The Lord watches over the lives of the innocent,
and their reward will last forever.
Psalm 37:18
Rebecca Susan Ginder was born September 19,1999 and adopted. We were chosen to be Rebecca's parents by her birthmom in January 2000 when Rebecca was released from the hospital after a premature birth. Paper work got complicated so it was summer before she came to us. She was in a 'hospital' (of sorts) that 'houses children' with medical needs and no place to go. DNR and DNT ( do not resusitate and do not treat) orders were in place until we went to get her and I was honestly afraid she would die before we got her.
She is now coming along slowly and is just over 13 pounds at 1 year old. She was first diagnosed as hydranencephaly but that has been changed to her having lissencephaly. She is an absolute joy and has the brightest smile you have ever seen! Rebecca has a g-tube..shunt.. hydronephrosis vesicoureteral reflux and is blind. She is our angelic little one with blond curls and blue eyes and as cuddly ( rather floppy) as a baby can be.
March 2001... Rebecca is 18 months old and 17 pounds and doing well in PT and playtime.
July 2001... Rebecca continues to light up our home. She responds a lot more to familiar voices, especially mommy and daddy. She is the proud owner of a new KidKart stroller type wheelchair that sets her up where she can be right in the middle of things. She loves that/ It is magenta with navy and looks very nice. Rebecca had surgery on her tear ducts as they were clogged. She was quite ill for a couple days as her sinus cavities drained. She has also been put on Tegratol as she has been having more seizures. We are also trying Prilosec to settle her tummy down and it seems to be helping.
Tegratol didn't work. It is now Valporic Acid we are using.
She is almost 20 pounds at 21 months but can still wear 12 month clothes. She is very cute and loving.
This baby has been 'a gift to me' as she is somewhat more responsive than the other girls and we have a very special bond.
November 2001...Rebecca had surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids as she was having severe obstructed breathing. Because of her physical conditions she was to go to ICU for four hours as an outpatient after surgery and then come home. She was there 5 days. She was very unstable and quit breathing several times. She could not tolerate the pain from the surgery and breathe at the same time. At one point the doctors could not get her to breathe and gave her to me and as I talked to her and sang 'her song' she took a big gasp and settled down to normal breathing with oxygen. I saw 2 of the doctors praying at the foot of her bed and they came to me and said they wanted me to know it was not anything medical that saved her. That was quite an experience! I came home and called her urologist to let him know she had another kidney infection (hydronephrosis vesicoureteral reflux) and he told me it was time for surgery or she would loose her kidney. After what she had just been through I was not ready to hear that. I insisted on an office visit before scheduling surgery and so while there he had us get another x-ray. There was NO vesicoureteral reflux!! That left us to do treatments of antibiotics for 3 months and then to see what direction to go.
June 2002...Rebecca is now 24 pounds. She has had 3 kidney infections while on the antibiotics so we may be down to using a catheter for completely draining of her bladder daily. With this latest infection we did a VCG which tells if she can empty her bladder or not and she could not even partially empty it. BUT ...in the x-rays for this she was found to have a new problem. Dr. Kaefer pulled his stool up to us and said that it was worse than a curvature of the spine that we could clearly see. The radiologist had sent the message that the bladder x-ray had shown a large separation in the lower spine, called spina bifida. This could be the reason she has not been able to empty her bladder as the nerves that usually control functions in that area were damaged and would cause her from being able to control anything from that point of seperation down on her body. I was really taken back by that diagnosis as it seems she has had enough to deal with but maybe we can now treat her properly. She will have an MRI this month and then see both her orthopedic doctor and the urologist. Oh yes,she 'verbalizes' a LOT when music is on. She loves the Gaither Homecoming videos.
GERD in Infants
Spina Bifida
Cincinnati Children's Hospital: Shunts
Home Page for the Joe Ginder Family
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Laura's Home Page
Home Page for the LBFC Web Server
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