NOV 24, 2016--Alive and Free! Noah Abner's Last Blog Post

Don't be fooled; I still need my O2

Good morning to all of my friends out there! I sincerely cannot believe how quickly this day has arrived--or that it even arrived at all. Do you know what day it is? It's the day that I get to go home with my family!!!

Most physicians prognosticate very poor outcomes for babies like me. Indeed, it was only thirty-five days ago that I was thankful to have lived just one single day outside my mother's womb. Now look at me! It looks like nothing was ever wrong! Can you believe that I was born with only 9% of my right lung and with over 60% of my liver in my chest! Unless I am mistaken, I am the fastest-recovered right-sided CDH survivor ever to have been under the care of Dr. Kays and his nurses. In fact, I originally anticipated (assuming my survival), that I would have lived in my hospital twice as long as was actually required of me!

As all of us know, no one is ever guaranteed tomorrow. And so, I must first thank God for the initial nine wonderful months I spent in my mama's tummy. And although many of my subsequent post-birth days have been difficult, I am grateful for every single one of them. I do hope that I can live many more.

I am also grateful for Dr. Kays, his wife, and for Joy Perkins. Along with the Hand of God, it was their long hours, effort, and sacrifice which gave me a fighting chance to survive. What's more, I should note the exceptionally large and dedicated team who relentlessly cared for me and who worked alongside and under Dr. Kays. The many outstanding physicians included doctors Schwarz, Stone, Snyder, Bubby, Parker, Malik, Long, Alexander, Elkhidir, and Hickock.

And I cannot thank enough the nurses who cared for me twenty-four hours a day: Dana, Paul, Kayla, Rachel, Laura, Aimee, Christin, Linda, Nicole, Emily, Meagan, Tammy, Mary, Julie, Meredith, Andrea, Callie (delivery nurse), Chad, Joe, Beth, Erin, Anna, Carrie, June, Liz, Terry, Barb, Tara, Tassa, John, Ed, Sonya, and Clarice. I would also like to thank Rebecca (echo-cardio), Shannon (sonography), Scott (Respiratory), Shane (Respiratory), Victoria (Respiratory), Galina (Respiratory), Tracy (Respiratory), Janet (PT), Anna-Maria (PT), Patricia (lactation), Christie (lactation), Loren (community), Stacy (neonatology), Pam (discharge), the dietary staff, and the lovely Barbara who cheerfully cleaned my room every day!

I would be remiss if I did not thank my grandparents and my Aunt Jo who came to help out my folks so that they could be with me night and day.

Please do forgive me if I have forgotten your name. There were so many who participated in this team effort that even a fresh brain like mine has difficulty remembering them all.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of my friends from around the world. In this short time, I have made friends on every continent (except Antarctica) in over 20 different countries. With well over 18,000 individual page views on my blog, I can only imagine the number of people who were rooting and praying for me. Who would've thought that someone like me would make so many friends in so little time. I do hope that perhaps one day, I will be able to meet every single one of you.

That being said, I must admit to one piece of unfortunate information: because my lungs are still small, I remain pulmonarily challenged. What that means is that smoking or sicknesses like the common cold, a cough, the sniffles, or the flu can severely hurt me. Did you know that it is possible that a cold could cause my readmittance into my hospital for a very long time? Believe it or not, it is true. So even though I want to meet every one of you as soon as possible, if you or anyone in your household has been ill within a 48-hour period preceding a potential encounter with me, please let me know so that we can reschedule our visit. I won't be offended at all. And also, if you or anyone in your household has been sick, please refrain from visiting my home until the illness has passed for at least 48 hours. My parents and I sincerely apologize in advance for this inconvenience. If it can be helped, I would like to stay out of my hospital for a very long time. Fortunately, such strict visitation requirements will diminish with each passing month and will probably cease altogether after the end of my second year.

On a more positive note, I cannot thank all of you enough for being so encouraging and faithful during this time. Going through difficult times is never easy, but it is much more tolerable - and even at sometimes enjoyable - when good friends walk with you.


May God bless you and keep you; May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; May the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace.



To all my friends out there, this is my final blog-post. I am sad that it has come to an end, but I am happy that it has ended with such good news! Today in America, we are celebrating our Thanksgiving Holiday. Know that today I am, and for the past thirty-five days of my life I have been, thankful for you all.

Stay thankful my friends! Life is too short not to be. This is your CDH pal, Noah Abner, signing off.