There's Gonna Be Big Trouble

     

    Today's miracle story was shared with me by good friends, Kris and David McBride. It's about their son, Andrew. Kris wrote this piece. It's called:

There's Gonna be Big Trouble

    When our infant son, Andrew was only ten months old, he was diagnosed with an aggressive leukemia known as AML. Just like that, our normal world of hanging out with other parents, preparing meals, taking the kids to see grandparents, and walks in the neighborhood was replaced with teams of doctors, nurses, blood draws, procedures, and weeks in the hospital.

    The doctors only gave Andrew a 25% chance of survival and that was only with a bone marrow transplant. We went from wondering what activities Andrew would enjoy to wondering if he would see his next birthday. My husband, David and I had to hold tight to a couple of anchors for support. One was our faith in God and quite honestly it was our main anchor. The second anchor was to make sure we told Andrew everything that was going to happen and why it was being done. We didn't have control over much, but this was one thing we could control. 

    Since Andrew was so young, some of the medical staff didn't understand why we were taking the time to explain to him what was going to happen and why it was being done. However, we were adamant about it. It even benefited us by helping keep us calm and reminding us why at times we had to let strangers cause our precious baby boy pain. Little did we know then that God would use this to save Andrew's life.

    From day one of Andrew's diagnosis we explained everything to him; the nurses were taking his temperature to make sure he didn't have an infection, the cuff was going to squeeze his arm to check his blood pressure, the nurse was putting an IV in so he could get the medicine that would fight the bad cells in his body, and the man was taking his blood to check his counts to see if his medicine was working. It didn't matter it it was as simple and harmless as a doctor listening to his heart or as traumatic as helping to hold him down during a bone marrow biopsy.

    Although initially he received most of his medicine through the IV, Andrew soon had a variety of foul-tasting liquid medications he had to take on a regular basis. This list grew as his treatment continued through the first three years of his life. Acyclovir and Bactrim were needed to help him from getting infections, Prednisone and Cyclosporin were to help his body accept my bone marrow. Hydrochlorothiazide and nifedipine were to regulate his blood pressure. It seemed every other month a new medication was being added, but we continued to tell him the name of each and why he was taking it.

    After Andrew's bone marrow transplant we went back to the hospital where it was performed for periodic checkups with the transplant doctor. Unfortunately, Andrew had developed graft vs. host disease which is where the donor's bone marrow attacks the recipient's body.  I will never forget one of the visits to the transplant hospital where the doctor looked at me and said, "He swallows pills, right?"

    I stared back at her in disbelief. I recovered enough to say, "He's three. What three-year old swallows pills?!"

    Without missing a beat she said very seriously, "Well you are going to have to teach him how because I want to put him on Cellcept and the pill can't be crushed. It needs to be swallowed whole."

    Knowing the disease appeared to be getting worse I agreed to try to teach him to swallow pills. All the way home I prayed for wisdom and asked God to help make it easy for Andrew to swallow pills. When we got home an idea popped into my mind. "Andrew, do you remember what you do when you accidentally swallow your gum?" I asked. He nodded his head yes. "Okay, great. Mommy wants you to put this TicTac in your mouth and when you take a sip of this water, swallow the TicTac like you sometimes swallow your gum. Okay?"

    I said a quick prayer and gave Andrew the TicTac and water. He swallowed it without any problem. I then gave him the Cellcept pill and said, "Now try this one." He swallowed it like he had been taking pills his whole life. I almost cried I was so happy. I thanked God and then spent the next ten minutes explaining all the things he shouldn't swallow. I was so grateful. What I thought was going to be impossible turned out to be so easy.

    Being a sharp little guy Andrew told his other doctors he could now swallow pills and asked if all his medicine could be pills because some of the liquid stuff tasted horrible. They looked at me in disbelief. I explained about the Cellcept. In all their years of practice they had never heard of a three-year old swallowing pills. They agreed to change what they could from liquid to pill form.

    With Andrew being in and out of the hospital for stays that could last days at a time, in order for me to keep my sanity and spend time with our daughters, I stayed with him there only every other night. My husband and his parents took turns staying on my off days. 

    One night Pop-Pop, my husband's father, was with Andrew at the hospital. The nurse brought in Andrew's pills and said to David's dad, "After Andrew is finished eating his dinner, have him take his meds. I'll be back in a few minutes."

    After dinner Pop-Pop laid out the pills on Andrew's tray and said, "All right, Andrew. It's time to take your medicine."

    Andrew looked the pills over and then moved all but one pill to one side of his tray and began shaking his head. David's dad said, "Andrew, you really need to take your meds."

    Once again Andrew moved the pills around and put the same pill off to the side. He said, "Pop-Pop. If I take that pill there's gonna be big trouble."

    Pop-Pop replied, "Andrew, the nurse knows what she's doing and you need to take your pills. She's going to be back soon to check on you."

    Andrew shook his head again and repeated the same process with the pills saying once more, "There's gonna be big trouble if I take that pill."

    Pop-Pop became adamant. "Andrew. Stop being silly. Here, take your pills."

    Andrew considered and said finally, "I'll take these pills over here, but not that one."

    At this moment, the nurse reappeared. "Andrew is refusing to take this last pill," Pop-Pop explained. 

    Andrew joined in the conversation. "Nurse. If I take that pill there's gonna be big trouble."

    "Andrew? Why do you think there's gonna be trouble?" she asked. Andrew just shook his head in reply.

    My father-in-law interrupted. "Do you think it would be possible to just double check that this is the right pill?"

    The nurse was surprised, but agreed. "Of course. I'll be right back."

    When she returned, she was visibly shaken. "I don't know how this happened, but Andrew was correct. If he took that pill there would have been big trouble. The pill was the correct dosage for extended release blood pressure medicine that is in his orders."

She picked up the pill. "However this one was the immediate release version not extended release. His blood pressure would have bottomed out if he had taken it. I am so sorry. Andrew you are one smart little guy. Here is the correct pill for you to take."

    "Yep," Andrew smiled. "That one looks right."

    What is absolutely astonishing is that four medical professionals signed off saying the pill was the correct medication and dosage. Not one of them caught the mistake. It took a three-year old insisting, "If I take this pill, there's gonna be big trouble."

    Only God knows what caused Andrew to have concerns about that pill, but to this day, we are incredibly grateful he did, and that there was no "big trouble" that night.

To read more about Andrew and his family's journey check out kamcbride3 on Instagram @krismcbride on Face Book or kristenmcbridecom.wordpress.com