It'a a Small World

I've mentioned a couple of times that Leah was born with CDH. Its not everday you meet other families who are dealing with this issue, but there are a few online support groups or individuals with cool blogs/websites (like the awesome moms listed to the right) who know some of what you may be going through. I haven't yet gotten the opportunity to meet another family in person (and its a little harder to do so when some people move to GERMANY) but I did get to meet sweet Roo in the hospital. And there are those families who had better lock their doors because I may just show up some day to check out their awesomely adorable children and the wacky families that come with them.

So anyway, I was reading some posts on a support site and an expecting mom was asking a question about relocating to receive treatment. This isn't all that unusual because CDH has certain treatments that not every hospital can provide and some hospitals have more experience with CDH than others. This particular family currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska and is thinking about going to Denver for treatment because the mom's immediate family is there. CDH babies often require ECMO and no hospital in Alaska has it; the Children's hospital in Denver would have that option. The mom mentioned that her husband's family was from Iowa, so I felt compelled to leave them a message on their carepages site. I left a link to Leah's caringbridge site and within minutes I had received a message from the mom. They were currently in Iowa and wondered if they could meet us. What are the odds that a family from Alaska who had literally just found out about their baby's diagnosis a week ago were vacationing at his parent's house 1 hr away from where we live? After talking with them, there were so many other connections to places and people that we had in common that it was almost comical.

We were able to meet, although Leah was napping the whole time so they didn't get meet her. I know that Leah's story provided them with hope for a grim diagnosis. I pray that Baby John is another baby who fights and gets the better of CDH. The mom is currently about 30 weeks pregnant and hopes to make it another 4 weeks or so before having to fly to Denver for the rest of the pregnancy.

In talking with these parents, I brought out pictures of Leah and things from the hosptial--it is hard to believe that was 3 years ago. Before August 11, 2005 I had never hear of CDH; now it define a big part of our lives--not necessarily in how it affects her health, but in the families we've met and friends I've made.