- The most obvious is that Nova is our second child to be born with this (nearly identical) heart defect. In all truth, Alexis' was a notch worse, but the surgery was identical. (Heart defects are actually the most common of all birth defects, but within the category of heart defects, what my children had/have is the rarest.)
- There is of course the bear, who has been with 2 children before he arrived with Nova - all three have overcome serious serious issues and come through them wonderfully.
- We are in the same hospital/ward, and pass the spot where Alexis was every 2 hours for the last week, and will be for the next 2 - 3 weeks.
- We pass the waiting room every two hours - the one where we waited when they were trying to revive her repeatedly that night (8/29/01). It is the same room where I held her afterward and said my goodbyes. (I have not tempted fate by going in there!)
- The same doctor, obviously, performed the surgery.
- The daytime nurse (Candy) was Alexis' nurse the night she died.
- I originally planned to name Nova "Donovan Quinn" but changed his middle name to "Zane" when I read a story at Ninja Poodles about her father Zane... He was obviously a strong tender wonderful man. I was so touched by her post, so impressed with the father she described, that I immediately just knew that was the name I HAD to have for my son.
- After getting permission from the family to use the name Zane, I found out that Nova had a heart defect. Later, I also learned that there was another Zane. Zane (the father) and his wife (Belinda's parents) had a son named Zane as well. He died of a congenital heart defect.
And just to add a bit to the weird coincidences:
Candy, the nurse mentioned above, celebrated her birthday 2 days before Alexis died. Dunno why that strikes me as significant. Probably because I found that out yesterday - the day that Nova was doing so poorly. You see, she was an absolute mess the whole time he was being bagged because they thought it was his lungs for a while, and that, my dears, is just a notch or 2 away from the worst case scenario. It has to weigh on her mind that, had anything happened to him, she would have been nurse to 2 children of the same parents... Know what I mean?
Erin
ReplyDeleteI mainly wanted to say hello and that I'm pulling for you!