Warrior Blood Within (eBook)

Triston's Story

Cynthia Smith (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
590 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-8339-7 (ISBN)

Infos

This biography is about Triston Edward Smith. He was born on Sept. 4,1997 and died on April 29, 2017. This book was written by his mother, Cynthia L. Smith as a tribute to Triston's life. By telling 'His Story', it is intended to bring honor and remembrance for the great, brave warrior that he was. His struggles throughout his life, as well as the good times, will be told for generations to come by sharing these precious memories. He was a kind, gentle soul truly loved and respected by everyone that knew him! This book will inspire others to love life and never give up!

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This biography is about Triston Edward Smith. He was born on Sept. 4,1997 and died on April 29, 2017. This book was written by his mother, Cynthia L. Smith as a tribute to Triston's life. By telling "e;His Story"e;, it is intended to bring honor and remembrance for the great, brave warrior that he was. His struggles throughout his life, as well as the good times, will be told for generations to come by sharing these precious memories. He was a kind, gentle soul truly loved and respected by everyone that knew him! This book will inspire others to love life and never give up!

Textauszug

“THE WARRIOR BLOOD WITHIN”

The home pregnancy test done on New Year’s Eve, 1996 was positive! The doctor confirmed on Jan. 2, 1997, the pregnancy. After 14 months of trying, we are finally going to have our first baby!! We had a good pregnancy with minimal nausea, sickness, and swelling. Our first ultrasound was great and showed us that we were going to have a baby boy! We wanted a unique name and decided on Triston Edward Smith. We got the name Triston from a movie called “Legends of the Fall” and it was Brad Pitt’s character name in the movie. We spelled our Triston with an “o” instead of an “a”. Triston’s middle name Edward is also his Dad’s middle name, Charles Edward Smith Jr.

The due date was Sept. 2,1997, but Triston wasn’t born until Sept. 4th. The labor and delivery were complicated. I was told I wasn’t pushing correctly/hard enough, so the doctor told the nurse to turn my epidural pump machine off as he left my delivery room. When he later returned, he realized that the problem wasn’t from my pushing. Triston was stuck! He was very large and I am very small. The doctor had to use forceps immediately to help get him out, which was very scary and painful. Triston was born at 5:54pm on Thursday, Sept. 4,1997, and thankfully he was okay!

Because the doctor had ordered my epidural pain medication pump to be turned off, instead of just turning it down, I had no pain relief other than a shot he injected in my vaginal area. The Anesthesiologist that had inserted the needle between my bones, through the ligaments, and then through the membrane that surrounds my spinal cord to thread the small catheter into this space to receive the combination of a local anesthetic for numbing purposes and a narcotic for pain relief had to be paged to return to my delivery room to restart the epidural pump because it had been turned completely off! No one else could legally restart the pump! But before the Anesthesiologist was available to return to my room, the delivery doctor had to start the 38 stitches in my vaginal area because I was losing a lot of blood. He gave me another shot down there for pain, but it didn’t help any. I was so scared and thought I was going to die without even getting to hold my son.

The doctor was almost done with the 38 stitches by the time my epidural pain medication pump was restarted. I finally got some pain relief but started freezing and shaking uncontrollably. That was extremely difficult as my thoughts of dying became worse.

The doctor and nurses covered me with several heated blankets and put something else in my IV. Finally, they got everything under control and my condition stabilized.

Then, I finally got to hold my Triston. He was so precious and beautiful, just like an angel! He weighed 8 lbs.13oz. and was 21and 1/4 inches long. No words could describe the joy and happiness he brought to us!

It was a very uncomfortable and painful situation for me for several weeks after delivery which made it difficult to walk or sit down. I was also trying to breast feed Triston because I knew it would be healthier for him, but I only did the breast feeding for 10 days because I couldn’t produce enough milk for him. So, we had to start using baby formula.

When Triston was around 2 months old, there was some blood in his stool. The doctor said it was a milk protein allergy and we ended up having to change his formula 4 times.

The doctor also noticed Triston’s left eye turning in towards his nose at 4 months old, but it was difficult to determine the full extent of this problem at that time due to his age and not being able to get an accurate, detailed eye examination. Triston was a happy baby with a smile like sunshine. He was my purpose for living!

At 5 months old, Triston developed a slight cough. The doctor ordered an x-ray that showed a spot on his lung looking like pneumonia. He was given an antibiotic. We thought he was okay after taking the antibiotic.

