Today I write about Samantha in order to give glory to God. You see, God gave Samantha to Jennifer and me twice: once when she was born, and a second time when God spared her life. So, think of this post as an ebenezer, a stone of help (see 1 Samuel 7:12). If you'd like to read more about Samantha's journey in detail, you can go to our family's blog from that time (make sure you start reading from the bottom of that page). I'll simply give a short summary here.
About ten days after Samantha was born, she developed breathing problems, and was rushed by ambulance to the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, about 45 minutes away when you're going the speed limit. Tests quickly ruled out any of the more common reasons she would have fluid in her lungs, such as in infection or heart problems. It wasn't until she got her first chest tubes (to drain the fluid) that it was discovered that she had chylothorax, a condition where chyle (fluid from her body's lymph system) leaks into the space around her lungs, slowly suffocating her. It's not uncommon for this condition to present itself after surgery in an infant, but Sami had never had surgery. To have this condition at birth is extremely rare.
The problem with this condition is that finding the faulty the lymph duct in Samantha's chest was impossible. Lymph ducts in infants are so small that they cannot be seen by any imaging technology available. The surgeons decided that the best course of action was to limit the production of chyle in Samantha's body by not allowing her to eat. Instead, she was given TPN through a PICC line in her chest, which gave her only the minimal amount of nutrients she needed to live. The hope was that when the chyle stopped flowing, the duct would be able to rest enough to repair itself, thus stopping the fluid from accumulating in her lungs.
Unfortunately, it didn't work the first week. Or the second. The problem was that she could only undergo this treatment for about three weeks before it started to cause permanent damage to her body. Surgery seemed imminent. And what was the plan for surgery? To open up her chest and put some talc powder in the chest cavity with the hope that the scarring produced would close up the duct. That didn't exactly make her Mama and Daddy feel very good about that option. But, nothing else was working. So, on a Tuesday (or Wednesday?) it was decided that if she didn't start responding to treatment, surgery would be perhaps on the following Monday. It's important to note that the doctors made it clear to us that since the duct did not heal on it's own after one or two weeks, there was almost no reason to hope for a different result in the third week, hence moving towards surgery. In addition, surgery was seen by our surgeon as a last resort with an unknown outlook for Sami's health.
At this point, Samantha had been moved to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). This was tough on me, because I had slept most nights in the same room with Samantha, but in the PICU, parents may not stay the night. On Wednesday, there was a problem with one of Samantha's chest tubes, the one that drained fluid from her right lung. It wasn't draining right. More bad news, we thought. However, x-rays didn't show as much fluid around her lungs as before. They decided to wait a day to see what would happen with it. Thursday came. Still no fluid accumulation. This was the first glimmer of hope.
To sum up the next week, Samantha had suddenly stopped accumulating fluid and began to recover. Her team of doctors could not fully explain the sudden stoppage of fluid, but rather only offered hypotheses. Our view is this: God miraculously healed Samantha. He didn't have to, but in his mercy and wisdom, he did. On December 2nd, 2009, we took Samantha home--for the second time. For the next four months, she underwent regular (weekly for some time) chest x-rays and check-ups. At the end of those appointments, she was given a clean bill of health.
Samantha, I am grateful to God for the past two years. You and Bethany have brought so much joy to your Mama and Daddy's lives, and we will do our best to treat each day we have with you girls as a precious gift.
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
-From the Book of Common Prayer
