Topics Discussed This Month
What inspired you???

Jan responds, "Your father was a wise man. So was mine. He seemed to manage everything with a sense of humor... His advice that sticks with me: Take one step at a time. A truely independant person knows it's okay to ask for help. Here's to the wise voices of parents and grandparents, present and gone, that help us through."

Helen adds, "One of our sources of inspiration in the NICU and throughout the subsequent years has been Edward's neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Taekman.  He has had to give us a lot of bad news over the last two decades, but he has always done it with complete honesty, never sugar-coating the pill, yet always with compassion, spending as much time with us as we needed and then some!. 
The enthusiasm he feels for his work is inspiring, and somehow his energy and sense of engagement always helps counteract the anxiety of a worrisome medical situation.  He talks to us about neurosurgery and neurology (and not just about Edward's case either) for what seems like hours.  He appears genuinely interested in Edward and in talking with us and we, in turn, are spellbound by his accounts of fascinating (though sometimes sad) case histories. He makes us feel as if we are truly "in this" together.  He has always let us come in to see Ed's CAT scan pictures as they come up on the screen, explaining the images as they appear -- none of the waiting and mystification that so often surrounds such diagnostic procedures.  It all feels so different from our other rushed encounters with the many MDs in our life.
We have sometimes had to wait an hour or more after the time of Edward's scheduled appointment to see Dr. Taekman, but I have never minded because I knew that some other terrified parents were being given the benefit of his undivided time and attention as we have always had it when we needed it most."

Barb responds, "I had very little during the time in the NICU to inspire me, or to give me hope that my babies would be alright.  My own OB wouldn't even talk to me.  He'd come in, tell me my labs sucked and that they were gonna do even more 'cuz I was bruising so badly and if I asked what would happen if my babies were born at what ever gestation, he's say "one day at a time" and leave.  My parents were...well...."duh", my friends were nowhere to be found and the only person who called me was my grandmother, bless her heart, who is senile and would call a zillion times, not so much out of concern but more because she couldn't remember having called each time before.  When the twins were born I still felt like I had no one, Lar was at my side the whole time but even then we seemed to be operating in two different planes.  I was sure Nick would die and my first inspiration came from my little baby girl, all 2#10oz of her.  She was such a fighter that I thought, If she can do it...I can make it through this too.  Kinda sounds wierd doesn't it?  Looking to a newborn who weighs less than 3 bricks of butter, for your inspiration, but I guess at times like that you take it where you can get it.
What else inspired me to make it through that whole ordeal? You'll never guess... yet another tiny little being...one we all know and love...the "man of the hour"...the "kid with the to-dye-for grin"...our very own preemie JOHN HENRY (a.k.a. JH)  When the twins were born, we had just signed on to the internet and I barely got to use it all the time they were in hospital.  Soon after they came home I started searching the NET for preemie stuff and the first thing I came across was Thomas King's Cyber Nursery.  The second was John Henry's homepage and from the time I read John Henry's story, I knew that things were gonna be "ok".  John Henry not only gave me the hope I needed to believe that my kids were gonna make it, but he gave me the strength I needed at that time to carry on when things were very hard for "me" personally.  John Henry, as teeny as he is, is a real hero to me, a "trooper extroidinaire", the "fiercest of fighters", someone born to be a success no matter what obstacles are thrown in his path.  All that and he's only TWO YEARS OLD.  Pretty neat huh?"