When Triston was 8 months old, we noticed him crying more when we held him or turned him a certain way. We had gone to a Sunday morning church service and his Dad was holding him. He turned Triston around to reposition him and he started crying loudly. We had no clue what was wrong. His Dad took him outside and tried to calm him. After putting Triston in his car seat, he stopped crying.

The next day after this had happened, I gave Triston a bath and laid him on the bed to finish drying him off with his hooded towel. At that time, I noticed his left side was bulging out and blue as if it were bruised. It was a very frightening time.

I immediately called his pediatrician and took him to her office. She didn’t know what was wrong with him and ordered x-rays to be done immediately. I took Triston over to the hospital to get x-rays. The x-rays showed his ribs were crushed. The results were very concerning.

Triston was admitted to Johnson City Medical Center Hospital (JCMCH) in Johnson City TN. for more tests with IV’s, barium, blood draws, and finally surgery. The doctors did not know what was wrong. A cancer pediatric doctor from St. Jude’s was called in to look at the imaging scans. He said Triston’s 8th left rib looked like it had been gnawed (chewed) on, but this wasn’t a form of cancer. This was a case out of his specialty. Triston’s left lung was stuck to his rib cage, along with a mass in both lungs and a mass behind his heart.

The pediatric surgeon went in and took an inch of his 8th left rib and a biopsy from his left lung to be sent off for testing. Triston had to stay in the hospital for several weeks. This was very difficult for him, and he got bored easily. We were very worried about him and the days of waiting on the results were extremely difficult.

The report came back that he had Aspergillus, a serious fungal infection. Triston had to have a Hickman line, which is a central venous catheter placed in his chest so he could get IV anti-fungal meds immediately. The next question was how could Triston have gotten this fungus in his ribs and lungs?

The infectious disease doctor sent Triston’s blood samples to CA. for specialized testing of a disease that she had recently read about, but she didn’t tell us about this disease yet. We waited almost 2 weeks, while Triston was still inpatient, on these devastating results. The infectious disease doctor came in and told us that Triston had Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD). This is a rare, x-linked inherited immune system defect characterized by recurrent infections. The defect in the immune system of patients with CGD is related to the white blood cells inability to kill certain kinds of fungi, yeast, and bacteria that cause infection. In essence the white blood cells do not produce the peroxide needed to properly function. Patients with CGD often suffer life-threatening infections of the lung, liver, skin, bone, and/or lymph nodes. These patients may also develop autoimmune conditions and bowel, bladder, eye and lung disease from Granulomatous. After hearing this horrible news, the infectious disease doctor referred us to St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, TN.

Triston was finally discharged from the hospital but required IV infusions at home 3 days a week from a home healthcare nurse, blood draws weekly, and doctor visits. We were very fearful of what was ahead for Triston due to this diagnosis, but we were so happy to have him home again with us now. We requested prayers for Triston from everyone everywhere.

Our local infectious disease doctor contacted the specialist at St. Jude’s in Memphis, TN. and an appointment was scheduled for Triston on Sept.12,1998.

Triston got to celebrate his 1st birthday at home on Sept. 4th, 1998. We had a great 1st birthday party for Triston with family visiting, opening presents, and of course lots of playtime for him! Triston really enjoyed getting a ball pit, a ride-on fire truck, a walker car, a small laptop computer, and an electronic phone. Triston’s Dad and I made a 1st year birthday card for Triston:

T- is for the “Thankful Heart” we have when we look at you!

R- is for “Rejoicing” that you are a part of our lives.

I- is for the “Ice Cream” that you love so much!

S- is for your “Smile & Singing” that we treasure.

O- is for your “Outgoing” Personality that melts everyone’s heart.

N- is for “Never” giving up.

We took Triston to St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, TN on Sept.12, 1998, for his first visit with the infectious disease doctor there.

She said there should be a cure for CGD within the next 5 years and she did not recommend a bone marrow transplant for Triston at this time. She increased Triston’s IV meds for the Aspergillus infection from 3 days a week to 7 days a week. Triston was also getting blood transfusions regularly for his low hemoglobin, and 3 shots weekly of interferon-gamma to help his white blood cells fight the fungal infection. The doctor ordered CT scans of his body and an MRI. We were at St. Jude’s with Triston for 1 and a 1/2 weeks getting...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.12.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-8339-9 / 1667883399
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-8339-7 / 9781667883397