Tuesday, October 07, 2008

i am grateful

my mother was 42 when she gave birth to me. i was born preterm at 28 weeks gestation via lower section caesarean section. i weighed 1.8kg at birth, a low birth weight baby. i didn't go home till i was more than a week old. my mother wasn't even allowed to see or hold me for 4 days.

there was an almost 50-50 chance that i would be a down syndrome baby. i could have gone into respiratory distress. there is a whole range of complications that i could have suffered as a neonate and, judging from the time i spent in the hospital after birth, it is possible that i could have actually had one or two.

but the period after discharge was uneventful, save for the times i had oral candidiasis and colic and childhood asthma. i am still susceptible to respiratory tract infections and have a history of atopy, but otherwise i am healthy.

the more i learn about the human body and disease process of various ailments, the more grateful i am for being alive. the very fact that i have turned out right when so many things could have gone wrong is absolutely amazing.

and i just know there's a reason for it. how can it possibly be in vain?

lishun at 5:21 PM

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