The Essence Of Time Chapter 2

[mystdogs]

The Essence Of Time

Chapter 2

It felt like hours to the waiting couple as they held onto each other in anticipation for any news. It was, however, only an hour before the doctor walked into the waiting room.

“Mr. and Mrs. Larabee, Ms. Standish came through the surgery just fine, she’s on her way back to her room for recovery.”

“What about the child?” Sarah asked, interrupting the physician.

“As you know we had to do an emergency cesarean because of the presentation and the prolapsed umbilical cord.”

Chris squeezed his wife’s hand tightly; he feared the worst with the direction the conversation was headed. “The baby, is the baby alright?”

“Your son is in the neonatal intensive care unit.”

Chris felt the breath catch in his lungs, he had a son. A son, that was in an intensive care unit. He looked helplessly towards Sarah.

Sarah understood her husband’s fear; even though this child was not hers biologically she felt just as much anxiety as her husband. “Doctor, why is he in the intensive care unit?”

“The prolapsed cord was cutting off the blood circulation to the child. This caused him to become stressed within the womb, increasing his heart rate. After the birth he was hypoxic, meaning that he was not getting enough oxygen. Normally once the child is born and given oxygen they bounce back quickly. Unfortunately your son has not been able to come off the oxygen and his heart rate has not steadied out yet. I scheduled an echocardiogram and should have the results shortly. Once I have that information we can further treat your son.” The doctor paused seeing that the couple was feeling overwhelmed. “Why don’t I show you to the NICU so you can see your son? The NICU has strict guidelines before you can enter the area; I’ll have one of the nurses help you. Once I have the results I’ll be back to speak with you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~~~~~

Chris felt wrung out, the last seventy-four hours had been pure hell. He knew for certain that he never wanted to enter another NICU in his life. It was shocking to see his small son with wires and tubes coming from all directions, but even more was the blue tinge to his skin. The doctor had said the echocardiogram confirmed a diagnosis of persistent pulmonary hypertension. He explained that the vessels to his lungs were constricted and was not able to get the blood flow into his lungs to supply enough oxygen to his body. The oxygen tent soon turned into a ventilator as his oxygen levels dropped. The ventilator didn’t even seem to help as his son fought for every breath. Finally the doctor decided to try a small concentration of nitric oxide gas with the oxygen. He was worried that if the gas didn’t help he would have to start him on a machine that would cycle his blood to add oxygen and remove the carbon dioxide. Thankfully his son had responded to the added gas and was slowly improving. It seemed that finally the crisis was passing and he would be moved out of NICU in the next forty-eight hours if he continued to improve.

Sarah, Chris and Maude had each spent as much time as they could with little Ezra in the NICU. Maude had been adamant on his name and Chris was just too tired to fight her on his name, he was just so happy that his son was alive that he didn’t care what he called him. With only allowing one person in at a time and limiting the amount of time that a visitor could stay left each yearning for each extra moment they could get.

It was three happy parents that finally got to enjoy their son without the tubes and wires. Ezra Patrick Larabee was discharged from the hospital a few days after he was moved out of NICU and continued to breathe well on his own.

~~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~

It was hard the first few weeks with Sarah and Chris wanting to be involved with Ezra as much as possible. They had invited Maude to stay with them for the first few months, but she had declined. The scheduling conflicts left them both feeling frustrated that they were unable to spend more time with Ezra.

After the first month things began to change. Ezra then seemed to spend the majority of his time with Sarah and Chris, where Maude just didn’t seem to have the time or energy to deal with a child. Sarah believed Maude was suffering from post partum depression, but whenever she tried to bring the subject up with Maude she would be quickly rebuffed. The problems continued to escalate until Maude took off for a few months with no word.

While dealing with Maude was frustrating, Sarah and Chris adored the uninterrupted time they were able to spend with Ezra. He was a happy baby that never seemed to cry. He had the most beautiful jade green eyes with a pair of dimples that made your heart melt. It was not long after that Chris and Sarah found out they would be having a child together. Sarah was thrilled, looking forward to having her child. Chris, though he was excited with the news, couldn’t help the fear that entered his heart when he thought of all the problems they had just gone through with Ezra.

~~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~~

Sarah’s pregnancy progressed normally and Maude had finally returned claiming she had felt overwhelmed being a single mother. Sarah again tried to encourage her to talk to someone about her depression, but even with the assurances she would do so, Maude never made an appointment. The visits with Ezra started evening out to a regular schedule until Sarah went into labor. As Sarah was bringing Chris’ second son, Adam Christopher Larabee, into the world, Maude Standish has disappeared with Ezra.

Chris, with the help of his long time friend Buck, had spent the following years trying to locate the sly woman. Maude, however, continued to remain elusive and untraceable. Chris despaired that he would never see his son Ezra again.

It was a shock then when the woman showed up on his doorstep, with his now six year old son in tow. “Ezra dear do desist in fidgeting, you must remember child that appearances are everything.”

“Yes Mother,” the soft southern voice quickly agreed to his mother before brushing any dirt that had managed to touch his immaculate clothing. The child wondered who his mother was dropping him off with this time.