New Forum Member

[jclairday]

Hello all,

Just joined the forum and wanted to say hi.
I am originally from West Helena Ar., We moved to Melbourne AR in 2005. I used to work for GE traveling the country inspecting power plants.
I currently live in Huntsville AL. and work at the Browns Ferry Nuclear plant. My family and I moved here last year as I took a full time job with TVA. Things are not working out as planned, and we have decided to move back "home". We plan to be back in Melbourne by mid November.

I'll be honest, I made my wife agree to let me get a mustang if I moved her back to AR......please don’t judge.........gotta do what ya gotta do right?

I have my eyes set on a GT 500 and so far there is a green light with the boss.

Anyways, I hope to share what I know and learn what you share.

[horspwr]

Welcome to the board! Hope you get the 500...

[my4stangs]

Welcome aboard, good luck with the move and aquiring the new Stang. I had a Mustang when I met my wife 18 years ago and taught how to drive a standard in it as well. Now we have 4 Mustangs.

[ArkansasMystic]

As they've said, welcome! Sounds like a sweet plan you've got there, good luck with the move and search.

[oxman]

Welcome aboard sir! Love the profile pic and keep us posted on the new purchase :)

[jclairday]

OK,

Sorry for the long post,

A lot has been going on the last couple of months. We moved back home in time for my wife to have our baby girl in Arkansas. She ( Maggie Grace Clairday ) was born on October 23 at 530 am in Batesville. As soon as she was born the doctor had her sent to Arkansas Childrens, at this point, I had no idea what was wrong, I only knew that she was having trouble breathing and I was told that Childrens was better equipped to handle these situations.
The doctors released my wife that afternoon and we headed to LR to be with our little girl. When we arrived, she was stable and was connected to multiple monitors and oxygen. It was hard to see it all but none the less we were with her.
The next day was just as bad, the doctors sat us down and gave us the worst news parents could get.
We were told our baby had been diagnosed with Trisomy 13. Its a rare genetic disorder that involves an extra copy of the number 13 chromosome. Normally, we all have 2 copies each, giving us a total of 46. She was born with 47, having 3 #13 chromosomes.
1 in 8,000 to 10,000 are born with this horrible disorder.
Well after hearing that, we were given the odds.
85% of babies with this die within the first 3 days of life.
50% of those that survive the first 3 days will die within 1 month.
5% that live beyond 1 month will live to see 1 year.

After hearing this, we were completly shocked. We had no idea our baby had any problems. After all the tests and checkups, all the ultrasounds, nobody knew that our baby was stricken with this disorder.
This was extreemly hard for us to comprehend, she had no physical signs or deformities. She looked so perfect and beautiful.
We stayed at Childrens NICU for 11 long and terrifing days. The doctors there were wonderful, stopping by constantly and checking on her. It was those **** specialist that I hated. Every time they spoke to us they would tell us, she is going to die, she has a disorder that doesnt support life, she is going to die. It was to the point that we would no longer speak to them, and they knew they were not welcome.
Finally we were able to bring here home, we had learned to care for her while staying at Childrens. Although she was on hospice care, we were taking care of her. We had a table top pulse ox monitor, oxygen concentrator, we were even changing out her feeding tube every couple of days.
There was several scares, 1 of them occuring 1 week after being home. She stopped breathing and would not respond to anything. Im not talking about infant apnea, Im talking about her body turning blue then pale white. Her heart stopped and we started CPR, after about 1 minute, she came back like nothing had happened. We called 911 during CPR. When we were at the hospital, the doctors didnt know what to do, we could easily tell that we were on our own. Her pediatrician was there at the hospital, he was notified of the incident and never came by. he just called over to the ER and said go home, there is nothing else we can do.
1 week later, the same thing happened, this disorder was becomming more evident.
In total, we gave her CPR 4 times and many more rounds of physical stimulation to get her to breath again. It seemed reality was checking in and that our baby was slipping away. Haunted with the questions of what do we do now, do we keep doing CPR, are we causing more damage each time we do it, why wont the doctors do anything?
Her breathing episodes were happening more and more often, in one day, she stopped breathing 9 times. By now, she wasnt the same baby anymore, there were little to no reactions when we would talk to her, it was hard for us to see that our baby was dying.

Maggie was with us for 1 month and 2 days. She died on November 25th at 1130am in her mothers arms.
We were truly blessed to have her and she has changed my life.

[horspwr]

Man, so sorry to that. We definitely keep you and your wife in our prayers.

[dadejack]

Welcome and you are in our prayers.

[oxman]

Wow, so sorry to hear that bro. Like these guys said we are praying for you and your bride. If I can do anything, don't hesitate to holler at me anytime. We're glad you joined!

[jclairday]

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We are doing quite well considering, and in time things will get better. Pamela and I are finding our way through all of this and have faith that despite the outcome, we will be ok.

Thanks again for the prayers.

[fordshotime]

keeping you in our prayers!