Gastroschisis

My name is Kylie and I’m eighteen years old. I thought you’d be interested in hearing my story so you can learn about possible long term issues with gastroschisis.

My parents married young and my mom had me when she was nineteen. Since I was born in 1989, most pregnancies didn’t have ultrasounds done unless they were high risk ones, so my mother didn’t have one through out the pregnancy.

I was born a month early and was a natural birth so when I was born and my stomach was open with my insides coming out, I was rushed immediately to a children’s hospital. My mom only go to see me for a few seconds and didn’t even get to hold me. I was flown to the hospital and immediately went into a small surgery to secure my vitals. The organs that protruded were wrapped in gauze on top of my stomach and I had a small surgery every day for almost a month. They shaved what little hair I had and fed me through tubes in my head and my leg. The doctors told my mom that my surgeries were so difficult that it was like putting toothpaste back into a tube. I’m lucky though because my doctor ended up successfully separating conjoined twins later on.

I finally got to go home when I was almost a month old. I was born very small but gained a few pounds in the hospital. They thought there might have been damage to one of my ovaries but they can’t be sure. If so, I’ll have a narrower chance of having children. My scar on my stomach is vertical and is now six to eight inches long so I technically am known as the girl with no bellybutton. I also have three to four inch scars on my right leg from where I was fed through tubes.

Ultimately, I’ve grown to be a very happy, healthy girl. I’m a freshman in college and I’m living my life each day at a time. However, for the past five or so years, my stomach scar has had pains and the doctors just believe I have built up scar tissue and it wouldn’t be good to have to operate in the exact same spot as before. But other than the scar tissue, there’s nothing really wrong with me other than typical issues teenagers have.

My parents call me their miracle baby and I thank God every day still that I’m alive. To all you parents who have recently found that their baby will have gastroschisis or to the parents who have babies recovering, I’m a success story you can smile upon. I hope your children will grow to be as normal and healthy as I have.