NEC Day 6: A word from Trina

The word necrotizing is not something you never want to hear in reference to yourself or your baby. Trevor, James, and I have had the sublime pleasure of hearing a necrotizing diagnosis twice in the last two weeks. 

Placenta pathology reports showed necrotizing acute chorioamnionitis. Basically I developed a bacterial infection that caused preterm labor. This occurs in about 4% of pregnancies - although most cases present after a woman's water has broke and prevalence increases as the length of labor progresses. I had the unfortunate experience of an atypical presentation: never any fever, elevated heart rate (tachycardia), or chills. Just fatigue and some lower belly heaviness (which felt pretty normal for the third trimester). And yet the bacterial infection had progressed to a point where it was causing cell death and tissue breakdown in the placenta. 

Thankfully after labor and removal of the placenta, James and I stayed healthy. No more infection. No fevers. No sepsis. 

Baby James was then diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis last Wednesday. This is in no way associated to the nectrozing chorioamnionitis (we're just lucky enough to be diagnosed with two necrotizing diseases in the same week!). I won't bore everyone with a rehash of Trevor's updates. But NEC is a scary diagnosis. And the Internet can be a doom spiral of scary statistics and worse case scenarios. 

Basically, NEC isn't something James caught from the outside world. Premature babies just haven't had a chance to properly develop their gut yet. Because of that the normal gut bacteria has the opportunity to wreck havoc in their little belly's and cause all sorts of issues. 

Through out this all, Trevor and I have been trying to find the silver linings. Or the small blessings that we can hold on tight to. It's easy to focus on the sheer weight of negativity, making it all the more necessary to focus on the good. 

1. The overwhelming love and support from so many in our lives. From those we see daily and those we haven't seen in years. It's truly a testament to the impact you can create in someone's life and how we're all more connected and loved them we may originally think. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to fully express the magnitude of our gratitude. Thank you all for supporting us and following us on this crazy journey.

2. James and I never developed a systemic bacterial infection related to the necrotizing chorioamnionitis. 

2. NEC is definitely a set back. And increases the medical complexity of situation. But even as scary as it could still be, things are continuing to look better. His gut is healing and blood work has normalized and continues to maintain. Next abdomen X-ray will be on Thursday. And hopefully show continued healing and allow us to restart breastmilk feeds. 

4. James is cute and perfect and pink and wonderful. We are already so in love.