Those of you who really know me are aware of my faults and my shortcomings. You also know that I’m not a religious person by any means as well. In fact like my father sometimes used to say “if they were arresting Christians, I’d be safe” That’s been true in my life as well. With that being said I can say with 100% conviction that I truly believe in god. And I truly believe he has a plan for every one of us. I also believe that in the lowest times when you feel completely alone he is there carrying us forward whether we can see it or not. For me there’s no way, all of these event below were just luck or coincidences and for that I am extremely grateful.

December 23, 2009

We had plans to spend Christmas with Mary’s family at her family’s farm up in the mountains in a place called maltagalpa. Our desired travel schedule demanded that we wake before dawn to catch the early bus from where we live directly to Managua. For some reason both Mary and I had trouble sleeping that night and at 4:00 am that morning we decided to sleep in and catch the morning bus at 8:00 am. While waiting for the bus to arrive our friend Craig came by to tell us he had found us a ride to Managua with our friend Keith who was heading there to pick up some clients. This ended up being the first of many doors that were to be opened for us this day. For those who don’t know. The bus rides from where we live can be extremely taxing, dirty and downright uncomfortable even for people not pregnant. This was a great blessing for Mary as she was 8 months pregnant. The ride in to Managua was uneventful and we arrived just in time for an early chicken lunch at a local restaurant called rosti pollo. During lunch Mary was feeling some slight discomfort and Keith Jokingly said she was going into labor. Mary 2 days later tells me that during her visit to the restroom she discovered she was bleeding slightly yet didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to spoil our lunch!!!! Incredible…I was pretty bummed at her for just a moment. After lunch Keith dropped us off at Mary’s doctor for a routine examination before we continued on to the family farm. We said our thanks and goodbyes and Keith left for the airport. So there I am standing outside the doctor’s office taking photos of my little 3 year old Boy David (Mary’s first child and now my little boy…a great kid) when Mary comes out of the office looking white as a ghost and says” Were having a baby!” I about fell over.

We jumped in a taxi and Mary told the driver where to go. Upon arriving at the hospital I ran into the emergency room to look for a wheelchair. What I found was a young man attending to the front door acting as a security guard. I explained the need for a wheelchair and was met with an unconcerned look of indifference and was rudely told to go look for one myself. I was so pissed I wanted to take his little head right off his body. I located a wheelchair and then found the doorway being blocked by the same indifferent little man who more or less had to be shoved out of the way for me to get to Mary. To say the least I didn’t feel very good about this place from the start. Mary’s cousin Rosa happened to be with us so after being told to leave the maternity ward due to my male status I requested that Rosa go to be with her for the delivery. The same guy at the door then demands $2.50 to allow her into the delivery room. I almost blew my top. If it hadn’t been for a police officer standing nearby I probably would have taken his head. A few minutes later Mary, under much pain walks out of the delivery room on her own and tells me she doesn’t feel good about this hospital. That was all I needed to hear and we left for another hospital. Upon arriving at the second hospital I immediately felt better about the decision. The attending staff warmly welcomed us and whisked Mary off to the delivery room. I was to wait outside as men aren’t allowed in the delivery room. About 20 minutes later a lady doctor brings me to the office and tells me the baby is super high up in the belly and that they were going to have to break her water. The baby then would either drop for a normal delivery or they were going to have to do a C section. Twenty minutes later the doctor informs me I was a daddy. I was extremely excited until she informed me that the baby was not doing well as she was extremely tiny at 3.5 pounds and a month early. She told me the baby had been taken into the neo natal unit where she was placed on a respirator. What I found out later that day was really amazing. The attending doctor during the birth of Dorothy Isabella was in fact a trainee more or less. When Dorothy first came into the world she cried loudly like any other healthy baby and the doctor declared that the baby was just fine. He then placed Dorothy onto Mary’s stomach. Just at that precise moment when he said she was alright another, more experienced doctor (who happed to be on vacation and whom had stopped by to retrieve some papers from his office) overheard the declaration and stepped in to take control of the situation. He said to the doctor that she was not alright and to get her to the neo natal unit and on a respirator immediately. This was incredible because within 3-4 minutes of Dorothy being on Mary’s stomach she would have been brain dead from a lack of oxygen because her lungs were not able to open on their own. This doctor’s name was Dr. Cruz and he’s turned out to be an angel for us. I was not able to do anything at this point except wait and Mary was to be in the hospital for a minimum of 36 hours. I was told to go home and wait with the prognosis of a 40% chance of survival for Dorothy. Later that evening my phone rang and it was Dr. Cruz asking me to return to the hospital immediately. I asked him to tell me what was going on with Dorothy and he said he could not tell me over the phone just that I needed to get to the hospital. Fearing the worst I jumped in a cab and returned to the hospital. Upon arriving the Dr. walked me down an eerily dark sidewalk and underneath a clump of trees. We were now in almost complete darkness. He then explained to me that Dorothy was not doing well and that she needed a certain type of drug that was going to help stimulate and open her lungs. It turns out that this drug was not readily available to the general public due to an insane cost of over $500.00 for a one gram dose. It was also illegal for the doctor to administer this medication for the same reasons of not being available to the general public. He quietly explained this and told me that if I could find this drug he would secretly administer it to Dorothy. He was putting himself in a position to be fired if anyone was to find out. He also explained to me he had no idea where to find this drug. This was at 9:30 pm. He wrote down the name of the drug and I called a good friend of mine Alvaro Sandino, who owns the local Toyota dealership where I bought the motor for my panga. I explained the situation and Alvaro and his fiancée arrived in lightning quick fashion and we began our search for this mystery drug. Alvaro called a friend who owned a pharmacy and was told he had never heard of the drug. We searched every open pharmacy and checked several hospitals to no avail. No one had even heard of this drug. Dejected we went to the last hospital where the pharmacy told us they knew about the drug but didn’t have any in stock. Knowing this was the number one hospital in the country I asked the pharmacist about their neo natal unit there. A quick call was made and we were told they didn’t have the drug in stock. The pharmacist took my number and said they would make same calls and if they found something out they would call me. Five minutes after leaving the hospital my phone rang and the pharmacist told me the neo natal unit had found the only gram of the medicine and that they were going to allow us to purchase it for $525.00. I had $475.00 to my name and Alvaro had to the penny the rest of the amount necessary to buy it. We left for Dorothy flying high as a kite. The Doctor went in and secretly administered the medicine to her and told me we would have to wait till the next morning for the results. I left for the house feeling a little better. The next morning the doctor said to me that we were the recipients of an incredible miracle. The first pre medicine x rays showed Dorothy’s lungs to be pale and collapsed. The post medicine x rays showed that her lungs were fully opened and dark in color which is what is expected with lungs that are functioning correctly. He then told me that she had gone from 40 to a 100% chance of survival due to her reaction to the drug. To say the least Dr. Cruz has been a knight in shining armor. He visited Dorothy to check on her status every day during his week long vacation.

