Suzanne900@aol.com
Fri, 22 Mar 1996 02:57:36 -0500 

Hi everyone! We are Suzanne, Ron and John Henry, in the Los Angeles area.

John Henry was born March 14, 1995, at 24 weeks due to a beta strep
infection. He spent 4.5 months in the NICU, 3.5 months on the vent. His was a
very rocky NICU stay, he never had an easy day. JH had the usual premie
problems, etc; GBS, RDS, PDA, PIE, BPD, ROP, IVH2, NEC, RSV. He suffered from
upper body systolic bp 2 - 3 times normal and extremely low lower body bp due
to a heart defect, coarctation of the aorta. Surgery corrected his coarc, and
he also had hernia and cryo/laser surgery. Geesh, after spending 12+ hours a
day in the NICU for 4.5 months, we feel like jr. doctors! 

Luckily John Henry has been healthy since he has been home. He had two
viruses which he handled very well, and a couple of ear infections (no pain,
thank goodness), but no serious problems. JH is on a little supplemental O2,
he is still on an apnea monitor (he never had apnea) and a pulse ox at night.
He has OT through EI, and it is helping him catch up to his chronological age
developmentally. He can cruise the furniture and he *thinks* he can walk (he
can't). John Henry seems to be trying to make up for lost time, he is always
moving and chattering, rarely naps, and thinks he is Bam Bam. The little guy
is 15 pounds and 27" of pure energy. We went to Disneyland for his first
birthday....... wow, what a difference a year makes!

We are interested in learning all we can from premie parents to be able to
lend support to new parents and in getting advice for all those questions
that inevitably arise concerning our son.