Aidin Patrick Ryan Rapoport
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Aidin Patrick Ryan Rapoport was born July 17th 2005 from an uncomplicated pregnancy. The delivery, however, was another story. It started with Aidin being 10 pounds -11 ounces. Because of his size, he had shoulder dysplasia and this caused his lungs to collapse and also caused bi-lateral pneuothorax and respiratory distress. They had trouble intubating him and finally, by the third try, they succeeded. Three days after being in the NICU of Children's Hospital In Minneapolis, MN, He was diagnosed with two small trachea tears, subglottic stenosis, and a grade 1 brain hemorrhage.
Because of the tears and the stenosis and also tons of scarring tissue from three unsuccessful extubated, we had to have a trach put in if we ever wanted to take him home. August 16th,2005 was the day we got to take our little bundle of joy home. This also introduced us into the world of home nursing and medical equipment and insurance battles.
Now we are trying to tackle feeding issues and learning how to feed a child with acid reflux and a G-tube, while trying also not to have him become dependent on it (he eats orally but just not enough and it seems the more we use the tube the less he eats by mouth, seems these things are really like a catch 22). Aidin's ENT doctor says that he could have reconstructive surgery as soon as January and after some research I now see that is a whole other journey to go through itself.
He is doing well and we have now become so comfortable with his trach that we don't even see it anymore. We do count ourselves extremely lucky since Aidin has no lung problems, no heart problems or no neurological disorders. We are also blessed that when Aidin is older he will have no memory of any of this and will live a normal life where he will be able to run and jump and play and cry and scream if he wants. He has a three year old older brother, Mycah, who is teaching him how to smile and who has also adjusted better than we could have hoped for. He helps out by silencing the machine when it goes off and by making faces at him until we can get bottles ready. We take it day by day now and sometimes, minute by minute. Aidin has only been with us for three months and it already has been such a long road with lots of sacrifices-all worth it-and we know we have many more to go. We thank god for resources such as this web site to remind us that we are not alone and there are always parents out there that are willing to share their stories, experiences and knowledge to help us get through things we never could have thought possible. All we can do is count our blessings and thank God everyday for giving us our sweet baby Aidin.