To date Dorothy has been in the hospital for 25 days now and our Doctor has been secretly meeting with us every afternoon to discuss her progress. Ten days ago she was taken off the respirator and the feed tube in her stomach was removed. She has been breast feeding strongly the past week and is slowly gaining weight. She has been moved from the intensive care unit of the neo natal ward and is now in the second of three recovery rooms.

We are now facing another obstacle/issue that we would like everyone to continue praying about for us. The hospital has made the decision that she is strong enough to be moved to the last of the three recovery rooms. This is the room where the mothers stay in the hospital 24 hours a day to breast feed the baby’s every two hours. This decision is not a good one for us because in the last several weeks a good percentage of the baby’s sent there have returned to the more critical part of the neo natal ward with respiratory problems such a pneumonia and other horrible lung ailments. Our doctor told us that under no circumstances are we to allow Dorothy to be moved to this ward. We are not able to guarantee the sanitation and cleanliness of the other mothers and this would undoubtedly set Dorothy back from her recovery. We first spoke with the director of the neo natal ward who told us we had to move to the last salon. We then wrote a formal letter to both directors of the hospital pleading our case and we have now been told that we can keep her in the second ward for her recovery. This was a great victory for us but it was short lived.

Two days ago Mary went to breast feed Dorothy and encountered the lights turned on above Dorothy’s bed which are turned on to prevent yellowing of the skin and she saw that she was without the charcoal filter gauze pads that are always placed on the baby’s eyes to prevent the burning of the retinas which can ultimately cause blindness. Who knows how long the lights were on before Mary found this out? Seeing as how we cannot always be there with Dorothy we cannot risk this happening again. After discussing this with our doctor he told us we must abandon the hospital and bring Dorothy home to be with us here in Managua for the rest of her weight gain/recovery. We have informed the hospital of our plans and it looks like we will be able to bring her home on Monday after meeting with the hospitals lawyers to sign various documents freeing the hospital from any liability. Our doctor has agreed to privately attend to Dorothy here in the house we are staying at. It looks like we will have to be in Managua for at least another two weeks before we can bring her home to where we normally live on the coast.

To say the least this experience has been extremely, both emotionally and financially taxing on the both of us. Without the help of many this time would have been more or less impossible to weather as I am unemployed until I can get the restaurant open this April. Many thanks as well to my parents who were able to contribute both financially and with prayer towards our cause. We have also been fortunate to have the help of our good friend Lee Hendrix and his girlfriend Rosario who have opened their house to us which also happens to be ten minutes from the hospital. Several days into it he also gave us use of his Toyota Tacoma so we could go to and from the hospital. We were spending a minimum of $15.00 a day on taxis. He has helped us in other ways as well and for this we are extremely indebted to him. We wish to express our thanks to Lee and his girlfriend Rosario for opening their world to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Fortunately with this time in Managua I have been able to research and price a large majority of the things needed for the restaurant so to my business partners I would say don’t worry. I’m well aware of the time constraints involved with getting this project finished and outside of the baby issue all my energy and time has been and will continue to be focused on our project. To John Bendele I will reply to your last email as soon as I can…

Sorry for the length of the email for those actually able to finish it…..I love all my friends and family and hope to be able to continue reporting the progress of Dorothy. I have enclosed a few pics.

God bless,

Shalonk whats your email...I'll send some pics your way...ALSO I hope to see some of you guys this year....forget costa!!!! COME TO MY HOUSE..I'll show you an epic time...the boats ready and waiting as well.

Man, first off - I want to honor you for the job you did in persevering through all of that.... going through the most incredible trials in a race to save your child's life, under those dire odds.

And to Mary - whose fear and anguish must have been incredible... feeling helpless against the course of events.

Honor and joy.... that's what I've got for you both.

You'll be in our prayers.... all of you.

Welcome to the world Dorothy Isabella. You've had one helluva journey so far... but The Ride has just begun.

Love,

although I posted this earlier " "

I should ahve posted this and then this

BEST WISHES FROM FAMILIA PBk !

Best wishes for Dorothy! DO you know how things are going with her eyes? Very hopefully no damage!

Those were the very first shots I was able to take of dorothy during a transfer trip to another hospital for a cat scan.

quote:

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her eyes are doing good thanks

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