A little background of sweet little McKay

Today I stayed home from church because McKay is still trying to get over that cold. He's doing fine, I just don't want it to get worse. I didn't mind staying home one bit because i don't want Tyler to get sick. My older three kids got RSV at one point or another, and I would hate for Tyler to get it. Today I have done a lot of thinking. Mostly about McKay.
Here's a little history about McKay He was born on Aug. 7th 2000
~ We found out there was going to be a problem at the beginning of the third trimester. My Doctor- Dr. Coppin Had a feeling to do another ultrasound. So he did it and during it he found a black spot in the brain. He said to us "I don't want to speculate so I'm going to send you to a specialist named Dr. Oshiro at McKay Dee Hospital.
~ Dr. Oshiro then did an in depth ultrasound and said that our child's problem could be something as little as not being able to multiply three digit numbers or it could be to the other extreme which would be severely handicap. possibly dieing shortly after birth.
~ We had just moved to Montpelier and were in the middle of building a house. We drove to ogden a couple times a week for stress tests. McKay didn't move much so there was some concern.
~ To relieve the pressure off his head they wanted him to plan a c-section a month early.
~ they prepared us, as well as all the family there to support us, with the news that our child could have either a very large head or a small head. due to the fact that there was fluid on the brain.
~ He was born.... didn't make one sound. He still to this day has never cried. When he turned 3-4 months he started to coo. He coo's quite a bit now. He looked perfect. The doctor couldn't believe it. I lost a lot of blood and had to have a blood transfusion, I was so dizzy and sick. so I didn't get to actually see him for 4 days. I could only see pictures. When the doctor brought me a picture of him, we just couldn't get over how perfect he looked.
~ right after birth he was swept away from us and put on a ventilator. Several days later once he was a little more stable they did a MRI. This is what they said- It was either a blood clot or an arachnoid cyst. The technical terms for it are... Thrombosis of the AVM. Cysticencephelomalasic. So whatever it was in his brain- burst- or thromboses. Taking all the blood and oxygen that the rest of the brain needed to develop. Therefore he has- Hydrocephalus- Which is fluid on the brain- Developmental delay- Developmentally he is on the level of a 0-1 month old. Cortically and central blindness. and has severe hearing loss. He can hear a little but not much. As far as his sight goes- we treat it as though he can see something. From what I understand his eyes may be seeing something, its the brain that might not be processing it. so we just keep pretend and show him things anyway. We never know when something will click.
~ He stayed in the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital for 18 Days. He was doing really well with his breathing and was taken off the vent on day 15. They then sent us home. To let him die at home. They wished us luck and off we went. There was really nothing more they could do for little McKay.

And yet he continued to thrive and capture the attention of others with his blond hair and dazzling blue eyes.


Although he has spent several visits in the hospital he continues to improve and beat the odds!

This picture is interesting! Why? because it's the one and only family picture we took That McKay made some kind of facial expression. It almost looks like he is mad or frustrated. In all the other pictures you see his calm face. We mostly see his calm face when he is comfortable. When he gets this other look on his face you can tell that something is not right. He may be uncomfortable or he could just be thinking- "okay! I'm done with this picture taking stuff. Please can I go home and lay down."
He is so patient with us! Such a sweet boy




And here we are today. I can't believe he's seven. He's beat all odds. Our goal all along this journey has been to make his life as comfortable as possible. and to love him. When we returned to the hospital for a follow up appointment. There were a few doctors and nurses who said the reason they think McKay was still living was because of the love. They said that it was the love McKay was feeling that was keeping him alive. We all understood that if it was God's will he would take this little boy. But for some reason he is to be with us, and he is still with us. And we are so grateful. We love him so much. For not saying a word he teaches us so many things. Are little family needs him so much. He has taught us all so many lessons. I will be forever grateful for that.

So in a nut shell, that was a little history of McKay. I'm off to clean up the kitchen, close down the fort and hopefully soon- dive into bed. Keep smiling!