Our Miracle

At two months old I noticed Lexi's eyes follow her dad as he walked across the room. We got excited and tested her new trick out by shaking a rattle in front of her. Not only did she focus on the toy but her eyes moved along with it! I excitedly called the hospice nurse who came right over. She agreed that if Lexi was brain dead she would not be able to make connections with the outside world. Her following things with her eyes proved that the doctors were wrong!

Nurse Linda said she would call the neurologist. Dr. Doom was very skeptical. He had been doing this for 20 years and did not doubt his opinions or his tests. He asked me to bring Lexi in for him to see for himself.

When Dr. Doom saw Lexi again he was amazed. He called her "a completely different baby." He said he had never seen anything like it. 

We asked him how this could happen and he wasn't sure. It could be that the new hypothermia treatment they did on Lexi in the hospital affected what the EEG could read. He said in the future they would warm patients back up before testing them. Even that was just a guess though.

I've had people ask since if we were angry to be given wrong information. At the time I remember feeling overwhelmed and grateful he was wrong. I was maybe a teeny bit happy that the doctor with the worst bedside manner was humbled in front of us. It was hard for me to be angry though when he very well could have saved her life with that treatment. It had been done at other hospitals but was the first time at that hospital with that doctor. He was still learning. If there is one thing we have discovered from having Lexi it is that medicine can be very subjective. Also, he was right about more things than he was wrong. In future years we would learn how very much a medical marvel our sweet Lexi is.

That appointment confirmed what we already saw to be true. Lexi was no longer dying but living! We had our miracle!