doernbecher's Children's Hospital's perinatology center in Portland,
Oregon. The testing revealed that our son-to-be had a chromosomal
anomaly known as trisomy 13 or Patau's Syndrome, which is an extra
copy of the 13th chromosome. This condition, we were told, typically
results in a stillbirth or perhaps demise within hours or days of
birth, as there are a number of very serious abnormalities, some
involving the baby's heart. Obviously this was a tremendous shock to
both of us. We were told that she needed to carry the baby to full
term.
Well, after a couple of months of preparing in whatever way you can
prepare for something like this, we went to St. Charles Medical
Center here in Bend, Oregon on Monday the 20th of November to induce
labor. After 9 hours of labor and at 5:45 pm Monday evening, Conner
William Chadwell was born, and he took his first breath and cried and
we all breathed a sigh of relief that he survived birth. Tuesday at
around 1:00 we took him home and today, the day after Thanksgiving,
we have much to be thankful for
Conner is still with us and appears
to be doing fairly well. There are some deformities, including a
"bilateral" cleft palate, an extra digit (pinky) on the right hand
(polydactyly) and on the left hand the pinky is really two digits
joined together. (syndactyly) The feet have the proper number of
digits, but there are some structural abnormalities in the ankles and
perhaps lower legs.
There is a long list of problems we know about, both externally and
internally, and perhaps a longer list of things we don't know about.
But regardless, Conner is alive today and so for that we are
extremely grateful, as well as for the fact that we have been blessed
with these days with Conner when it was possible, in fact PROBABLE,
that goodbye would have been Monday at 5:45.
We still do not expect Conner to live for very long, but no one is
able to tell how long that will be. Could be days, could be weeks,
could even be a few months. But cases of trisomy 13 where the child
survives beyond a week or so are really quite rare. So we are making
the most of this time with him and as I said, it is quite appropriate
that we celebrated Thanksgiving with much enthusiasm, given what
could have happened.
I know this seems like awful news, but we have learned to look at the
positives over the last two months and our spirits are nevertheless
quite good. I should add that this event was a genetic fluke and
that there is no reason that Aprille and I can't try again to start a
family whenever we are ready, assuming that what the doctors expect
to happen happens.
--
Pete & Aprille Chadwell
Dynamic Arts
(541) 317-5751
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