Ryleigh's Rough Beginning

hello everyone, welcome to my blog.

I'm kind of new to the blog thing but I will try to keep it as updated as possible.

I'm going to start my blog as of January 9th. I'd like to start off by telling you the story of how my daughter came into the world.

January 9th started out like any other day. I got up, got dressed, and went to work. As I pulled into my works parking lot, my phone rang and that's when everything changed.

I could see on the caller ID that it was Kristy (my wife)who was calling, i answered, "hey sweetie," she spoke quietly and said that i need to come home and take her to the hospital. I immediately took off for home and told her to sit down. on the way home i called my boss to let him know that i wouldn't be coming in that day.

when i arrived at our house, Kristy was sitting on a chair in the kitchen, and right away i could tell there was something really wrong. her face was pale like a corpse and her neck had a huge bulge on it as if there was a tennis ball under her skin.

when we got to the hospital, she was so weak, she couldn't walk from the car to the ER. so i ran in and got a wheel chair.

Within 10 minutes she was surrounded by doctors and nurses and everyone was really worried. A vascular surgeon was called in to confirm the diagnosis of an anneurism. His name was Dr. Gilbertson. He not only confirmed the anneurism, but he found a second one. Kristy was bleeding to death internally. He said that she had to get to surgery NOW!! and about 45 minutes after i got the call from Kristy she was being operated on.

Now, at this time, Kristy was 7 months pregnant. We wanted to wait to find out if it was a boy or girl. In the vascular surgery operating room, our little girl had to be taken out through emergency C-section. At a mere 3 lb 2 oz, she came. But that's not the half of it.

Our little girl had no heartbeat and it took 10 minutes to revive her. The pH in her blood was so low (6.8) she should have died. this acidosis took 80 minutes to bring in to check. all the while I was in a waiting room with absolutely no idea that she had even been born.

In a matter of an hour, i had nearly lost my wife and child. Needless to say, there was a lot of praying that was taking place. Finally, the doctor who delivered the baby and the Neo-natologist who revived her called me in for a conference.

They told me about her lack of heartbeat, her acidosis, and to throw one more on top, she has a bi-lateral hemorrhage in her brain. that means that her brain was bleeding in both hemispheres. They didn't expect her to survive the next few hours. My heart dropped. I was about to lose my daughter before i even got to see her. they took me to her incubator where doctors and nurses were everywhere. i looked at her stats screen and figured out which line was her heartbeat. my eyes remained fixated on that line. within 10 minutes of seeing my little girl for the first time, i saw her heart stop 3 times.

Meanwhile, Kristy finally got out of surgery and i was called to the ICU to be with her. She looked like she had gone through hell and back. they had told me what to expect, but nothing could have prepared me to see my beautiful wife like that.

I barely left her side for the next week. She ended up bleeding out over 3 liters of blood (internally). So much blood was in her chest cavity that her right lung was really compressed. She had to go back into surgery. The surgeon cut through her rib cage and scooped out a liter and a half of coagulated blood, which released a lot of the pressure on her lung. She had been through so much trauma, she couldn't breathe on her own. She had a tube down her throat for 15 days. 6 Surgeries and 3 weeks later she was finally able to come home.

Ryleigh Sue had a longer recovery. for the first three weeks, she wasn't expected to survive each hour let alone each night. I really didn't think she was going to survive. Finally I was able to give her a priesthood blessing. The spirit was so strong. Not even on my mission had I felt such power. Then, through my bleak outlook the prompting came. The Spirit took over and it told me to bless her with something I didn't think would come true. This scared me. In my mind, I thought she was going to die.

During the blessing, the spirit said through me: "Ryleigh, you are a Freeman, your parents love you and you will make a full recovery. Your Heavenly Father will send his angels to watch, protect, and comfort you." After that was said the blessing went back into my words, and all I could do was end the blessing and excuse myself. I locked myself in the restroom and wept as I poured my heart to God. I prayed with more fervor than I ever have in my life. I prayed that the Lord would allow that blessing to come to fruition.

then she started to grow. her brain hemorrhage had stabilized (the pressure in her brain stopped increasing) and she was no longer getting worse. 2 weeks after that she actually started getting better. she was still really sick, but she was getting better.

then, all of a sudden, she got sicker again. her bowels started dying. they wouldn't move her nutrients or gas. She looked like one of those really malnourished 3rd world kids with the huge belly. This too, almost killed her.

10 days of "big gun" antibiotics and treatment and she was back on the road to recovery.

On week 10, she was looking like she would be able to come home in a month or so. that was a big week. there was finally a light at the end of this nightmare-ish tunnel. that week Kristy and i took the training courses needed for a special needs child (CPR, basic first-aid, etc...)We even stayed overnight in the hospital so we could learn how to take care of her.

That Friday, a bomb was dropped on us. they said we would probably take her home in the next week!!! and 76 days after that hellish morning of jan 9, our daughter came home.